Details of PTC meeting last night will appear here soon. However, message given by Gordon Currie was that we need to get the consultation forms in and ensure that we put down our reasons such as community, travel, etc and they will look.
Maureen Hendry echoed this sentiment.
Tuesday 29 January 2013
Saturday 19 January 2013
Alternatives to current proposal.
We have been advised that it would be a good idea to have some alternate proposals to put forward ourselves. Please can you email us on st.josephs.milngavie@gmail.com with any but here are some that we have thought of.
1. Keep current facilities and the status quo
2. Have a joint campus with Milngavie Primary one a site. One suggestion is current location but we need to think of others.
Please email us any others or alternate sites for a joint campus so that we can use these in formal response.
1. Keep current facilities and the status quo
2. Have a joint campus with Milngavie Primary one a site. One suggestion is current location but we need to think of others.
Please email us any others or alternate sites for a joint campus so that we can use these in formal response.
Tuesday 15 January 2013
Our key messages
Summarised below are the key points that we want to bring out, as we engage with EDC and all other stakeholders. We welcome your comments...
- In addition to providing education, St. Joseph's also accommodates nursery, breakfast and after school provision for children from not only St Joe's but also Craighdhu Primary.
- For the past 20 years, St. Joseph's has provided the only adequate space for the Tuesday Club, which provides essential care for Adults with Special Needs.
- The loss of both St. Joseph's and Milngavie Primary will have a devastating impact on footfall during the week and therefore on local businesses in Milngavie Town Centre, leading to likely shop closures.
- Under the current proposal by EDC, cycling and walking to school will be replaced by private transport and buses, dramatically increasing congestion and reducing well being.
- Loss of the only denominational school in our community of Milngavie and Baldernock (as defined by EDC in their consultation questionnaire).
Monday 14 January 2013
Some interesting Scottish Gov reading, quotes from our own Mr Currie
This is from Scottish Government's Building better schools document, some points to highlight is the involvement of the pupils community and inclusion and accessibility, use of school outwith school hours....particularly in the Aspirations part.....
Page 15 / 16 to hear what Mr Currie had to say on the secondary school consultation process and why he holds new builds in such high esteem..
Gordon Currie, East Dunbartonshire Council. 16. Involving Children in .... play and learning rather than a neutral background upon which to arrange architectural ...and lots on the value of investing time in proper consultation !!
"This Strategy has greatly benefited from input from a wide range of stakeholders - individuals as well as organisations - who were invited to give evidence to and engage in discussion with the School Estate Strategy Working Group, or who attended organised events"
Also set out in Annex C is an illustrative but by no means exhaustive list of some of the many points, suggestions and arguments put to the Group by those who gave evidence either directly or at the stakeholder event. The Strategy - its vision, aspirations and the guiding principles and objectives - has, to a large extent, emerged from the recurrent themes running through the stakeholder input. There was also an encouragingly widespread recognition that much of what was being emphasised, valued and sought is already happening in some or significant measure.
After full consideration of all of the input and views expressed by stakeholders, as well as of the role which both tiers of Government wish to see schools fulfil, the Working Group agreed a statement of shared vision for the future school estate:
"Our vision is for schools which signal the high value we place on learning; which people and communities can enjoy using and can be proud; which are well designed, maintained and managed and which encourage continuous engagement with learning; which are far more than just 'educational establishments' whose quality of environment supports an accessible range of services and opportunities and which enrich the communities they serve and the lives of learners and families."
Aspirations for the school estate
Our aspirations for the school estate expand on the statement of vision and spell out what we - local and Scottish Government and local authorities - want to achieve together, namely that:
All children and young people will be educated in, and community users able use, schools that are 'fit for purpose' in terms of condition, suitability and sufficiency as defined overleaf;
Schools are well-designed, accessible, inclusive learning environments that inspire and drive new thinking and change and which support the delivery of high quality educational experiences through Curriculum for Excellence;
Schools are integral parts of the communities they serve, with pupils making use of community facilities and communities accessing school facilities;
Schools accommodate and provide a range of services, activities and facilities that make a difference to people's health and well being, to sustaining economic growth and to the strength and vibrancy of communities;
A sustainable school estate whose design, construction and operation is environmentally and energy efficient; contributes directly to delivering the year-on-year reductions in greenhouse gas emissions introduced by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, which is resilient to the impact of climate change and which leads by example in matters of environmental performance;
A school estate that is efficiently run and maximises value for money;
A school estate which is flexible and responsive - both to changes in demand for school places and to learners' and teachers' requirements and wishes, and where the beneficial impact of change is maximised by thorough consultation and engagement with users and stakeholders.
condition - no-one would endorse an aspiration that referred to fewer than all schools if that consigned some tens of thousands of pupils and other users to learning in 'poor' or 'bad' condition schools (condition categories C and D; the measures of which are set out in the detailed 'condition' guidance 18). That said, even when the continuing school improvement programme has reached a point where the proportion of schools or, more importantly, the proportion of pupils being educated in such schools is down to below 10% and still falling, in reality it will never reach 0% because all buildings deteriorate, sometimes in sudden and unpredictable ways. The cycle of buildings' deterioration, repair and reconstruction is a continuous one.
