On 19 May 2005 Fife Council Children's Services Committee accepted the SCHOOL ESTATE STRATEGY: Towards New Map of Secondary Education for Fife which included proposals for relocating Madras on a single site by 2008 and consultation on a new school in NE Fife. Feeding into this consultation are the Forums that the School Board has organised over the past 4 years to canvas the views of parents, pupils, staff and the community on the future of Madras. All are welcome to contribute to the discussion.

The School Board is adopting a ‘multi-stakeholder’ approach involving education, health and other community agencies. Forums in St Andrews, Tayport and Wormit have brought out a wide range of views. At present the School Board does not favour any particular option but is anxious for Fife Council to conduct a proper survey of the state of the Madras College facilities both at South Street and Kilrymont Road, and of the options available, followed by a decision on which option would be feasible. Madras College is the largest split-site school in Scotland, but operating on a single site budget, so that repairs and maintenance are problematic and the buildings deteriorating.

Rector Lindsay Matheson explains that the split-site school, with about 1000 pupils at Kilrymont Road (S1-3) and about 800 at South Street (S4-6) is too big to run easily. It is difficult to do ‘ordinary things’, such as whole-staff operation or senior/junior pupil co-ordination. He thinks that the likely options are: (1) a large new single school to replace the split site or (2) a full refurbishment of one of the existing St Andrews sites and the construction of an additional, fourth, NE Fife secondary school somewhere to the north-west of St Andrews (where over half of the present Madras pupils come from).

Recently the School Board have commissioned a report into the options for the future of Madras undertaken by Management students from the University of St Andrews. Their findings were presented to the Head of Education at Fife Council on 6 May 2004.

The School Board/PTA have found Fife Council very helpful in generating information for a ‘business case’ for future schooling. The Board’s aim is to establish the best form, educationally and financially, for secondary schooling. It is clear that the present situation is not tenable.

Reports on the
Tayport and St Andrews Forums
Wormit Forum