School Closures

[Staney Dale]

Who better to judge? Someone with wider knowledge and experience, I would suggest, than a handful of parents with a narrow agenda. As someone who's seen bad teachers and limited choices inflicted on young people who have no chance to escape it, nor realise how they are being damaged, I think I have more than a 'vague appreciation' of the issue. And I don't work at Hayfield, and have lived on an 'isle'.

[Ghostrider]

^ That is the point though, as I understand it. The removal of choice.

 

As things have been, a pupil/parents had the choice of the AHS/Hostel or remaining in Skerries, depending whether city life and more subjects than you could shake a stick at, or being happy with whatever the isle offered was desired. Closing the isle option leaves all pupils compelled to take the AHS/Hostel route whatever they think of it. Choice is zero, even if the place is everything they hate, and they have no interest/aptitude for anything the AHS offers Skerries didn't, they have to stick it out for the distance regardless.

 

I can appreciate a bad teacher and little choice harms some, but equal harm is done when someone is forced in to an urban environment that is entirely alien to everything they are and want to be, and are part of a faceless mass that leaves them feeling treated more like a yow in a cru at a hill caa than an individual.

 

Choice is always good, but closing a place like Skerries in the name of "choice", when it is actually removing choice that already exists, and then playing the "social skills" and "opportunity" cards, smacks of folk in Hayfield and living on the Mainland telling Skerries folk "we know better whats good for you and your bairns than you do", and that's well out of order.

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

Just found out today that the Out Skerries children did not go to the Anderson High School last week.

 

SIC have not found anyone to escort the 11 year olds 

 

How does that affect their education? Non attendance?

[CrunchieSquirrel]

So once the Skerries school is closed, what will happen to the building? Will it be converted into something like a public hall, a house or just abandoned?

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

Nothing to convert the Primary and Secondary are as one from what I can see.

 

The only changes in the overall school is the Friday afternoon music teacher  has been redeployed hence the £73000 saving (NOT)

 

Please SIC show us this £73000 saving, from what we on Skerries can see the costs have gone up in closing Skerries Secondary Dept.

 

As for closing the school on education grounds, this was based on false info , no point naming names of who gave false info but untruths have been said and the SIC have chosen to believe the BULL.

 

My opinion is if you cant save Skerries School you cant save any of them.

[Ghostrider]

Clearly the SIC have forgotten to listen to their own teachings. Ironically one of the very few things I recall being "taught" by a SIC hired maths teacher waay back in the dark ages of my days at the AHS, was, "You can use any set of statistics to appear to support whatever it is you want to say by how you present them".

 

So was that gem imparted upon us plebs without the approval of "da management", or are they as arrogant as to think we've all forgotten it too, cos we all ain't.

 

Just because the beads add up one way you look at them doesn't mean something is right, they need to add up whichever way you choose to look at them.

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

It does not take an SIC hired maths teacher to see no financial saving has been achieved by closing Skerries Secondary, any Island Idiot can work the figures out, with or without a calculator.

 

Come on Dr Wills come to Skerries and look us all in the eye, and justify closing an excellent secondary school. Even Gordon Brown could not make these figures up???

[shetlandpeat]

Clearly the SIC have forgotten to listen to their own teachings. Ironically one of the very few things I recall being "taught" by a SIC hired maths teacher waay back in the dark ages of my days at the AHS, was, "You can use any set of statistics to appear to support whatever it is you want to say by how you present them".

 

So was that gem imparted upon us plebs without the approval of "da management", or are they as arrogant as to think we've all forgotten it too, cos we all ain't.

 

Just because the beads add up one way you look at them doesn't mean something is right, they need to add up whichever way you choose to look at them.

No one can be trusted then.... as you say.

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

I do not think you can trust the management team of Hayfield House in regards the so called savings made, or the so called educational benefits.

 

The SIC have made a mistake in closing the Skerries Secondary School.

 

99.9% of the Skerries residents gave a clear message they wanted the school to stay open. 

 

Lets be honest this is about saving money, which is a good thing todo, but closing this school has increased costs.

