My support to the parents and willing to take part in demonstration, though I don't live the areas that are poised to close the schools.

Council is over-reacting my closing them rather than tackling the TRUANCY.

Call on everyone for support including Midlothian and other areas. Happy to help.

Please go to www.stopedinburghschoolclosures.info - a new website which gives Edinburgh parents who are campaigning to save their schools background information plus suggestions. It has been set up by Parents in Partnership, the only citywide parent representation body. Campaigners can post information on the website about their campaigns, to get as much support from parents and families across the city. Everyone is outraged about the proposed closures - but we need to share information as widely as possible in order to support one another. Tina Woolnough, Chair, Parents in Partnership (tina@kristina.org.uk).

Education, Education, Education!

Good job Tina, why don't you setup a forward link on the website to get more responses by email.

I have heard that when the council state the occupancy of a school, it is the percentage within the catchment area only and doesn't include those outwith.

That's one way to quote misleading figures and look as though a school is not 100% full!

Remember these proposals started life under the previous Labour administration not the current LibDem/SNP one. Looking at the proposals some of them are very sensible. We need to keep pace with the times. You can't expect to have a school on your doorstep. If parents sent their children to the local school rather than one they preferred then they may not be in this situation. Parents have brought some of the closures on themselves.

just axe all the politically motivated expenditure; trams, meadowbank, PPP/PFI etc (look into it - the list is endless) and the budget problem is gone - and get rid of that stupid statue!

The Lib/SNP Council needs to listen to parents.

What is the justifications for closing successful schools like Stockbridge?

#9 they won`t be shutting Stockbridge. About 6 or so on list won`t be at risk, but it helps council to let those shcools, nurseries, community centres believe they have won and thus council "listened" to them and ha ha vote for them next time.

There are obviously serious questions that need to be asked of the councils proposals and not all the proposed closures seem to make sense. However I do agree with the idea of closing schools which have a majority of pupils from outwith their catchment area. Why not use money generated by the proposed rationalisation to invest in all schools to improve teaching and raise the aspirations of all pupils rather than create elitist institutions in well to do areas?

Panic closures to sell off land. That's all this is. And because all other schools have spaces, its easier to fill them up from those marked for closure! Then it's off to the developers and the public can go to heck!

Frankly, I think Labour were heading for a similar route before they got turfed out.

So much for the "public good"!

Why do the Council thinks the citizens of Edinburgh are thick...

In Craigmillar they demolished Peffermill as it did not have enough pupils. Where did they build the new school?...150yards across the road. They intend to close another 3 schools in the area and build a new one in Niddrie at £30million. The developers must be giving out plenty envelopes!
Stop the building and save £30 million AND the rest of the closures. The same thing is happening in Pennywell. Cut the overpaid executive in Waverley Court.

£150M on a tram system, and 20 school closures because we can't find £10M. Well done the green party, you certainly got your priorities right there.

Don't worry, people...I'm sure all the kids who can no longer get an education will be given jobs on the wonderful £1BN white elephant tram network in the future.

Either that or, lacking an education, they will be elected to high office in the Cooncil.

Yes, public money needs to be well spent and operating schools which are only 50% full is wasteful....but why close schools that are operating at 90% or 95% capacity?

Sorry....tram "network" should have been in "inverted commas"....since it ain't a "network" at all, but a line.

The Council had a choice. They chose to prioritise a tram which will increase congestion and cost an absolute fortune rather than other services.

This effort to cut costs and sell off assets is just the start. Wait until TIE reveal how much the tram is actually going to cost.

17. Colin G
Anyone remember that Simsons episode about the monorail? Springfield reminds me of Edinburgh, only they've got homer and we've got the liberal democrats.

There is a very simple solution to this problem, every family who wants their child to attend a school that is going to be closed pays a surcharge on their council tax, say £500 per child per year, the schools get the money and parents get to send their children to a half empty school. Problem solved.

#19 -

And what about those who send their kids to over-populated schools? Are they getting a rebate?

You can read the council report in full here
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/
but be warned it tells you nothing about where all this so called saved money will go.

It seems that this is the only way to recoup the huge overspend by the previous administration. Closing schools is not, I would have thought , a realistic option. Forget the trams and start thinking objectivly.