Realistically, the target underpinning this aspiration must be that where there are still poor or bad condition schools there need also to be firm plans to address the situation by removing those schools from Condition C and D - either by repair or refurbishment, or by replacement. The critical equation is that the proportion of pupils educated in condition A and B schools + the plans for tackling condition the C and D schools in which the balance of pupils are being educated must = 100%. The target is that the proportion of pupils within the first two categories (A and of schools should well exceed 90%. Reaching that point by any given date will be dependent as much if not more on the decisions of future Governments and councils than it will be on the decisions of the current Scottish Government and local government partners who have jointly articulated the aspiration and target.
suitability - how the design, spaces and configuration of the school impacts on function is crucial. Ease of use and accessibility also has a direct bearing on the all-important inclusion agenda in context of authorities' 'accessibility strategies' 19 and their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 20. The aspiration and eventual target will be to apply the same approach as has already been applied to measuring condition, to suitability - although the development of a standard, reliable and consistent 'measure' is intrinsically more challenging and at a much earlier stage. That precludes at least for now any possibility of setting a measurable target.
After much consultation, discussion and collaboration between Scottish Government and authorities, detailed guidance on the development of such a measure (again based on four categories of 'suitability' - A to D) has issued 21 and is being trialled and tested by authorities. As was the case with condition, further development work will be needed before a measure of suitability is developed to the point where it is generally accepted and understood by all, consistently applied and can take its place alongside the measure of condition to inform planning and investment decisions.
sufficiency - adjusting the pattern and supply of schools and school places in a way that better adapts to changing 'demand' is challenging but essential. Some 'room for manoeuvre' is desirable but maintaining too many surplus or underused areas is wasteful and dilutes the productive deployment of resources. Changes can be implemented in various ways - new buildings or school closures, catchment area adjustments and by altering capacity through extensions, more flexible use of space, or occasionally by temporary accommodation to cope with a short term fluctuation.
Authorities' responsibilities to prepare strategic and local development plans allow for extensive public engagement of the need for and location of new schools in the wider context of planning new residential areas, open spaces and other infrastructure. Where new housing development results in a requirement for additional school capacity, options for delivery, including the possible use of developer contributions, should be identified and the mechanisms agreed, including the phasing of additional capacity in relation to the occupancy of the new housing.
Our aspiration is to achieve an estate whose configuration, and for schools whose capacity can be adjusted in response to changes in policy, both national and local and to local changes in 'demand'. Authorities also have to balance this with the fulfilment of their statutory duties to maintain a sufficiency of accommodation and secure the efficient provision of school education whilst taking into account the needs and wishes of people and communities. Improvement in the projection of school rolls is needed, as well as better 'indicators' of capacity, occupancy and the relationship between supply and demand in order to facilitate this. Formulaic measurement of what constitutes 'sufficiency' in any given locality is perhaps the most challenging measure of all, because so many factors will bear on that judgement or decision.
The vision and aspirations should and will inform decisions taken regarding the strategic planning of the future school estate. The nine general principles and objectives set out in the next section will guide how each school is planned, designed, built and ultimately used and enjoyed.
"Our vision is for schools which signal the high value we place on learning; which people and communities can enjoy using and can be proud; which are well designed, maintained and managed and which encourage continuous engagement with learning; which are far more than just 'educational establishments' whose quality of environment supports an accessible range of services and opportunities and which enrich the communities they serve and the lives of learners and families."