[shetlandpeat]

Can that be evidenced without falling into the above "figures trap"? There will be of course, those "benefits" that would be hard to show until much later. Even then, they will remain unquantifiable due to a lack of monitoring. Life is like these threads, many bits are quickly forgotten, like best mates at school who vow never to drift apart.

 

The only sure way would be to involve an independant audit, however, that will never satisfy one party or another, if not both.

 

It could be said you too are not quite on the "whole picture" bit.

 

 

 

 but closing this school has increased costs.

 

.

You are very correct, certain costs have increased, you need to show what the savings would have been not to shut the school. Being able to evidence that over a projected period is the information that would be needed to tackle this. It is not always the case that if the public will, they get.

 

Adding to the mix is the £4000 per head of population spent to give the facilities that are available now. It is a shame there appears to be no body who can do any meaningful work on the figures on here.
 

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

Based on info around Skerries

 

The new Headteacher at Skerries from November 2013 was teaching Secondary and Primary, focusing on the traditional core subjects, this worked very well, and cut the need for two teachers, the parents council liked the timetable,and the children worked very hard. ( Headteacher was doing two jobs in one).

 

None of the staff since the closure have lost hours, or pay cuts.

 

The only person to have been redeployed was the Music/RE teacher who would come in on a Friday afternoon subject to the weather. ( Redeployed so he is still on the payroll within the education budget).

 

The Skerries primary school is now run by the same Headteacher who was running both.

 

So now we have secondary children aged 11 and above having to be taken away at the tax payers cost, boarded, and paying for their food, plus taxi,and escort each week and am told that Anderson High School is a holiday camp compared to Skerries Secondary work load. 

 

Hence my statement the costs have gone up in closing the Skerries Secondary School.

 

£73000 saving does not exist.

 

Probably costing education budget an extra £50 a week in taxis, £100 a week for three children in food, the escort will cost 8 hours at £10 an hour so that will be £80. This is guessing £230 a week extra costs in closing the Skerries Secondary School.

 

Hence the anger towards Dr J Wills when he gave his emotive false speech on costs and savings,and AHS was better than Eton

Let him prove it, the man is a joker. 

[paulb]

did he really claim that. from my kids experience it falls well behind both brae and aith in both teaching and pupil support. even the english schools that they were at 8 years ago were more interested and supportive.

 

my 16 year old son has learning problems. he did well at aith and was happy. he managed a few weeks at the anderson and walked out. we were really impressed that the school could not be even bothered to let us know what he did. hopefully we have got an alternative sorted for him. HOWEVER THE ANDERSON IS NOT THAT GOOD. they think they are a big school but even my smsll secondary school of 33 years ago taught better and made an effort. 

[Skerriesinthewilderness]

Yes Dr J Wills did claim Anderson High School was better than Eton.

 

He also said he would look every Skerries Folk and look them in the eye with his vote of closing the secondary school.(This to date has not happened)

 

Real facts are the headteacher of Skerries in her last year of teaching French and Spanish her pupils outperformed Eton College and this was done at a public school. This is facts that can be obtained on the internet. While Dr J Wills made a clever emotive speech that swayed gullable councilors like Sandison to make a close the school vote on emotive false info.

 

This false info coming from Hayfield House, the management knew no more savings could be made.

 

I now have lost all faith in Shetland democracy. 

 

Closing Skerries Secondary School was and is a Social Injustice against Skerries community and the rights to a Family Life.

 

Skerries had a stronger case saving that school than all the other junior high schools in Shetland.

 

I do hope CURE learns from the fall of Skerries Secondary School. 

[shetlandpeat]

Do you not have any figures apart from your best guess? It will be difficult to ask the right questions if you have not the correct answers already to the ones you will base your accusation upon.

[Kavi Ugl]

I can't believe what I'm hearing on Radio Shetland tonight and Radio Shetland seem cock-a-hoop about it.

 

The Papa Stour school has had to be refurbished and re-opened all because a family from "Shropshire" have move there.

 

Meanwhile, everybody else in Shetland is having to fight the closure of their schools tooth and nail.

 

I despair, I really do.....

Edited August 29, 2014 by Kavi Ugl