A STAGGERING drop in pupil numbers at St Mun’s Primary School, Dunoon, has highlighted a concerning trend in declining school rolls across Bute and Cowal.
According to a new report set to be presented to Argyll and Bute Council’s Bute and Cowal area committee next Tuesday, the number of pupils attending primary schools in the region has fallen by four per cent since 2020/21. However, some individual schools have seen far more dramatic shifts.
The most striking decline has been at St Mun’s Primary School, where enrolment has plummeted from 87 pupils in 2020/21 to just 14 in the current session—a drop of 74 per cent.
Other schools have also seen sharp reductions in numbers, with Innellan Primary shrinking from 29 pupils to just 10 over five years, and Strone Primary falling from 23 to 12.
In contrast, some schools have bucked the trend. Tighnabruaich Primary School has seen a 45 per cent increase, growing from 45 pupils to 67, while St Andrew’s Primary School on the Isle of Bute has expanded from 58 to 78 pupils over the same period. Despite the falling numbers, the report also notes a general rise in attainment levels across the region. However, local performance in the Curriculum for Excellence still remains at or below both local and national averages.
Dunoon, Kirn and Rothesay Primary Schools are the only ones in the administrative area with a pupil roll greater than 100 at any stage over the five years. Rothesay’s roll decreased from 241 to its current 218 in a single year.
In terms of curriculum for excellence data, the percentage of English-speaking pupils in Bute and Cowal who achieved early (P1), first (P4) or second (P7) level for listening and talking exceeded 80 per cent.
For reading and numeracy, all three tallies for both were over 70 per cent, while 66 per cent P4 and P7 pupils achieved writing compared to 74 per cent in P1.
For Gaelic-speaking pupils, a 100 per cent rate was achieved in P1 for listening and talking, reading and writing.
For P4 pupils the figures were 80, 80 and 60 per cent respectively, and for P7 pupils they were 100, 75 and 75 per cent. The data was recorded up to June 2024.
The reasons behind the declining school rolls are not outlined in the report, but the dramatic drop at St Mun’s Primary is likely to raise questions about the future of the school.
