Inverkeithing High School

The Dunfermline and West Fife Area is served by 5 secondary schools and has seen substantial growth in housing, particularly in the Dunfermline Eastern Expansion. Across the 4 non-denominational secondary school catchments, over 8,000 new homes have been built since 2000 and a further 10,000 are allocated.  A failure to build new schools or manage catchment areas in previous years has brought the issue to a head in recent months with schools in Dunfermline reaching capacity. In order to resolve this in the short term, catchment changes have been proposed which aim to make best use of the available capacity across the area, including making use of Inverkeithing’s current available capacity. Inverkeithing has a capacity of 1,634 with the school roll currently sitting at 1,159. Proposed school catchment changes include re-zoning Rosyth primaries to Inverkeithing and all Dunfermline primaries going to Dunfermline secondaries. The changes would result in Inverkeithing High School reaching capacity by 2022. Added to the challenge is the ageing condition of the existing school estate and the need for new and replacement schools. With Inverkeithing High School rated poor for both condition and suitability, and given the projected capacity issue, replacement of Inverkeithing High School is the council’s top school building priority.  At a cost of over £50million for a new 1,800 capacity high school, the challenge is not insignificant. We recently met with Inverkeithing Head Teacher, Mr. Adair, along with Education and Children’s Services Convener Cllr. Fay Sinclair to discuss the challenges being faced and Cllr. Barratt has recently joined the Education Committee. Replacing Inverkeithing High School was a key election pledge and it continues to be among our top priorities. Consultation on the proposed catchment changes opened on 17th April and will close on 29th May. A public meeting will be held at Inverkeithing High School on the 23rd May from 18:00-19:30.

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