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Save Scalloway School


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The reason the council has run out of money, is because they have been splashing out money keeping the likes of Scalloway school open for far too long.

This is not the reason they have been losing money, they probably spend more keeping the leaking Anderson open when there really should be a new school. And dont tell me you've forgotten about the £200 odd million they spent to pay off Dave Clark. Scalloway is a perfectly affordable school, there is no evidence that shows otherwise.

 

The kids of Scalloway school are not paying for it, they will still get a very good education in Lerwick. I suspect that as high a proportion of pupils from Lerwick go on to university as any other school in Shetland.

The kids at Scalloway are paying for it. We will have to lose our school, and the community will have to pay for it too, what new families will want to move there if we lose our secondary?

 

Everybody will have their own pet projects which they do not feel should be cut, or believe is a special case. However, cut must be made, and transferring pupils the short distance to from Scalloway to Lerwick seems like one of the least painful cuts that could be made.

Least painfull? This will affect everyone, not just kids from Scalloway. As it was said before, the kids at Anderson will have even bigger classes and there will be even more pressure to build a new school quickly.[/u]

 

If you think they spent £200 odd million in paying off Dave Clark, i think the Maths Dept at Scalloway cannot be very good !

 

Perhaps the good people of Lerwick have accepted that cuts need to be made, and will accept bigger class sizes as a price worth paying.

 

In the big, bad, real grown up world in which you will enter after leaving school, you will soon find out that you can only buy something if you can afford it. Unfortunately your council forgot this mantra, and has now maxxed out their credit cards, so to speak.

 

As residents of Shetland, we will all be paying for mistakes of the past. The sooner we pull together and accept that cuts need to be made, and by all of us, the better.

 

I suspect that much tougher decisions than closing Scalloway school will need be be made shortly. This is only the start, and if you feel hard done by having to move school, just think about the, potentially hundreds, of SIC staff who will be made redundant over the next few years.

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I have 2 bairns who have been / are at Scalloway secondary. I attended the Anderson in the 70's Our oldest went to the Anderson at 5th year. I was struck by how much better Scalloway was The Anderson in My opinion has gone down hill big time,

 

Stirrer please look at the proportion of bairns going to further education from the Anderson that started out in a Junior-high to those that attended the Anderson only and I think you will be in for a shock, the Anderson is no longer a first tier school.

 

First cuts should come in the likes of Hayfield house

Stop the building of a Nursery in Tingwall

Look at discretional services.

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The reason the council has run out of money, is because they have been splashing out money keeping the likes of Scalloway school open for far too long.

This is not the reason they have been losing money, they probably spend more keeping the leaking Anderson open when there really should be a new school. And dont tell me you've forgotten about the £200 odd million they spent to pay off Dave Clark. Scalloway is a perfectly affordable school, there is no evidence that shows otherwise.

 

 

The sum they paid off Clark with was actually about £250,000, although still unjustifiable. Anyway...

 

I don't think they should shut Scalloway's secondary dept while they're complaining that the AHS building is unsuitable for the amount of pupils currently there. If the new Anderson building had indeed materialised I might have been inclined to agree with Scalloway's closure, given that it'll only take ten minutes for the bairns to get in each morning. But if the current Anderson is unsuitable they can't really justify it.

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I agree with Stirrer !

 

Money must be saved so why not close Scalloway secondary, then you could turn it into a super primary. Now suddenly we don't need to spend millions on a new primary school in Lerwick (conveniently not incuded in the Blue print) and we can bus bairns from Lerwick....it's only a few miles after all.

 

Does anyone really believe this would happen.....I don't.

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It seems Scalloway bairns are just being foddered out to Lerwick schools to add to the statistics for the fight in building a new high school, the've wasted millions on plans and false starts for the new Anderson.

 

Scalloway is growing at a great rate with new families moving in to the village all the time, not only that but people who live in other parts of Shetland but work in Scalloway choose the Scalloway school for thier bairns, yes half the population of Shetland might live in Lerwick but thats even more reason to save the school, it has a large catchment area and serves a number of different communities.

 

And bear in mind the whole campaign and protests such as todays are being organised by those at the very centre of the cuts, the pupils themselves.

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I agree with Stirrer !

 

Money must be saved so why not close Scalloway secondary, then you could turn it into a super primary. Now suddenly we don't need to spend millions on a new primary school in Lerwick (conveniently not incuded in the Blue print) and we can bus bairns from Lerwick....it's only a few miles after all.

 

Does anyone really believe this would happen.....I don't.

