Four primary schools in Glasgow exceed capacity for primary one classes

Four primary schools in Glasgow have exceeded their agreed P1 capacity for pupils due to demand from families living in the catchment areas.

Primary schools remaining above the cap are Darnley, Glendale in Pollokshields, Riverbank in Dalmarnock and Cathcart’s St Filan’s as the council ensures there are places for children from the local neighbourhoods. If numbers aren’t capped it can lead to a need for new classes.

The council increased S1 capacity for four high schools this year: Smithycroft Secondary, All Saints Secondary, St Roch’s Secondary and Springburn Academy. However none of the secondary schools were above the agreed cap when the children started school in August.

Councillor John Carson said: “A number of schools remain above their agreed cap – four schools in particular.”

Speaking at Thursday’s city administration committee, the Labour councillor asked: “It is just to see what actions are being taken to support those schools. How will that inform the cap for those schools going forward?”

Referring to a council report on capping, Councillor Christina Cannon, convenor for education, said: “That is why the flexibility recommended in the report is important. It is not a set cap – it is a flexible process. We can accommodate catchment children where that is possible.”

A council official added: “We had to increase the capacity for four secondary schools but by the start of the session (school year) that came back down to their agreed cap. That is because it is a very fluid situation and November is the start of the process. At that time we don’t understand how many people might be going out of local authority schools. We don’t have that information.”

She added: “For example in all of those schools where there were 180 caps we increased to 200 – but by August all of them went back down to their original cap again.”

The figures were discussed as councillors agreed S1 and P1 caps at schools for 2026 at the city administration committee.

A council report presented to the committee said it is a a challenge to determine the “maximum number of children that can be enrolled in P1 each year, relative to the overall number of classrooms available, the range of maximum class sizes of 25, 30 and 33 (noted above), and the number of P7 pupils leaving to go to secondary school.”

It added: “If P1 intakes are not capped, this can lead to the requirement to create additional classes where there is an absolute limit on the number of classrooms available. This can result in either the loss of general purpose classrooms that are extremely valuable for maximising the learning and teaching experience, or the need to provide additional temporary accommodation.”

A total of 5,870 P1 pupils and 5,666 S2 pupils were enrolled during this school year.

There were 3,774 placing requests with 2,153 granted.