Aspirations for the school estate
Our aspirations for the school estate expand on the statement of vision and spell out what we - local and Scottish Government and local authorities - want to achieve together, namely that:
All children and young people will be educated in, and community users able use, schools that are 'fit for purpose' in terms of condition, suitability and sufficiency as defined overleaf;
Schools are well-designed, accessible, inclusive learning environments that inspire and drive new thinking and change and which support the delivery of high quality educational experiences through Curriculum for Excellence;
Schools are integral parts of the communities they serve, with pupils making use of community facilities and communities accessing school facilities;
Schools accommodate and provide a range of services, activities and facilities that make a difference to people's health and well being, to sustaining economic growth and to the strength and vibrancy of communities;
A sustainable school estate whose design, construction and operation is environmentally and energy efficient; contributes directly to delivering the year-on-year reductions in greenhouse gas emissions introduced by the Climate Change (Scotland) Act, which is resilient to the impact of climate change and which leads by example in matters of environmental performance;
A school estate that is efficiently run and maximises value for money;
A school estate which is flexible and responsive - both to changes in demand for school places and to learners' and teachers' requirements and wishes, and where the beneficial impact of change is maximised by thorough consultation and engagement with users and stakeholders.
condition - no-one would endorse an aspiration that referred to fewer than all schools if that consigned some tens of thousands of pupils and other users to learning in 'poor' or 'bad' condition schools (condition categories C and D; the measures of which are set out in the detailed 'condition' guidance 18). That said, even when the continuing school improvement programme has reached a point where the proportion of schools or, more importantly, the proportion of pupils being educated in such schools is down to below 10% and still falling, in reality it will never reach 0% because all buildings deteriorate, sometimes in sudden and unpredictable ways. The cycle of buildings' deterioration, repair and reconstruction is a continuous one.
Realistically, the target underpinning this aspiration must be that where there are still poor or bad condition schools there need also to be firm plans to address the situation by removing those schools from Condition C and D - either by repair or refurbishment, or by replacement. The critical equation is that the proportion of pupils educated in condition A and B schools + the plans for tackling condition the C and D schools in which the balance of pupils are being educated must = 100%. The target is that the proportion of pupils within the first two categories (A and of schools should well exceed 90%. Reaching that point by any given date will be dependent as much if not more on the decisions of future Governments and councils than it will be on the decisions of the current Scottish Government and local government partners who have jointly articulated the aspiration and target.
suitability - how the design, spaces and configuration of the school impacts on function is crucial. Ease of use and accessibility also has a direct bearing on the all-important inclusion agenda in context of authorities' 'accessibility strategies' 19 and their responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 20. The aspiration and eventual target will be to apply the same approach as has already been applied to measuring condition, to suitability - although the development of a standard, reliable and consistent 'measure' is intrinsically more challenging and at a much earlier stage. That precludes at least for now any possibility of setting a measurable target.
After much consultation, discussion and collaboration between Scottish Government and authorities, detailed guidance on the development of such a measure (again based on four categories of 'suitability' - A to D) has issued 21 and is being trialled and tested by authorities. As was the case with condition, further development work will be needed before a measure of suitability is developed to the point where it is generally accepted and understood by all, consistently applied and can take its place alongside the measure of condition to inform planning and investment decisions.
sufficiency - adjusting the pattern and supply of schools and school places in a way that better adapts to changing 'demand' is challenging but essential. Some 'room for manoeuvre' is desirable but maintaining too many surplus or underused areas is wasteful and dilutes the productive deployment of resources. Changes can be implemented in various ways - new buildings or school closures, catchment area adjustments and by altering capacity through extensions, more flexible use of space, or occasionally by temporary accommodation to cope with a short term fluctuation.
Authorities' responsibilities to prepare strategic and local development plans allow for extensive public engagement of the need for and location of new schools in the wider context of planning new residential areas, open spaces and other infrastructure. Where new housing development results in a requirement for additional school capacity, options for delivery, including the possible use of developer contributions, should be identified and the mechanisms agreed, including the phasing of additional capacity in relation to the occupancy of the new housing.
Our aspiration is to achieve an estate whose configuration, and for schools whose capacity can be adjusted in response to changes in policy, both national and local and to local changes in 'demand'. Authorities also have to balance this with the fulfilment of their statutory duties to maintain a sufficiency of accommodation and secure the efficient provision of school education whilst taking into account the needs and wishes of people and communities. Improvement in the projection of school rolls is needed, as well as better 'indicators' of capacity, occupancy and the relationship between supply and demand in order to facilitate this. Formulaic measurement of what constitutes 'sufficiency' in any given locality is perhaps the most challenging measure of all, because so many factors will bear on that judgement or decision.
The vision and aspirations should and will inform decisions taken regarding the strategic planning of the future school estate. The nine general principles and objectives set out in the next section will guide how each school is planned, designed, built and ultimately used and enjoyed.
Elected officials email addresses
Below is the email addresses for our elected members of East Dunbartonshire Council, our MSP and our MP.
Eric.gotts@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
Jim.gibbons@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
Maureen.henry@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
gil.paterson.msp@scottish.parliment.uk
swinsonj@parliment.uk
Please email them your concerns and fears over this proposal.
