Primary specialists delivering art, PE and music are under threat as budgets shrink.

However, one council says it is ensuring their “longevity” by moving towards a model where all PE and music staff teach across primary and secondary.

The PE department at Larbert High, in Falkirk, has 23 staff members and all bar one teach in the secondary and its seven feeder primary schools. The school was the first in Falkirk to deliver PE and music in primary and secondary in a pilot launched in 2014; last year Grangemouth High and its four feeder primaries also got on board.

As of this week, when Falkirk schools return following the summer break, all eight of the council’s secondaries will coordinate the delivery of PE and music from P1 to S6.

Previously, primary pupils in Falkirk might have had input from specialists in drama, art, fabric and craft as well as music and PE. Now, just music and PE will be on offer but every primary child will have access to them.

Better return on investment

The move will not save the council any money, but it will get a better return on its investment, argues its health and well-being and arts and culture officer, Gayle Martin-Brown.

“This costs the same amount of money to deliver. However, what we knew was that there was a repeat sometimes of skills in S1, because not every child received access to the same range of subjects, so the learning was not being developed in the way we would have liked.”

The new model also allows PE and music teachers to plan from the age of 5 to 18 and the hope is smoother transitions and higher attainment will result, says Ms Martin-Brown.

The regulatory body, the General Teaching Council for Scotland, says it agreed to the Falkirk scheme because specialists would not be teaching permanently “in a setting for which they are not registered to teach”. Secondary modern language specialists had been teaching in primaries for years, a spokeswoman added.

To deliver the scheme - which will see every primary child getting one hour with a PE specialist and 30 minutes with a music specialist each week - Falkirk Council has taken on nine PE teachers and five music teachers. Staff delivering other specialisms in primary, such as drama and art, either retired or reverted to being class teachers.

Secondary principal teachers or faculty heads decide how best to deploy staff in their teams but, ultimately, all PE and music staff will work across primary and secondary

According to the EIS, Scotland’s largest teaching union, it has had no complaints from Falkirk staff. But while Scotland had a 3-to-18 curriculum, it was “ludicrous” to suggest that one teacher could teach across the age range, said assistant secretary Andrea Bradley.

“The notion that everybody can teach all ages and stages is not being supported by initial teacher education currently,” she added.

She called on the local authority to ensure staff received adequate training and that teachers’ workloads were manageable.

Gayle Martin-Brown will talk about Falkirk’s approach to music and PE at the Scottish Learning Festival, 21-22 September. For more information, go to educationscotland.gov.uk/slf