NORTH Ayrshire Council's cabinet has agreed to cap the number of places for pupils at Irvine's new Montgomerie Park Primary School.
From next summer, the number of P1 pupils at the school will be limited to 32.
It comes after a rise in the number of pupils at Montgomerie Park since it first opened in August 2024, with 79 children over five classes.
Since then, the cabinet was told, the school roll has shot up to 170 pupils across eight classes.
The main reason for the increase is the number of new houses being built in the catchment area.
A report revealed: "The statutory public consultation on the proposal to establish a new primary school at Irvine East took place in early 2021.
"At that time, there had been 481 homes built in Montgomerie Park since 2004, and the new catchment area boundary also included 172 long-established homes at Knadgerhill.
"Since the establishment of the new school, three further housing sites within the catchment area have become active, with 590 new homes constructed."
It continued: "Projections show that the developments could result in around 100 additional catchment children registering for a place at Montgomerie Park Primary School by 2030.
"The number of new children from these homes is then expected to continue to grow until these homes are fully established.
"In order to mitigate against the school failing to have sufficient accommodation for catchment children in future years, it is recommended that the P1 intake number is limited to 32 children for each new school session from August 2026.
"It is also proposed that the number of reserved spaces at each stage is increased from two to four from August 2026.
"This allows spaces to be reserved for new children moving into the Montgomerie Park Primary School catchment area throughout the school year. This may mean that the number of P1 pupils increases above 32, as the session progresses, as these new catchment pupils register."
Officers said the proposal would ensure that the expansion of the school roll was carefully managed, prioritising current and future school spaces for catchment children as required, enabling them to be educated at their local school.
Their report added: "It should be noted that if the proposal is approved, there will be fewer P1 spaces available at Montgomerie Park Primary School next year than there have been in the past.
"This may result in a ballot process for placing requests, whereby names are drawn and the procedure is supervised by a local elected member.
"It should also be noted that the other primary schools in the area have sufficient capacity to accommodate their catchment children.
"There may come a point in the future when the proposed cap of 32 pupils in Primary 1 is no longer sufficient to accommodate the enrolment of all catchment children at Montgomerie Park Primary School, requiring the cap to be increased."
The council cabinet agreed to the proposals at a meeting this week and said they would communicate with parents and carers in the community so they would be aware of the implications for the future.
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