Pressure is growing to create the first standalone Gaelic primary school in Skye.

A parents' group has been formed to prepare the case for the school in Portree, which already has a primary school with a Gaelic-medium unit.

The new facility would be only the third all-Gaelic school in Scotland. There is already a combined nursery, primary and secondary in Glasgow and a primary school in Inverness.

Parents, teachers and other members of the public attended a meeting on the island this week with four councillors who have backed the proposals for a new school.

They heard from Mary Galbraith, convener of the parents' group in Glasgow, who outlined the success that has come in the wake of the establishment of a Gaelic school in the city, where numbers of pupils have doubled in seven years.

She emphasised the vital role the parents' group had played in establishing the school.

Arthur Cormack, one of the parents in the Portree campaign, said: "We were very encouraged to hear from councillors that we are knocking on an open door' and we welcome wholeheartedly their support for our proposals for a Gaelic school in Portree.

"Gaelic-only schools are the way ahead if we are to give children the best chance of achieving and retaining fluency in Gaelic, which is vital if the language is to be used in the community and passed on to future generations.

"Single-language schools are absolutely the norm in other countries where minority languages are under threat and we need to establish a number of Gaelic schools in Scotland to ensure that ambitious plans for the revival of the language can be achieved."

The Pupils in Scotland 2007 census, which was published earlier this year, showed that there were 2601 pupils receiving Gaelic medium education, up from 2454 in 2006.

Most of the youngsters were being taught in the 62 Gaelic medium units across Scotland.