Save Scalloway School

[Lively]

I'm totally against the closure of Scalloway secondary just so they can get their super & unbelievably expensive school in Lerwick.

Savings need to be made elsewhere such as closing Tingwall Airport.

The Islander could operate from Sumburgh. The air ambulance flies to Sumburgh during the night when Tingwall is closed & in days of low cloud.

Just a thought

 

By the way, that Mareel should never have happened either. Those who voted for that should hang their heads in shame. Millions wasted on that just to end up closing schools. Disgraceful

[engineer21]

where should the council save money? it has too be saved that is not a debate so where? schools, leasuire centres, mareel, its crunch time and its going to be bad whatever happens.

 

i went too anderson all my days and it was a great school the larger school prepares you for going away. the argument about how good or bad the schools are is a waste of time, there isnt a bad school in shetland!!

[peeriebryan]

For the sake of clarity and without wishing to go off topic, the SIC education budget isn't affected by Mareel

 

Mareel is managed by Shetland Arts Development Agency, not the SIC - the SIC contributed around half of the capital build costs and there is no ongoing revenue costs to the SIC

[Guest posiedon]

First; let me say, I'm against the closing of Scalloway school but........ If you're going to sing it's praises, you could at least make sure your spelling

and grammar are correct.

We think the council should have really thought about this first before making a decission! (sic)

The councilors also should (sic) have asked for our oppinions (sic) on it. And before you say we would of (sic) 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 (sic) some very bright ideas going around about this and a lot of it is (sic)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,

Pure conjecture.

[keetiebairdie]

Isn't there to be a full review first?

 

I expect this will include the cost of transporting all those children to and from Scalloway, to their games and other out of school activities, in Scalloway.

 

Transport of how many coaches from Scalloway to Lerwick in the winter, and back? They will encounter icy roads, up da Scord, and will snowy wintry weather stop coaches travelling on the bad roads, for days? weeks?

 

Oh no, this won't happy as we are enjoying climate change, are we not. Rhetorical.

 

Any plumbers out there who can get their pencil out and make some calculations on the back of an envelope? Will this save money?

 

If the council are thinking of closing Scalloway school, they should wait until the new AHS has been built before the school is closed.

[keetiebairdie]

^ read happen for happy. Thanks

[Boris]

Watch out kids the "Spelling, Grammer and Maths Police" are out in force on this thread. Do some of you really think patronising young people contributes anything to this subject, this is a message board not an exam.....pathetic !

 

Regardless of your views on whether the school should stay open I think it's brilliant to see young people stand up for their school and their community. That takes guts and I am sure it will take more than a few smart alex's pointing out spelling mistakes to shut them up !

[Spinner72]

keetiebairdie - du can edit dy posts, just hae a look at da tap right fur da button

 

I think scalloway is a classic example of where the BS come in to play regarding closures.

 

I understand the issues with transport and upkeep of an empty building will be dealt with from another SIC budget and so the closure will save money for eduacation, it could well cost as much, or more, elsewhere.

 

I completely understand local goverment budgeting systems (unfotunately) but this is taking it beyond the limit IMO. Especially since the quality of education and general schooling experience of our younger population has no value on any scale being used.

 

Before any cuts are made, all relevant/related budget streams should be re-merged so a realistic overall "bottom line" can be established to work from.

[sailor]

Can anyone tell us if the junior high schools to be reviewed for closure are not hosting classes currently available at ahs? Yes travel, community involvement in a school, local jobs, parental opinion etc. have a place in this discussion but the review should be centred around the possibilities available to our 'young adults' and making the best of the courses available.

[EM]

... the "Spelling, Grammer and Maths Police"

Grammar.

 

... are out in force on this thread.

Closely followed, as always, by the anti-pedantry police.

[JGHR]

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

 

This is a good question, does anyone know this statistic? I would be interested to see it.

