The City of Edinburgh council will be holding a workshop for local residents at WHEC tomorrow, Thursday 8 February 2018, 6.30pm, to hear your views regarding their proposal to merge WHEC and Currie High Schools.
The proposal, revealed in November as part of the Edinburgh Schools Review, would see WHEC join with Currie High School to form a new West Edinburgh High school on a new site.
The reasons given for the proposal are:
- The Currie High School building needs to be replaced due to its condition
- The buildings at WHEC are in poor condition and need a lot of investment.
- 14% of WHEC’s catchment pupils already go to Currie High School, only 49% go to WHEC.
- WHEC has a roll of 300 pupils and space for 750. The S1 intake at WHEC in August 2017 was 66 pupils. Projections suggest WHEC’s roll may be 366 by 2030. WHEC’s roll peaked at 576 in 1999 but has been in decline ever since.
- WHEC has a small catchment area and combining Currie High and WHEC would provide a more diverse catchment area.
The new South West Edinburgh High would be built either on the Curriemuirend site which was formerly proposed for housing and is currently the location of Curriemuirend Park, on a greenfield site just north of Baberton or in Hailes Quarry Park. WHEC and Currie High School would then close in August 2022 with pupils moved to the new school.
The proposal is currently going through a period of informal consultation. If you are unable to attend the meeting tomorrow leave a comment on the City of Edinburgh Council School Review website and have your say heard.
