Save Scalloway School

[stilldellin]

I wonder what " Da Flea'" and his cronies thoughts would be on closing Dunrossness and moving all the pupils to Sandwick, seeing as distance and weather in winter is not a problem !

[amno]

Thats the problem you just hit the nail right on the head! it happens in other places sometimes invlolving greater distances and the council will be well aware of this to bring it up in any argument,

 

sometimes though for example when a counciler suggested that if there was a road accident invloving bairns from burravoe on a bus to mid yell that the comitee should consider themselves responsable, that to me just smacks of clutching at straws and can only be a detriment to any genuine arguement for keeping the school open

 

Above all tho school closures are a symptom of the bigger problem in shetland which is more and more centralisation, in all ohnesty though, when youve got one settlement with a population many times that of any of its rivals then its more or less unavoidable, it started long ago and i cant see any way of it changing

[viking74]

as i saed afoar da toon his been eftir scallawa skool ta close fur decades noo an hits nae surprise dat hits finally happened, dats why dir moved ta pit da bairns ta da anderson a.s.a.p. an dir no carin whit onybody saes aboot da owircroodin in da canteen,da state o'constant repairs an add ons dat da anderson gits/needs, an also daers annidir 110 bairns tae gae wanderin aroond da streets intimadatin maer shoppers!.

close scallawa skool if yu must bit at lest wait til da new monumental anderson his been beelt.

seems lik job creation, justification an egos satisfied fur some cooncilors.

[Lively]

The council say they've looked at all the options before closing schools. Why then, is it that the Tingwall airstrip (cant call it an airport) is still open??

This small & expensive operation is a waste of money.

There's plenty of hangar space, apron space & a huge terminal building at Sumburgh. There's good bus links between Lerwick & Sumburgh.

I know the air ambulance flies to Tingwall but not at night or in adverse weather conditions (they go to Sumburgh instead) so no reason why this cant be the case through the day aswell.

This incompetent council have not looked at all the options.

[paulb]

lively. the 30 minutes plus it can take to get to sumburgh is too long for urgent transfers. also taking the ambulance out of use for over an hour each transfer could cause problems.

[Lively]

Why is it ok to fly from Sumburgh at 9pm during the summer?

[paulb]

depends on the patient. if they are ventalated then is too long. it also depends on conditions sumburgh can be fogged in and tingwall open. but its best to have alternatives.

[JustMe]

If the SIC were to move the inter island flights to Sumburgh they would have to pay all sorts of charges to HIAL for the use of their airport. Maybe closing Tingwall would deprive us of an emergency airstrip without saving all that much money.

[Ghostrider]

I am sure the Dunrossness would not want to go back to small schools.

 

Don't be. This is one Ness man that saw the insides of both old and new versions, and all in all I'm of the opinion the small schools had the edge, but that's just me.

[unlinkedstudent]

What is the capacity for the Anderson at present and the "new" Anderson in numbers?

 

I don't have a child of school age but can comment re the travelling. My own son went to the local senior school in London which was two and a half miles away and, like other children'parents, had to pay the travel costs.

 

Re my own education in Lincolnshire: The school had between 1,300 and 1,700 pupils. We had three sittings in the dining hall. The school car park was full at home time with between 10 to 15 coaches. The catchment area covered a radius of 30 miles. About 5 days a year in winter the school closed - not all the teachers could get in, let alone the pupils. However, by the second day, homework would arrive either by hand or in the post! (There wasn't the internet available back in the late 1970s).

 

Yes, our school needed additional space and I recall several portacabins, one being the common room for 6th formers. We actually preferred the lessons in the portacabins.

 

If the Anderson really hasn't got the capacity then they should wait.

 

What is the teacher/pupil ratio? Our class sizes were roughly 32 - 36 to a class, but that varied from subject to subject. We didn't have any teaching assistants in those days either. Did our education suffer? No, but then I figure discipline in schools was a lot stricter back then.

 

Edit: No, we didn't all fit into the portacabins - they were mainly used for subjects such as Economics or Accounts where those choosing those subjects for 'O' levels would have between 6 and 20 pupils.

[amno]

Does anyone who went to any of these small schools want to share there experience of it im genuinly interested to know for example,

if theres 11 in a school are they just in the one classroom together? how does the teacher cater for the needs of all the different age groups? do the primary 7s get left to study while the teacher/ assistent has to help a primary 1 whos just p1shed ther pants or got a pencil stuck up there nose!

 

my own experience for better or worse was at a large primary and secondary in the central belt there was over 500 at our primary and we were in a class of 32 all of us the same age which is obviously much higher than here but,

say one morning we would do maths, we were split into 3 groups depending on ability the teacher then had to split her time among the 3 groups, allowing the bright ones to get ahead whilst also giving the required help for those who didnt find it quite as easy,

 

so in the samll rural schools here how does the teacher balance the day to include all the age and ability groups present?

 

a genuine question not a criticism

[Para Handy]

Now you know why the Scalloway School has to be closed.

 

The greedy counclours needed the money for there own pockets.

 

So called Expenses and Miscellaneous Outgoings.

 

Councillors received total of £485,025 during last financial year.

 

 

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2011/05/16/councillors-earned-485025-during-last-financial-year

[MuckleJoannie]

What is the capacity for the Anderson at present and the "new" Anderson in numbers?

 

I seem to recall that both will be be about 1,000 pupils.

[breeksy]

Does anyone who went to any of these small schools want to share there experience of it im genuinly interested to know for example,

if theres 11 in a school are they just in the one classroom together? how does the teacher cater for the needs of all the different age groups? do the primary 7s get left to study while the teacher/ assistent has to help a primary 1 whos just p1shed ther pants or got a pencil stuck up there nose!

 

As a 'toonie' whose kids went to a small two-teacher primary school, I can honestly say that I think the small schools are a much better environment for education.

 

In a school of 11, yes, all kids would be in one classroom, but there may well be other support staff (classroom assistant, office staff, cook for example) around to help out if need be.

 

One of the teachers in my children's school started her teaching career in a big primary south, and she said that much of her time in that school was spent doing crowd control, and that the range of abilities in the single year was broadly similar to the range her in three-or-four year class. She said that because the numbers were smaller, she had more time to spend with each child.

 

Children are still split into groups to work in ones with similar ability - which means that a child in p5 that is very able in maths but poor in english would work with p7 for maths, but p 3 or 4 for english.

 

Now in secondary school, my son who is in secondary 1 has friends in secondary 6 (well, he did until last week when they had to leave the school), and my daughter in S3 has friends in S1. They all mix really well. That just didn't happen to any great extent in Lerwick when I was there and as far as I have been told, it hasn't changed.

[amno]

hmm see there is a few good points youve made i wouldnt realy have thought of that myself, i doubt any one realy knows what the magical number is,

i suppose the councils way of looking at that these it is these schools are very much under capacity and its better to run with one at 80 % than 2 or 3 at 30 %

Is it true that some parants in all areas are opting to send there bairns to schools which would not be the default one for there area?