 

Also has anyone researched if parents would be prepared to contribute to the running costs of the schools they are passionate about keeping open? I suspect the pupil numbers would not be high enough to make a wholly fee funded school viable but if parents were prepared to contribute a percentage of the running costs the cash strapped council could maybe scrape up the rest.

 

If something is worth having, its worth paying for I always think.

[shetlander]

Can anyone tell us if the junior high schools to be reviewed for closure are not hosting classes currently available at ahs? Yes travel, community involvement in a school, local jobs, parental opinion etc. have a place in this discussion but the review should be centred around the possibilities available to our 'young adults' and making the best of the courses available.

 

As I understand it, one of the blueprint aims is to standardise the provision of courses at all secondary schools. Core subjects (Maths, English, General Science, Social Studies etc) will continue to be taught by staff based in all secondaries at the new S1-S3 level. They will also teach more specialist courses at S4-S6 level (Chemistry, Biology, Physics, History etc) although the plan is that junior highs will be supported at S4 level by visiting teachers from Brae (for Yell, Unst and Whalsay) and the AHS (for Sandwick and Aith). That way, there will be equality in provision throughout Shetland which there isn't at the moment.

 

I understand that the standard grades currently on offer at the junior highs (or the smaller ones at least) is dependant on the specialisms of individual teachers based in individual schools. So not all science or social studies subjects are currently available as standard grades at all schools. Somebody more wint with the new system and the current set up can correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

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

 

I have no doubt that the existing set up (whether at Scalloway secondary or elsewhere) offers a first class standard of education which can be attributed to a large degree to the hard work and dedication of school staff - but I am yet to see any credible evidence to suggest that will change if the blueprint proposals are implemeted. The bottom line is that schools in Shetland cost too much to run and are overstaffed compared to most councils elsewhere. Thankfully a majority of councillors are finally starting to see how financially unsustainable the current level of service provision in Shetland is becoming and are taking sensible (if regrettable) decisions to address that.

 

This is just the start in terms of the difficult decisions that the council is going to have to make if there is any hope of it making savings - which we now hear is likely to run to as much as £17 million in the next financial year. Perhaps those who are opposing closures and cuts in school staff can give us some ideas as to what other services should be cut as an alternative and justify to the people who use them why they should be targeted whilst schools are left alone?

 

Transport of how many coaches from Scalloway to Lerwick in the winter, and back? They will encounter icy roads, up da Scord, and will snowy wintry weather stop coaches travelling on the bad roads, for days? weeks?

 

Is ice up the Scord (or anywhere else in the Scalloway area for that matter) a problem for the buses that already transport S5/6 pupils from the Scalloway/Burra/Trondra areas to Lerwick? I certainly haven't been aware of it to the extent that bairns attending school in Lerwick have missed more school days than bairns attending Scalloway.

[breeksy]

Transport of how many coaches from Scalloway to Lerwick in the winter, and back? They will encounter icy roads, up da Scord, and will snowy wintry weather stop coaches travelling on the bad roads, for days? weeks?

 

This arguement is a non-starter. If there is wintry snowy weather affecting the roads and it is unsafe for children and teachers to travel to school the schools are closed.

[joshua767]

I attended Scalloway School s1-s4 and it should definatly not be closed. As someone has previously mentioned on here if the Scalloway school pupils go to the AHS, there will be a lesser education for all. The AHS has already been proved by the SIC to be below par so this will further reduce the quality of education there. Any a lot of people here are trying to lump the blame on SJHS for costing a lot of money - look how much money the council has pissed up the wall on a new school in Lerwick before anything even got done! And lets no even mention da mareel thing. Another point, if they were so desperate to save money, why were they paying stupid money to educate the most expensive pupil in the UK, in Fair Isle??? They seem to be got a gluff from somewhere and I think this is a very abrupt decision.

[anniecool]

If you're going to sing it's praises,

 

 

 

If you're going to criticise other people's spelling and grammar maybe you should make sure yours are correct.