Blueprint for education consultation

[trout]

Has anyone seen the feeds from the Scotsman and Edinburgh Evening News on the front page of here in the last few days?

 

Standard yearly rounds of x amount has to be saved by whenever - massive cuts - media becomes involved - massive outrage - trimmed expectations - everyone happy?! Standard political maneuver per se.

 

I'm more concerned in the extra curriculum activities being demanded by the sh*te that's going on in the central belt right now! Water rates, bridge activity, stupid trams!

 

Don't think its got nothing to do with the rest of Scotland!

[Styles]

dwindeling school roles

 

styles, did du read da post at da top o dis page? school rolls are goin to increase, if onythin, ower da next few years!

as far as i'm concerned, i quite lik da fact dat we lots o good peerie schools, but i realise dat it canna be viable to keep dem aa open, an so some will hae ta be closed. da difficulty is decidin which wans arna viable on mair, despite dere bein a few which seem fairly obvious t maist. its a very touchy subject, an so it should be!

 

on da idder hand tho, dere's lotsa idder places dat da cooncil could mak savins instead o closin da schools (daft roondaboots to name one) but dis isna da place t go troo dem aa!

 

I dont really care, its about time that the money looks like the end. All i understand is that it costs 30 milion and I am a pure blood shetlander, none o that foreign turd, so i atleast hope that the weirdos that come here will try and be the same?...

[MJ]

I am a pure blood shetlander

Wow I bet the scientists find you amazing. Most folk up here have norski, dutch or similar in the mix. It's where all the blondes & red heads come from, blue & green eyes, freckles, and height of over 5foot. To be fully functioning with all that inbreeding is quite a feat.

[paulb]

styles

 

your really trying hard. it may work keep it up. so styles your a real Shetlander good for you. all of us incommers are in awe of you the last pure bred shetlander. all those thousands of years of selective breeding for you to appear your very special look after yourself.

[judgeknott]

the trouble with being "pure" stock is that you get physical and mental deformities creeping in. Have you had your genes tested. The Vikings realised this and usually took somebody else's women.

[MuckleJoannie]

Before shutting any schools we should be cutting back on the 'extras' within the overall curriculum and also looking at head office management andf admin costs first.

So, that means the plethora of non core curriculum teaching, such as bloody coasteering, etc, knitting, daft drama, active schools coordinators, african drumming, you get my drift.

 

Active Schools coordinators are funded by the Scottish Government.

 

.

Funding for the Network has now been secured until the Scottish Government’s next Spending Review which is planned for 2011.

 

 

I take that you feel that schools should be purely geared towards passing exams. All very well if you're the academic type. These activities help the pupil's personal development.

[paulb]

the new program starts when my oldest son goes up to high school. i don't see them being ready. how come they have not sent out any info on it.

[trowie246]

Take Yell as an example - two schools. Anywhere else in Europe I would doubt you would find 2 schools in such a small geographic area with such low (in terms of Cullivoe) school rolls... it is a financial drain. One thing I have heard over and over again is "but its different here', which I can totally understand when you look at certain aspects (ie. High school provision), but primaries in smaller geographic areas - no.

 

 

Yell has 3 schools. Two primarys, one at each end and a junior high in the middle. If you look at a map of Shetland and transpose Yell on to it the same geographical area the mainland of Shetland has more than 3 schools for that same area.

 

It's interesting that Lunnasting primary is not included in any of the options for the Blueprint. They currently have 20 pupils and 3 or 4 in Nursery. They are 12 miles from Brae which is the a shorter distance than our pupils would have to travel to MidYell which is 17miles.

 

 

 

If you're talking about population I don't know. Yell has a population of approx 1200 people.

 

Cullivoe currently has 10 pupils attending Nursery, 21 in Primary and our schoolroll is due to steadily increase to 28 pupils in 4 years time.

 

.

[MJ]

the new program starts when my oldest son goes up to high school. i don't see them being ready. how come they have not sent out any info on it.

Because the SIC were ignoring the fact that it was going to happen. In their defence it seems they're not the only place.

I had my headteacher and the head of education tell me there were no plans to change the system. Despite my 10years of being involved with the consultation process.

