Determining primary school capacity: guidance for local authorities

Part 3: Secondary Schools

Following consultation with Local Authorities, it was generally agreed that providing guidance on calculating Secondary School capacities was not a priority at this time. It was suggested that it might be more appropriate once Curriculum for Excellence and the new National Qualifications have been fully implemented across the country, and any implications for school layout are understood.

Many Local Authorities have raised that it would be useful to have some form of consistency across the country on the following areas:

• Areas to be included and not to be included in the capacity calculation
• Which classes fall under the "practical" and "non-practical" classes
• Space per pupil in different teaching spaces e.g. gym halls, science labs, social spaces etc.

As stated in Section 5 of Part 1 of this guidance, it is recommended that all Scottish Local Authorities consider what a consistent approach to calculating the capacity of Secondary Schools could be and seek to work together, with Scottish Government, to develop this by 2016.