22. Biker
You're right, let's just forget about the £120M the trams will cost, forget about the amount squandered on junkets and town-twinning, forget about the tax-raising powers of the national executive, forget about the money squandered on alcoholics and junkies, forget about the astronomical amount payed to Thames water to f*ck up our sewerage system.
Hell, the only way to recoup the money is to close down our kids schools. Let's sell off the allotments too... and you don't really need fire stations if you're not planning on having a fire. Hospitals cost a lot too. We could keep all the money and spend it on chocolate and fizzy drinks...

Fair point #20, perhaps they should get a refund, but unfortunately the city cannot afford to give them a refund, maybe they should send their children to a half empty school instead, as long as they don't mind paying extra for the privilege.

#22 The city voted at the last election to keep the tramLINE. Would it not be anti democratic to cancel the project now? According to tot he protramLINE lobby the majority want a tramLINE.

Show your opposition to these proposals by joining the folk against nursery closures tomorrow at 1pm outside the City Chambers on The Royal Mile and for all the proposed cuts at 9.30am on Thursday morning, City Chambers too

I was surprised to read the news on Friday and I was shocked to see that Rev Ewan Aitken was planning to get involved and help parents plan meetings etc, surely we need to keep in mind that it was the labour administration that has got the council and Children & Fmailies Dept into this total mess! These Labour councillors should now hange their heads in shame that they allowed huge overspends to happen and now the new administration is having to bear the brunt of the flack. I hope that these schools are saved or another solution is found but for goodness sake lets not let the Labour councillors use their mess as a stick to beat the new adminstraiton with and keep them at arms length from any pressure groups that are set up!

24. The Judge
We could pay parents £5000 a year to keep their children away from school altogether.
Parents could then hire out their kids to Thames Water, and they could sit at the side of the open sewer pipe scooping turds out of the water with fishing nets... it's hard to argue with that economic logic.

#24 The Judge

"The city voted at the last election to keep the tramLINE. Would it not be anti democratic to cancel the project now? According to tot he protramLINE lobby the majority want a tramLINE."

Hmmmm....think I may have spotted a teeny flaw in your logic. I think the populace also voted to retain a school education system in the elections. I dont' remember any of the parties standing on a "let's close down schools" ticket. In fact, they all emphasised their commitment to education throughout the campaign. Is it not something of an about face - or even undemocratic - to then turn around and start closing schools a short time after the elections?

Didn't i read in the evening news last week that the council want to waste money counting the city's cyclists??
They should keep the schools open and get off their backsides and count the cyclists themselves!

Wedy Alexander was boasting last week end about how L----r in her area had buily 20 odd new schools!
left hand right hand with an enormous funding gap- yes welcome to knowledge politics at yoyr kids expense

These closures will not go ahead. It is the Lib Dems who want these closures. I have a friend who is a party member, and Lib Dem pressure is behind this report. A large number of SNP Councillors have indicated that they will not support closures, and Steve Cardownie made his position plain before the election.

Labour moaners can complain all they like, Fiona Hyslop will stop the Lib/Lab closures and save our schools. Meadowbank has been saved by the SNP, and so will these schools.

Must agree with (7)Nort, if everyone sent there children to there local school then we might not be sitting with all this Fiasco.

In my area which is the east our school is up and threatened with closure and there is 40% in our area where parents have sent there children to schools out of the catchment area.

We don't stand to just loose our school. our community center is up for closing as well so if we loose both our community will become a ghost town.

One stupid parent who sends her child to another school down the road said to another mother, i wont fight for the school but i will fight for the community center, yes and we all know the reason for this, that's right she gets a very good child minding service during the summer holidays while she goes away and works in her wee cafe.

Obviously when schools are threatened with closure it should not matter what school you send your school to, every parent should stand United.

You know this, they put the Toll charges to the public vote, they lost as the people of Edinburgh did not want that, they then tried the stock transfer they lost. perhaps it is now time for the Council regardless of which ever party holds the lead.

PAY ATTENTION WE SHALL NOT LET YOU CLOSE OUR SCHOOLS :

According the the General Registers of Scotland,
there are expected to be 2400 more children aged 0-15 in Edinburgh in 2024 than there are now (see table 2 of
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-an...
).

As immigration has increased, estimates of Scotland's future population have been increasing over the past few years (see Figure 6 of:
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/publications-an...
).

I think it would be rational to wait until we know more about how much imigration there is likely to be and how many migrants are likely to settle before thinking about school closures.

