St Ninian's High School catchment area 'to change'
Pupils at two Glasgow primaries look set to lose the right to attend one of Scotland's top performing secondaries.
St Ninian's High, in Giffnock, covers three local and two Glasgow primaries.
East Renfrewshire Council wants to limit automatic entry to its own area with Glasgow pupils only gaining access through placing requests.
It looks set to back the move after a consultation showed most local parents supported plans. Glasgow respondents and most pupils were strongly opposed.
The recommendation to proceed is contained in a report detailing the results of the consultation which ran from September to December last year.
East Renfrewshire Council is seeking to change the current St Ninian's catchment area as it says the Roman Catholic-denominational school is at capacity and cannot cope with higher numbers.
The cross-border arrangement between East Renfrewshire Council and Glasgow City Council over the school was born out of local government reorganisation in the mid-1990s.
It was agreed that pupils from St Angela's and the former St Louise's primary schools in Glasgow would attend St Ninian's.
When St Louise's was closed during a merger with St Vincent's Primary, a portion of its pupils who stayed in certain postcode areas, retained the right to transfer to St Ninian's.
New housing developments in the St Angela's catchment area also saw more children from Glasgow qualify for transfer to St Ninian's.
East Renfrewshire now wants to limit automatic admission to St Ninian's to its three local schools - St Cadoc's, St Joseph's, and Our Lady of the Missions.
Under the new proposals, the authority would only accept pupils from the Glasgow schools under placing requests, with no guarantee given as to admission.
In the case of these placing requests, priority would be given to pupils who were baptised Catholics.
More than 4,000 people - including parents and pupils - responded to the consultation on the proposals.
A majority of parents from East Renfrewshire who responded backed the moves with a majority in Glasgow opposed.
Most of the pupils from East Renfrewshire who responded to the consultation disagreed with the proposals, as did all of the parent councils that responded.
A council report on the consultation has now recommended "that the education committee adopts the proposals to change the admissions arrangements to St Ninian's High School for the start of the school session 2012-13 and beyond".
To see a more detailed breakdown of responses, including from parents, unions, staff and parent councils go to pages 7 to 10 of the consultation document.