Moving forward
This will be the last post on the Fighting for Fort website, and we would like to thank everyone who has been involved in the campaign over the last six months – parents, local people, staff and councillors. Our campaign has been praised by officials at all levels, and we couldn’t have done it without all of you.
Over the next six months the Parent Council will be continuing to work with Trinity Parent Council and staff at both schools to ensure a smooth transition for our children. We also hope to co-ordinate a final project to celebrate Fort Primary School.
Thank you.
We Lost
As we suspected, the decision was made entirely along political lines. It was disappointing that the individual voices within the administration were silenced by the majority.
Further information will be available on Friday through the school.
We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in Fighting for Fort. The community came together so strongly.
The Final Decision
Thursday 17th December, full Council meeting at the City Chambers. Here, 58 councillors will vote on the future of our school based on reports from the Council and the results of the consultation process, including the Fighting for Fort Alternative Proposal.
It is likely that the vote will not be taken until after school finishes, so we will ensure the result is posted on this website as soon as it is announced. Letters will be sent home with your children from school on Friday with further information, but at least you will know the result from here.
At this stage we have no idea which way the vote will go. We are still, as we have been all the way through the process, absolutely 50:50. Whatever the result, it will have little to do with how good Fort is as a school, or even how much money could be saved. It is almost entirely a political decision. All we can do is present our case concisely and rationally.
Final report published today
The Outcome of the Consultation Process for the Proposal to close Fort Primary School was published today on the Edinburgh Council Website. It’s 104 pages long, although it includes both sets of minutes and a summary of every letter and email sent in.
Over the weekend we will be working on our response to the document to send to councillors for Monday morning as there were a few things we disagreed with.
Officially half-way there…
The Scottish Conservatives have today spoken out in support of retaining Fort Primary School. The Greens are against all the school closures, and our Labour Councillor Gordon Munro stood with us at our deputation in September, and will do again at the full Council deputation on the 17th. These members are aware of the overcrowding that a merger with Trinity would create, and the detrimental effect this would have on our children’s education. They also see no reason to temporarily close a school at a time of population growth. This means that we now have exactly 50% of the vote in our favour.
So now we look to our SNP and Liberal Democrat councillors and urge them to see the sense in creating a centre of excellence at Fort, bringing together pre-school, primary and community learning.
Here’s the bottom line – if the Council’s proposal to close Fort and move all of the children to Trinity was acceptable then we would have accepted it. If there was sufficient space at Trinity to accommodate all of the children without having a negative effect on their education then we would not have had cause to find an alternative proposal, to challenge the Council, to Fight for Fort.
So with two weeks until our deputation and the vote by full Council there are some final preparations underway.
Fiona Hyslop demoted
Today Fiona Hyslop has been demoted over her failure to reduce class sizes by sustaining teacher numbers. She is to take over the position of former Culture Minister Michael Russell, who will step up to the Education post. We have emailed him to congratulate him on his proposal and to see if his appointment will have any effect on the current proposals.
Read the BBC News article here.
Lunch in classrooms and PE in the corridors? Signs of overcrowding? We certainly think so! Edinburgh may have over 8000 “spare” places but it also has one of the highest average class sizes in Scotland – second only to Glasgow. The solution? Redistribute pupil numbers across the school estate so all pupils have a better staff ratio and therefore a better education. The Council has to stop being so wishy-washy on class sizes and out-of-catchment placements. They have a responsibility to allocate school places in a way which benefits everyone, and makes financial sense.
Full article in today’s Evening News
Well, it’s only taken them two months, but they’ve finally got there. The minutes from the two public meetings at Fort and Trinity Primary Schools have been published on the Council’s website. We are currently checking them for accuracy and omissions and will report back on this site when we are finished.
“Half-empty” schools in the news again
The Evening News is reporting today on the number of schools in Edinburgh at or below half full. Fort is mentioned as being one of the schools with the highest “cost per pupil” in the city. Of particular interest in this article, at least on the online version, are the readers’ comments which largely suggest that the Council is responsible for the mix of empty and overcrowded schools in the city by failing to promote the less popular schools while accepting out of catchment placing requests for the more popular ones. Parental choice is important, but too many parents are just following the herd without even visiting their local catchment schools.
Parents also want to choose a school with high attainment, but it must be remembered that attainment figures are an average and that a smaller school allows a much more individual education, meaning children attain and achieve at their own pace with an increased level of one-to-one attention from the teacher, regardless of their individual needs and ability.