 

That would make an excellent use of resources - given that the bus will be empty on one leg of the journey anyway.

 

Thinking like this will help save the SIC loads, and you should be congratulated for 'thinking outside the box'. Hopefully some of the mandarins at Hayfield will read this and impliment this suggestion in future reviews.

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Yes stirrer it would be refreshing to see decisions based on whats good for Shetland as opposed to whats good for Lerwick.

 

I am willing to bet the sums saved by closing Scalloway will be much less than predicted, and the sums spent on new schools in Lerwick will astronomical if they ever manage to build them.

 

I am 100% for savings, but this has more to do with justifying what they want to build in Lerwick.

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Stirrer please look at the proportion of bairns going to further education from the Anderson that started out in a Junior-high to those that attended the Anderson only and I think you will be in for a shock, the Anderson is no longer a first tier school.

 

All the more reason to improve equality of provision throughout Shetland -which won't happen if the budgets can't be balanced.

 

If you think they spent £200 odd million in paying off Dave Clark, i think the Maths Dept at Scalloway cannot be very good !

 

Nor the English....?

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My oldest son completed his secondary education at Scalloway, and my middle son will be in S.1 after the summer, with my youngest following in 2 years time. I really dont want them to have to go to lerwick for their secondary education, as scalloway is a brilliant school, providing a secure, friendly environment where pupils can learn with enthusiasm. The support parent and pupils get from Staff at Scalloway school is beyond compare!

 

However, these cuts have to be made somewhere, and fast....

So yes closure of the secondary department may have to be!

but... if the council paused a moment to think, and listened to the parents and pupils of Scalloway, maybe a better solution could be reached without any hasty and costly decisions... a "super primary" certainly being a very viable option.

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I went to Scalloway School from primary 1 to secondary 4. During second / third year the school was also threatened with closure. My friend and i started a petition, which we put to the local shops and finally to the Town Hall. We got a huge amount of support then.

 

I absolutely loved Scalloway school. I cannot praise the teachers / staff enough for the hard work they do.

 

I went to Anderson for 5th and 6th year and hated every single second of my time there. Some students are not cut out for big schools - i wasn't.

 

Scalloway Secondary school was fantastic, it shouldn't be closed - ever!!

 

I wish you guys the very best - keep it up!

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And besides actual pupil-teacher ratio, physical space and facilities at Anderson High, especially common areas and canteen space, are already struggle to cope with existing student numbers.

 

 

This often heard opinion never fails to amaze me. When I went to the AHS it had a higher roll than it does now. There were pupils from fair Isle to Unst, Foula to Skerries who attended. Both hostels were full and many pupils stayed in lodgings in the town.

 

I was never aware of any space issues then and it was half the size it is now.

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Muppet, as a pupil of the Anderson high school I can honestly say that it is currently over-crowded and this is even before the new Secondary 1's arrive: corridors are a squeeze to get by and dinner cues can be horrendous. Many pupils are being denied a chance to study a particular subject as their isn't enough teachers and too high of a demand.

 

I personally don't see the point in closing such a fantastic school like Scalloway. The resources, teachers and location is ideal to learn in and for my 11 years there I actually enjoyed school. I am completely backing the campaign to save it from closure. I went to the Anderson High school in 5th year and it was a shock. It is very large in comparison to Scalloway and it's a different standard and way of teaching. At Scalloway, individual help and discussion was always an option, but, with classes of 20 in a open-plan science department in the Anderson, you can imagine there's never any peace or quiet.

 

The council should look towards shutting Skerries and other tiny-roll schools in Shetland before even thinking of touching Scalloway Junior High. Also, this Mariel project being put up in Lerwick, is it really needed? All the money wasted on the "plans" for the new Anderson high school, was that needed? Education should always come first, and I severly hope that the council wakes up and realises this.

 

And, stirrer, I think you should stop your patronising and cheek to these bairns who are just simply trying to save their loved place of education.

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We think the council should have really thought about this first before making a decission! The councilors also should have asked for our oppinions on it. And before you say we would of all said against it anyway, yes that would be correct but the pupils, teachers and members of the public also have idea's on what we could do about it instead of shutting our school. There is some very bright ideas going around about this and a lot of it is not getting heard at all!!

 

Having bigger classes at the Anderson means the teachers will also have less control over the pupils. What makes people think that this is going to improve or help in anyway? All of the pupils, at the Anderson, Skerries and Scalloways grades could fall, which doesnt look very good for our communities and it certainly doesnt give the pupils the best possible options for their futures.

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