Final decision beckons 12 months after Fife primary school was mothballed
A Fife primary school which has been mothballed for one year is set to face permanent closure.
Kirkton of Largo Primary School’s fate will be decided by councillors at a meeting next week.
It has the capacity for 75 pupils, but by 2013-14 that roll stood at just 42, and it has dwindled every year. Its doors have been closed for the past 12 months with the remaining handful of youngsters moving to the nearby Lundin Mill Primary.
Councillors formally mothballed the school in January 2025, and now, one year on, have to make a permanent decision. A report to Fife Council’s Cabinet, which meets on January 8, recommends formal closure and investigations to begin to find other uses for the school building. It is currently empty with all furniture removed.
Closure would mark the end of the road for the school which has not been in operation since June 2023 - 2025-26 marks the third academic session without an increase in pupils in this catchment area.
During the 2021-22 academic session, there were no P1-2 pupils and in 2022-23, there were no P1-4 pupils enrolled. In that year, a single class teacher was in place, with a composite class of 13 pupils across P5, P6 and P7.
For session 2022-23, the school roll had declined from 21 to 13 pupils and by that June a number of families had moved their children to other primary schools, with the projected school roll for August 2023, to be six pupils. Kirkton was not operational for 2023/24 and continues to have no pupils for session 2024/25.
A report to councillors said the number of births in the catchment area and the number of school age children residing in the area “have not increased sufficiently to warrant the school reopening” and it added: “Future pupil projections for the catchment area indicate that the maximum pupil enrolment number is likely to remain fewer than five pupils per year, over the next five years. Births in the catchment area remain exceptionally low - Between 2020 and 2025 there were nine known births.
“There have been no parent/carer requests to the education service to reinstate Kirkton of Largo Primary School as an operational school.
Scottish Government guidance requires a review of mothballed schools within a three-year time frame.
The report added: “If the closure proposal is approved by the Cabinet Committee, consideration will be given to other educational uses for the site. If none can be identified, other uses by the council will be considered. If no alternative uses can be identified in this way, the site will be disposed of.”