[paulb]

great.

[trowie246]

Because the SIC were ignoring the fact that it was going to happen. In their defence it seems they're not the only place.

 

I don't know if they were ignoring it or if they just saw it as an excuse to close schools. I attended a meeting at Midyell where Maggie Spence was giving a presentation on the CfE. The first thing she displayed had the Blueprint logo on it. I really feel sorry for teachers at the moment because preparing for the CfE is bad enough when no-one knows exactly what the exam structure is going to be without all this extra stress of school and secondary department closures.

[MJ]

if they weren't ignoring it why lie and say it wasn't happening?

Cathy Jamieson was still education minister when the announced how the new qualifications were going to work. Went to an EIS conference soon after where it was a topic.

[trowie246]

The Education dept. in Shetland always have a hidden agenda. To keep it hidden they have to be economical with the truth. Either that or their just stupid. It is one of the reasons that the last chairperson of Cullivoe Parent Council resigned. I bet Matthew Moss who they seconded from Whalsay to be a Blueprint Manager will be getting shipped back to Whalsay as soon as this is all over because he let a few cats out of the bag.

 

The fact of the matter is that it is highly unlikely that any of the schools in Shetland will be shut. Even if councillors decide to close them if the next school is more than 5 miles away it is referred to Scottish ministers. At the moment no schools that are referred are being closed because the SNP government are against closure of rural schools. They have tried for the past 2 or 3 years to get primary schools and secondary departments shut on the Western Isles and the Scottish Ministers have overturned the local councils decision. The only one they managed to get closed was a secondary department that had a role of zero and parents agreed to shut it. In the Highlands the government kept open a school that had a role of 2 pupils and the next school was just over the 5 mile limit.

 

Legislation has just been passed that will make it even harder for the Shetland Islands Council to make any kind of case for school closures.

 

It just makes me angry that they are wasting everybodies time and that we are being made to fight our corner once more.

[paulb]

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2009/11/26/councillors-vote-for-public-consultation-on-closing-up-to-16-primary-and-secondary-school-departments

 

they are worried by costs. how amazing after spending over 10% of the build budget one does have to ask are they capable of doing that. take our three primaries on the westside were in the consultation is the costings for a new school transport cost redundancy costs.

 

present population of the 3 if merged without any building.

nursery 18

p1-2 23

p3-5 30

p6-7 29

 

in 3 class rooms.

 

the Scottish recommendations for class sizes

Primary one - maximum of 25 set by circular

Primary one to three - maximum of 30 set by regulations

Primary four to seven - maximum of 33 set by teachers' terms and conditions

Composite classes - maximum of 25 set by teachers' terms and conditions

 

so that breaks the recommended class size.

[paulb]

Pete Bevington

 

27 November, 2009

 

A GOVERNMENT grant offer could pave the way for the Happyhansel primary school in Walls to be refurbished and extended.

 

Education minister Fiona Hyslop yesterday (Thursday) announced the first tranche of a £1.25 billion investment in 20 primary and 14 secondary schools across Scotland.

 

Happyhansel was one building project submitted by Shetland Islands Council’s schools service, which wants to add a multi purpose room, a head teacher’s room, a secretarial area and a staff room.

 

Head of schools Helen Budge said at the moment the school was operating in very cramped conditions, with the computer server having to be sited in the toilets.

 

The council was invited to submit bids for projects which were not already in its capital programme. The Happyhansel project would cost up to £500,000, with the government providing half the cash.

 

The council would have three years to complete the work and draw down the grant, which would

mean an extra burden on the already overstretched capital programme.

 

The Walls school currently has 48 pupils, down from around 80 a decade ago and numbers are still falling. Under the Blueprint for Education which goes out to consultation in January, Happyhansel could become the base for all primary education west of Aith.

 

Ms Budge said: “We are delighted with this offer and we now have to look at how we can secure the other 50 per cent from our own sources, because this is not in next year’s capital programme.â€

 

mmmm what timing. but they have no budgeted money to cover there half. why apply if they did not have the money. this of course is nothing to do with what they want to do to the three schools.