In the long term I would have thought it might be cheaper to keep open a "half empty" school than close it now and then have to build or extend a school in 10-15 year's time.

Ican't stop laughing at the SNP supporter trying to run away from this decision. The SNP can walk away from the coalition anytime it wants - but they won't because Steve Cardownie et al want the money. Perhaps the SNp Minister Fiona Hyslop will intervene? strange seems silent from the SNP - where's Alex Salmond on this one? silence from the man who has put out a press release every day so far!

Close all the schools give the money to the police.
to catch the brats.

Q: Where will this money go?

A: The money is to be reinvested within the Children and Families department. That will include improving and extending schools that will have to take on more children. There are also plans to rebuild or refurbish five schools - Portobello High, Boroughmuir High, James Gillespie's High, St John's Primary, and St Crispin's Special School - and the council has written to Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop requesting money.

Has anyone got any idea why Victoria Park Children and Families unit is to close. Is it so the listed building and grounds can be sold off.. Hmm

Scotsman Publications!!

Will you be preparing a petition to Parliment for all your readers to voice their opinion to the seemingly inactive SNP - Will you help?

Is there any subject that the blessed Tina is NOT an expert on?

She is clearly gifted in Education Policy, Local Government Finance, Statistical Analysis (with a specialism in population figures), Planning Law and, of course, Politics.

It is a pity she didn't get elected. Then she would have undertaken a practical course in understanding that when difficult decisions have to be taken, it's just not enough to stand on the sidelines criticising others.

Too many empty places in schools = taxpayers paying more than they need = inefficiency = closure. If the Council doesn't close the equivalent number of schools to match the empty seats, the members who oppose the closures should be surcharged for the wasted money.

You could also start an analysis of why it costs the taxpayer almost as much to educate a child in a state school as it costs parents to choose the independent sector - where the facilities are better and the results better. But that's probably too hard a concept for the lefties to understand.

GB

I am on the parent council at St Cuthberts in Edinburgh and we are having our first emergency council meeting tomorrow.

I expect we will be having a public meeting very shortly. However any parent of the school is entitled to attend tomorrow's meeting which will held in the staff room at 4.00.

We are all devastated at the news and will be fighting to keep our fantastic wee school.

#38, too much time on her hands, methinks.

If I had my way, parents would pay extra tax if they want to pick and choose what school their offspring goes to, I don't want all this extra expense.

#40, exactly right.

No child should be educated for free outside the catchment area of their local school if a place is available at that school. I wonder how many of these campaigners would be so keen if they had to pay so that their kids could attend a school of their choosing?
Are they really so selfish that they expect other people to pay for these ridiculous demands?
Do they really not care that the vehicle emissions from transporting their children half way across the city and back each day are slowly poisoning their children, themselves and others?

#27 We could pay parents £5000 a year to keep their children away from school altogether.

We're already doing that, its called child benefit and lots of parents collect it without their children attending school. Maybe we've got it all wrong and the benefit should only be paid if their children attend school.

We might save a few quid for those that choose not to send their children to school, or those that go straight into work at 16. For the parents that do keep their children in school after 16 perhaps some school attendances would be higher and maybe less schools would have to close.

It appears to me less and less children make it to their 6th year and more drop out before they should. How many 16-18year olds are out of school and out of work? If those children where in school how many schools would have to close.

From the list of schools sheduled for closure there are two obvious targets that could be saved with more 5th & 6th year pupils.

#28 You don't expect politicos to tell the truth do you?

Some investment in education! We may have more teachers being trained, but we don't have enough schools for them to be placed in. Numbers of children may be dropping on the school role, but this sounds like a benefit to the education of our children, ensuring that they get smaller classes and more teaching attention. The school closures means that some teaching and support staff will be made redundant. School budgets will also be slashed. And what will become of the empty buildings and land? Sold off to private development companies to build luxury flats I shouldn't wonder.

#40 and 41
For your information, while there may be students from out of catchment in the schools, in some cases it can be justified. For example, the Stockbridge catchment means that someone on the other side of the bridge is not in catchment, although it is the closer (and safer!!) school for them to attend. In addition, most of the parents both in and out of the catchment walk to school. Very few have to drive as they are close enough to walk. Unfortunately, if closure of Stockbridge goes ahead, you may well find more cars on the road as many parents will not expect their children to walk over 1 mile to get to school in the wonderful weather we can expect in the winter. I'm pretty sure the council won't be providing transport for the children they are trying to displace.
The sad fact is that the reason for the closure is quite clear. Edinburgh does not care about families, only about tourists, single people and minority groups. The article states a very interesting fact... "Some sites, such as Stockbridge and Abbeyhill, would be prime land for developers."
It's all about the money, education is at the bottom of the list

The majority of PARENTS do not deserve schools, The children deserve better, more caring, sincere, morally upright, hetrosexual married Christian parents.

