Word of advice to Argyll and Bute’s newish head of education: mess with parents at your peril.

So far as I know waxen effigies of the council’s head of education Anne Marie Knowles have not been constructed, nor has there been a run on sharpish pins in the local emporia. But the parents of our two primary schools on the Rosneath Peninsula – Kilcreggan and Rosneath – are very much up in arms. And not without considerable cause.

Both schools are set to lose a teaching post, and both a reduction from five classes to four come the new school year in September. And this in spite of rising pupil numbers; Kilcreggan alone will be up to 93 by then. Pretty well full to bursting point.

What this means at the chalk face is more composite classes – not a new phenomenon, but never as challenging as those imposed by these cuts. In the case of Kilcreggan the age spread in a composite of primaries five, six, and seven will be from eight till 11. Three years at that age and stage is a third or more of your life. In both schools year two will be split between primaries one and three and in Rosneath the youngest class will have two different teachers, one for three days, one for two.

Continuity does not rule!

So far as I’m aware Ms Knowles has not had an opportunity to visit these schools.

Otherwise she might be aware that allocating class teachers and sizes can never just be a numbers game. Both of these schools have young people needing additional support. In one there are two wheelchair users, one autistic child, and a Downs Syndrome child due to start his school life in the autumn.

Nobody doubts the ability or commitment of the teachers involved – in fact in some instances the school was chosen because of its friendly pro-active attitude. But the honest truth of the matter is that if classes are disrupted for whatever reason all pupils of all abilities have their educational opportunities restricted.

In a letter responding to local MSP Stuart MacMillan, Ms Knowles pointed out that the new composite classes conformed to the maximum number permitted government guidelines. Yet as one parent noted in a round robin letter to the council, maximum permitted class sizes should really be named ‘worst case scenario’ sizes.

The parents have also been to see Jackie Baillie MSP who has arranged to meet Education Secretary Angela Constance to relay concerns.

For self evidently the more pupils you cram into a classroom, and the wider the range of age and ability the teacher needs to deal with, the less likelihood there is of children in any group reaching their full potential however heroic the staff effort deployed.

In their responses thus far, I note that the council’s Education department suggests concerned parents contact the head teacher. And a fat lot of good it will do them.

Head teachers are employees of Argyll and Bute. Any deviation from the party line might find them with a P45 in their payslip. Parents have already been to the schools and voiced their concern in person and in writing.

But they know that the classes are determined back at HQ, not in the headies’ office. They know too that Argyll and Bute took its share of an added £51million provided by the government to aid teacher retention.

But here’s the rub – £10m of that only goes to councils who can show in the December census they have maintained teacher numbers.

So A&B has taken £0.722m but will only get the other £0.173m ‘if they maintain their teacher numbers.’ Not so very long ago our council had the bright idea of closing these two schools and stuffing the contents into one in Garelochhead. A long and bloodstained campaign prevented this act of rural vandalism. The campaigners knew full well that a primary school is not only the heart of a community but its future too. People with young families do not relocate where their primary age children have to spend hours being bussed about every week.

This time there is no final axe being wielded. But the locals think it has been replaced by a longer-term plan of death by a thousand cuts. They may be wrong about that. But they are dead right that education is an investment, that kids only get a very few years to burnish their skills, and that arithmetic is not the only skill needed when determining class sizes.

Ms Knowles came to us via South Lanarkshire Council where she was in charge of quality improvement.

Quality improvement is what Scottish education needs. This is no way to go about it.