Parents fight against the council for their children’s education
The pupils could be crammed into two classrooms after summer
Last updated 20th Jun 2025
Parents are hitting out at plans to downsize a primary school near Thornhill, saying education bosses are not taking their children's needs into consideration.
Penpont Primary has 50 pupils across the seven-year groups who will have to be split between two composite classes – half of those children require additional needs support, and 11% have neurodivergent needs as well.
The maximum allowed per class is 25, according to the rules.
They are just one pupil off from being able to keep their third classroom.
Parents were made aware of this ‘out of the blue’ announcement on June 9th.
Despite many efforts to get in touch with several council departments since then, the “copy and paste” responses they received gave them the impression that no one was taking their concerns seriously.
Dad of two, Davie Hall, says council officers are just passing the buck: “It’s just a bit disappointing and makes you feel like nobody is listening, nobody is taking into consideration any of the details on the ground in the school. You’re getting the odd email back, but you’re not being listened to; nobody is dealing with any of the concerns.”
If this were to go ahead, he says he can see it backfiring:
“People will leave, teachers will go off sick, people who move into the area are not going to want to go to a school like that with that atmosphere. So, it feels like they’re setting us up to fail, so that in two, three, four years, they the council can justify and say, “Told you so, that school doesn’t work”.
Sam Gomes, Chair of the Penpont Parent Council and mum of a Primary 2 girl, is worried about how the children’s needs will be met with this transition.
“It would become horrifically difficult, not only for the staff, but for the children as well, to be in bigger classes, with fewer resources, fewer staff and the support they need.”
She has set up a petition to fight back against the local authority, which has already got hundreds of signatures, including a celebrity, just days after setting it up.
“It’s grown very, very fast. We’re now sitting at just over 600 signatures – one of those is Joanna Lumley, who owns a property in the Penpont village. She is 1000% behind us on this.”
Now, she wants the council to meet with the parents to discuss this properly.
“We want them to explain their thought process and what research they have done for our school, for our children, because they said they’ll take into account the needs of every child. We want to see evidence of that and have a civilised conversation with them, so we can also explain where we’re coming from.”
Duncan Hall has a daughter who is meant to move up to Primary One after the summer. He says he was outraged that no other parent in the nursery was informed of this proposed transition.
“It makes us feel like we’re a burden to the council, like we’re getting in the way of something or being difficult in some way, when instead, this is the sort of rural community Dumfries and Galloway should be celebrating and promoting.”
With the Place Plans underway, including new affordable housing, the village believes that it is strong enough evidence to prove that the community is ever-growing, and the need for the third classroom is greater than ever.
Another concern parents have is how teachers will cope if there’s an incident that will require them to focus their attention on one pupil.
One of Davie Hall’s sons has Down syndrome and prefers a calm environment.
“If he was having a hard day or if something was going on, the other kids would all be neglected if there wasn’t enough support there. Or if somebody else needs help or support, then he would be neglected. Already, there’s not really enough support, so to bring it further down would just be really tricky for staff and pupils.”
A council spokesperson said: "All primary schools in Dumfries and Galloway are staffed to the most efficient model.
“The only exception to this is the mitigations agreed by elected members for schools of 19-25 pupils.
“For schools of over 25 pupils, the nationally agreed class size maxima are used to calculate the staffing requirement. For composite classes, this is 25 pupils per class.
“The implication of this is that for a school of between 26 and 50 pupils, the allocation is sufficient staffing for two classes.
“The situation at Penpont is consistent with national teacher agreements. All school enrolments are checked on an annual basis and classes allocated according to pupil numbers for the next academic year. Pupil numbers, and therefore classes, can go up or down in any individual setting.
“This is the case in all our primary schools, regardless of absolute size, i.e. all our schools, both our large and small, urban and rural, are subject to yearly changes according to the pupils enrolled at each school.
“Teaching staff are redeployed into other vacancies in accordance with agreed policy.
“If, at any point, pupil numbers increase above the next threshold, teaching resources will be made available as required. This has been consistent practice in Dumfries and Galloway for many years.”