{"id":23960,"date":"2025-02-26T22:53:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T22:53:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/pupils-fear-being-abandoned-if-glasgow-sport-school-closes\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T22:53:33","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T22:53:33","slug":"pupils-fear-being-abandoned-if-glasgow-sport-school-closes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/pupils-fear-being-abandoned-if-glasgow-sport-school-closes\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupils fear being ‘abandoned’ if Glasgow sport school closes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Katy Scott<\/span><\/p>\n

BBC Scotland News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MichelleMichelle Junnor<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Michelle Junnor’s son Charlie has taken fewer subjects than other secondary school pupils to train <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Pupils are at a closure threatened school dedicated to sporting excellence fear they may be “abandoned” if it fails to secure financial support.<\/p>\n

The future of Glasgow School of Sport, based at Bellahouston Academy, will be decided later at a meeting of the council’s city administration committee.<\/p>\n

The school allows pupils to take less subjects in exchange for sports coaching during school hours.<\/p>\n

One parent told BBC Scotland News: “It feels like they’ve pulled the rug from under our feet because this is what we signed up for.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The school is the only one of its kind dedicated to sporting excellence in Scotland and pupils are selected from across the country based on their abilities.<\/p>\n

A council report said that it could be replaced by a bursary scheme in June 2026, and pupils would shift to “excellence programmes” delivered by the governing bodies of each sport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The school opened in 1998 and the 65 pupils who attend it specialise in one of five sports – athletics, badminton, gymnastics, hockey and swimming – with dedicated coaching taking place alongside regular academic classes.<\/p>\n

Michelle Junnor, who’s son Charlie specialises in badminton, said she found out about the decision online.<\/p>\n

“It’s horrendous because there’s been no notice and we’ve not been consulted on this,” she said. <\/p>\n

“If this is something so significant that it will affect our children’s education and their sporting career, they could have at least been open with us. <\/p>\n

“They’re making these kids feel like they don’t matter.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GlasgowGlasgow Life<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Glasgow School of Sport opened in 1998<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Charlie is in S3 and he has dropped two subjects in order to include badminton training as part of his timetable.<\/p>\n

“He’s in a position now where he contemplating having to leave school at the end of S4,” said Ms Junnor. “There’s almost a bit of panic in it. <\/p>\n

“That would be half of his training hours a week gone and we don’t know how to fill that gap. He’s already training at night and the weekend. <\/p>\n

“And how will the school fill his day when he’s dropped ten hours off his timetable and he’s not studied some of these subjects for over two years?”<\/p>\n

Charlie said it would feel like the school was “abandoning” him if it closed.<\/p>\n

“The school has produced quite good athletes and it’s the only one in Scotland,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It would be quite stupid to close it down. I think it would affect good junior athletes in the country.<\/p>\n

“It’s in my head that I might not have this next year and it could affect me in my future.”<\/p>\n

A freeze on new pupils was introduced in 2024, due to the city council and Glasgow Life seeking funding support for the school.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘Postcode lottery’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Council papers<\/a> state that although 62% of the school’s pupils come from outside Glasgow, “both the Scottish government and local authorities indicated they were not able to provide financial support”.<\/p>\n

As a result, the report found “this equates to Glasgow spending circa \u00a3380k on the education of non-Glasgow pupils each school session”.<\/p>\n

Ms Junnor, who lives in Renfrewshire, fears a new bursary scheme will only apply to Glasgow-based pupils.<\/p>\n

She added: “It seems to be a postcode lottery which is a real shame because these kids don’t play for their local council, they play for Scotland.<\/p>\n

“It seems like if you’re not from the Glasgow area, you can attend the school but you’re on your own. There’s no coaching, no physio, no anything.”<\/p>\n

She also said it was “ignorant” to suggest Badminton Scotland could take on the cost of funding a similar programme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ClareClare Martin<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Clare Martin’s son Alfie has been flagged as a potential Commonwealth or Olympic athlete<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Clare Martin, who’s son Alfie also plays badminton at the school, said parents were told that the school was examining the effectiveness of the school’s structure last year.<\/p>\n

“But they held all the information back about how serious it was,” she said. “And nobody ever mentioned that it would be getting closed.”<\/p>\n

She said such a move would be “devastating” for Alfie, who has been tipped as a future Commonwealth or Olympian athlete.<\/p>\n

“Glasgow Council has decided to host the next Commonwealth Games<\/a> and they’re wanting to shut the School of Sport down in the same year,” she added. “It’s not a good look.”<\/p>\n

She said parents had written to the school but so far they had heard nothing back.<\/p>\n

“It would mean Alfie might need to move to a school in East Kilbride that he’s never been to,” she added. “He’s worried about his future.<\/p>\n

“Everybody is very angry that we haven’t been given the full information and we’re unsure about what’s going to happen next.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ReutersReuters<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kirsty Gilmour has represented Team GB at the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Former pupils at the school include swimmer Michael Jamieson, an Olympic and Commonwealth Games silver medallist<\/a>, and badminton player Kirsty Gilmour.<\/p>\n

Ms Gilmour said the school gave her “the perfect balance of getting my education while really having that focus on sport”.<\/p>\n

“Being able to do sport and school at the same time was so good,” she said. <\/p>\n

“And the fact it was free and just a normal public school was so valuable. <\/p>\n

“It’s really sad that kids aren’t going to get that same opportunity. I hope there’s something that can happen to boost them.<\/p>\n

“It was absolutely crucial for me and I don’t know if I would have stood in as good stead going into senior badminton without the School of Sport.”<\/p>\n

A Glasgow Life spokesperson said: “The current School of Sport model was introduced more than 25 years ago and was designed to meet the needs of pupils from across Scotland at the time. <\/p>\n

“Since then, national funding for governing bodies of sport has improved the support they offer prospective athletes considerably, offering multiple pathways to elite sports competition. <\/p>\n

“In considering whether Glasgow School of Sport offers the appropriate model in the wider national context, we have also proposed a new way to support young athletes from Glasgow to achieve their full potential.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Katy Scott BBC Scotland News Michelle Junnor Michelle Junnor’s son Charlie has taken fewer subjects than other secondary school pupils to train Pupils are at a closure threatened school dedicated to sporting excellence fear they may be “abandoned” if it fails to secure financial support. The future of Glasgow School of Sport, based at Bellahouston […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[399,4467,661,1181,3957,210,3560],"class_list":["post-23960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scotland","tag-abandoned","tag-closes","tag-fear","tag-glasgow","tag-pupils","tag-school","tag-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23962,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23960\/revisions\/23962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}