Education, Training and Skills. The school estate consists of 2 stand alone S1-S6 secondary schools (The Nicolson Institute and Sgoil Lionacleit), 2 combined primary and secondary schools at P1-S6 (Castlebay School and Sir E Xxxxx School), 7 combined primary and secondary schools at P1-S2 (Back School, Bayble School, Sgoil Xxx Xxxx, Xxxxxx School, Shawbost School, Daliburgh School and Paible School) and 29 primary schools at P1-P7. The school provision in the Outer Hebrides varies according to the needs of each geographical area and this has led to a widely spread school estate. The Comhairle are in the process of implementing the Outer Hebrides Schools Project which will bring new or renovated school places to 40% of the current school population. All the schools involved in the project (with the exception of Barvas School - B) are rated as condition category C (poor) and will benefit the other school provision by refocusing the resources currently spent on repairing and refurbishing these schools. Repairs and maintenance budgets for our school estate have long been acknowledged to be wholly inadequate, particularly in light of weather conditions in the islands and the number, age and structure of the Comhairle’s schools. While the Comhairle is not alone among councils in having significant issues with regard to building fabric, it is notable that the 2007 condition survey of schools identified none of the Comhairle’s schools as being in “good” condition. The uptake of school meals by Primary 1-3 pupils is 60% at present. As we move to the Concordat commitment there will be staffing and accommodation implications in only two of our schools There are 500 3-5yr olds within 30 preschool centres. 19 of these centres provide Gaelic medium pre-school education. The Comhairle supports, through Surestart, approximately 42 open cases on average every month. We will increase the hours for pre-school provision from 475 to 570 per year. From August 2010, all our nursery provision will be 15hrs per week for each term of the school session. Class sizes in our schools are generally small with the average primary class size being 16. While we have the capacity to allow staffing for class sizes of 18 and under, school managers have autonomy over the configuration of classes and the deployment of staff when taking into consideration available accommodation. Prior to 2006, not all pupils followed 8 full standard grade or equivalent courses which impacted on the grade point averages for S4 pupils. Arrangem...
