THE future of four Borders primary schools are about to come under the spotlight as Roman Catholic Education in the region hangs in the balance.

St Margaret's in Galashiels, St Joseph's in Selkirk, St Margaret's in Hawick and Halyrude in Peebles will all be reviewed in the coming months as questions are being asked over the future of denominational education.

Members of Scottish Borders Council's ruling Executive committee yesterday rubber stamped proposals for a major look into the region's schooling.

And top of the list will be a detailed probe into the future of the four Catholic primaries.

A major consultation exercise, carried out during March, highlighted significant problems in maintaining the schools with a single headteacher.

In her report senior lead officer Anne-Theresa Lawrie stated: "It has proved problematic for the headteacher to work across four schools and this is partly due to the time it takes to travel the considerable distance between the schools.

"Parents in one of the schools have raised concerns about the proportion of time the headteacher is in the school. Staff have also raised concerns about the difficulty of having only one headteacher.

"The current structure is particularly challenging, as we have no headteachers in SBC on standby who are Roman Catholic approved who can provide supply during periods of leadership absence as we are able to do in our non-denominational schools.

"It has been extremely challenging recruiting Roman Catholic teaching staff to the schools, thus making the delivery of Roman Catholic religious education problematic."

Halyrude currently has a roll of 93 pupils, 40 per cent are Roman Catholic, with St Margaret's in Galashiels having 72 pupils (46 per cent Catholic), St Margaret's in Hawick has 15 pupils (75 per cent Catholic) and St Joseph's in Selkirk has 21 pupils (14 per cent Catholic).

Ms Lawrie added: "Taking into the account the challenges facing the Roman Catholic schools in terms of recruitment and retention of Roman Catholic staff, leadership capacity across the four schools and the current lack of capacity in the substantive structure to take forward improvements, it would be an appropriate time to carry out a review of Roman Catholic education provision in the Scottish Borders.

"This initial review will act as a pre-consultation in advance of possible statutory consultation."

During March's initial school estates consultation, parents from other primaries in Peebles made calls for Halyrude to be stripped of its denominational status to ease the growing pressure on both Priorsford and Kingsland in the town.

And while attainment at both St Margaret's schools and Halyrude has seen improvements in recent years, concerns continue over St Joseph's following poor inspections.

The report added: "The 2015 follow through inspection reported that the pace of learning for pupils was too slow and that children reported that they had had too many teachers over the year.

"The turnover rate in staffing was identified as a problem within the school."

Catholic education survived a threat in 2012 during a similar review.

But the solution at the time - to appoint a single headteacher - has led to continued problems in the preceding four years.

Education director Donna Mason said: "The viability and provision of the existing Roman Catholic school provision was raised by a number of respondents from other schools.

"There has been considerable challenge for the council over a number of years in recruiting staff to all four schools, in particular into leadership posts. "Following council quality improvement processes and supported by issues raised during school inspection procedures, enhanced leadership structures and support have been in place for over 12 months to address concerns from school staff and parents that existing structures are not working.

"St Joseph’s Primary School has been in inspection for three years and has not been signed off yet, as concerns remain from the inspectorate about a range of educational aspects of the school.

"It is proposed that a focused pre-consultation is embarked upon, commencing in September, to consider school leadership structures, the continuation of provision in four localities, staff recruitment and the quality of education provision."