Eric.gotts@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
Jim.gibbons@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
Maureen.henry@eastdunbarton.gov.uk
gil.paterson.msp@scottish.parliment.uk
swinsonj@parliment.uk
Please email them your concerns and fears over this proposal.
Now on Twitter!
You can now stay in touch with the campaign to keep our kids close to home on twitter
@stjoesprimary
If you're a tweeter then make sure you're following us.
@stjoesprimary
If you're a tweeter then make sure you're following us.
Friday 11 January 2013
Jo Swinson engaging via Twitter
For anyone on twitter, @joswinson is engaging with school communities across EDC, so keep up the pressure with Jo too, to keep our campaign of keeping St Joe's in Milngavie.
I've also attached a link to example of the tweets
https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/289808557589798912
https://twitter.com/emmaharper/status/289811247245975552
I've also attached a link to example of the tweets
https://twitter.com/joswinson/status/289808557589798912
https://twitter.com/emmaharper/status/289811247245975552
Thursday 10 January 2013
Official meeting re EDC proposals at St Joseph's Jan 10th 2013
There was a great turnout for tonight's meeting in the school to discuss the future of St Joseph's school. While no officials from East Dunbartonshire Council felt able to attend councillors, representatives from the parish and diocese, the parent council and representatives from over 50 families discussed what the future holds for our children's education in Milngavie.
The view was simple we have to fight the proposed closure of our school in Milngavie and that fight has to begin in earnest now.
So what can parents, friends and parishioners do?
This first thing to be done THIS WEEK is to fill in the schools survey. If you don't have a hard copy don't wait for it to come through your door. Only a small number of households will receive a paper copy of the survey. You can fill it in online. Here's the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/edcpsip
You can read the council's notes here, if you'd like but it's the survey that's key: http://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/news/latest_news/ps_consultations_begins.aspx
Consensus from the meeting was to fill in the questionnaire indicating that it is not acceptable to close St Joseph's and merge the pupils with St Andrew's in Bearsden. That there is no proof that this would offer any educational benefit and that we have a right to have a denominational school within our distinct community and our community is Milngavie.
As parents we'd like to see a Roman Catholic primary school in Milngavie and if that means a revised proposal on the table for a joint campus on the North Campbell Ave site then that could be acceptable.
We need to make the point that our school and its families are a vital part of the wider Milngavie community and that's where our children should be educated.
It is up to each parent to decide what they want to say about other proposals for elsewhere in the area.
Once you've filled in the questionnaire start lobbying your councillors they are the elected officials and they are the one who will make any final decisions. Write emails and letters and get your friends and children to do the same. Also write to our MP and MSPs.
It's time to make our dissatisfaction with this process and the proposals very clear.
Lastly make everyone in Milngavie aware of what we are doing and why. Join the protests and campaign any way you can. Like our Facebook page and keep an eye on it to stay up to date with activity. Also subscribe to this blog to keep in touch with what's going on....
The view was simple we have to fight the proposed closure of our school in Milngavie and that fight has to begin in earnest now.
So what can parents, friends and parishioners do?
This first thing to be done THIS WEEK is to fill in the schools survey. If you don't have a hard copy don't wait for it to come through your door. Only a small number of households will receive a paper copy of the survey. You can fill it in online. Here's the link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/edcpsip
You can read the council's notes here, if you'd like but it's the survey that's key: http://www.eastdunbarton.gov.uk/news/latest_news/ps_consultations_begins.aspx
Consensus from the meeting was to fill in the questionnaire indicating that it is not acceptable to close St Joseph's and merge the pupils with St Andrew's in Bearsden. That there is no proof that this would offer any educational benefit and that we have a right to have a denominational school within our distinct community and our community is Milngavie.
As parents we'd like to see a Roman Catholic primary school in Milngavie and if that means a revised proposal on the table for a joint campus on the North Campbell Ave site then that could be acceptable.
We need to make the point that our school and its families are a vital part of the wider Milngavie community and that's where our children should be educated.
It is up to each parent to decide what they want to say about other proposals for elsewhere in the area.
Once you've filled in the questionnaire start lobbying your councillors they are the elected officials and they are the one who will make any final decisions. Write emails and letters and get your friends and children to do the same. Also write to our MP and MSPs.
It's time to make our dissatisfaction with this process and the proposals very clear.
Lastly make everyone in Milngavie aware of what we are doing and why. Join the protests and campaign any way you can. Like our Facebook page and keep an eye on it to stay up to date with activity. Also subscribe to this blog to keep in touch with what's going on....
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