Fisherford School
Consultation has concluded
On 26th September 2024 Aberdeenshire Council made the decision to permanently close Fisherford School and reassign its catchment area to Rayne North School. On 20th November 2024 Scottish Ministers upheld the Council’s decision to close Fisherford School and realign its catchment area to Rayne North School.
The Council proposed to discontinue education at Fisherford School, which had been mothballed since August 2021, and reassign its catchment area to either Auchterless School, Rayne North School or a combination of both schools.
The statutory consultation ran from 5th February until 29th March 2024. This covered the required minimum of 30 days term time consultation.
A public meeting to discuss the proposal was held at Turriff Primary School on 6th March 2024 and an online survey was available as part of the consultation.
Following the statutory consultation period, officers submitted the proposal document, survey results, written and oral representations, and other relevant documentation to Education Scotland for their consideration. Education Scotland will produce a report addressing educational aspects of the proposal.
Officers reviewed the proposal in the context of the Education Scotland report, survey results, oral and written representations and produced a final report on the consultation.
The consultation report was presented at Formartine Area Committee on 11th June 2024. Education and Children’s Services Committee then considered the report on 29th August 2024 and the final decision on the proposal was made by Full Council on 26th September 2024.
To find out more about the proposal, view the Closure of Fisherford School consultation documents.
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Consultation has concluded
In May 2021 a decision was made to temporarily mothball Fisherford School from August 2021. Mothballing is the temporary closure of a school which does not, in itself, lead to statutory consultation.
As there were no approaches made to Aberdeenshire Council for any new pupils to enrol at the school from August 2021, the school was mothballed for a further 2022/23 academic year.
The Primary 1 admission period for Aberdeenshire Schools took place in the week commencing 16 January 2023, but no applications were received. The deadline for submitting placing requests for August 2023 was 15 March 2023 and no applications were received for pupils wishing to attend Fisherford School.
Education & Children’s Services Committee approved an options appraisal on the future of the school.
One of the options identified as part of the appraisal could be to close the school. If this is considered to be the only viable option for the school, then Aberdeenshire Council must undertake a statutory consultation under the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010. If closure was the only viable option, there would be extensive consultation with the Fisherford community and Formartine Area Committee.
It is important to ensure all other alternatives have been identified and robustly considered prior to undertaking any statutory consultation on this matter. Therefore, we would like to give you an opportunity to provide any further alternatives to closure.
Any further suggestions can also be provided in the last question of this survey, as well as emailed to LearningEstates@aberdeenshire.gov.uk or posted to Aberdeenshire Council, Gordon House, Blackhall Road, Inverurie, AB51 3WA.
We would be grateful if you could complete this short survey indicating your view on the future of Fisherford School. This will allow officers to explore all possible options for the school.
The survey will be open until Friday 14 July 2023 and any alternatives to closure should also be submitted to Aberdeenshire Council by this date.
Map 1 - Fisherford Catchment Area map
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