At the moment we have lazy parents, junkie single mother skanky parents ( some single mums put married coupples to shame though) there are absent fathers (if they ever even knew they had bred) there is no home discipline at homework time, there is no parental interest in the running of schools.

Parents have the nerve to send un-mannered over opinionated brats to school with the expectation that if they dont want to do something thats OK. The parents take the brats side when the school tries discipline.

So no the parents do not deserve those schools

#45
as a married Christian parent I must say that your opinion is not one I would expect from a Christian. I don't know what the schools are like in your area, but if they are that bad, maybe you should move!
I would like to point out that Christ dies on the cross for us because we are sinners, not because we are perfect.

46 does that mean that we can sin as much as we want??

NO we should try harder and no I am not perfect far from it yet I still know right from wrong.

http://www.wido.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Content&p...

Above is the result of BAD PARENTING!!!!

http://www.wido.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Content&p...

as is this

http://www.wido.co.uk/html/modules.php?name=Content&p...

as is this!!!

You lot live in your comfy houses and know little of the real Scotland the Scotland that is run by drugs, debt prostitution and debouchery.

Until children are brought up properly this will continue to get worse

Questions

In any of those clips do you see a child that coul dnot do with some serious help?

These events are getting worse .......... are you happy about that ??

It is time PARENTS WERE HELD 100% responsible for the actions of their offspring.

Until that day those parent sdo not deserve schools.

Th ebest way to educate a child is either at home school or by private education. in both cases the parent is doing the best they can in th eformer case by example and the latter by qualified educated delegation or responsibility

oh and concerned mum (Christian) you sadi if the schools were like that in my area I should move ........... is that WJWD ? move away from a problem ........... move away from were parents were abusing their children by not guiding them ???? I would love to hear your answer

53. The Fly Fifer,
Pretty shocking stuff... but what's your solution?

To the fly Fifer
No, Jesus would not move away, no it does not mean we can and should sin as much as we want. The sad fact is that society allows some people to get away with things that are unacceptable, and beyond belief by most if us. Tarring everyone with the same brush is not the way to get around this. Unfortunately, private education is not an option, except for the more privileged. The rest of us must make the use of what we pay for through council tax and income tax. In addition, Edinburgh can hardly be considered not part of real Scotland. Drugs prostitution and debauchery are a part of life in this city, it is up to us to try to change it.

# 13 Toby

Toby they did not knock down peffermill primary. It was set on fire and had to be demolished for saftey reasons. The new school they built is a lot better than the old one, my daughter went to it.

# The fly fifer

I'm a single mum with a child that is well behaved, does not skip school and wants to stay on till 6th year to get good grades and hands in homework on time. please dont tar all single parents. she also knows right from wrong, and that if i got a call from school about her behaviour she would be in trouble.

Does anyone know how to set up an online petition?
I think the House of commons does them?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/actionnetwork/G?action=new&n...

Does this make you think of the new tram system?
The Simpsons "Monorail!"

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-48760376123062...

Neccesary closure of schools is understandble but the choices made by the council are a disgrace. For example Wester Hailes Education Centre is a brilliant school one which makes up for its lack in pupils through adult education. What is the point in closing this school to save money when the proposel clearly states the comunity centre will remain open therefore still costing the council money. There are too many rare and needed facilities in this school for the council to even think about closing it down. for instance the young mothers unit which WHEC provides is extremely unlikely to appear anywhere else. The council is therefore only leaving themselves with more teenage dropouts. Wester Hailes should not have even been considered for closure and to actually do so would be madness.

The SNP group on the Council have been very quiet on this. They could do themselves some good by opposing the plans but will they ?

Let's see which way they vote on Thursday. That'll tell us a lot about their intentions for the next 4 years.

I would assume if Stockbridge's kids are transferred to flora Stevenson's the racist bullying there will get worse.

Mmmm this must be part of the councils policy on social inclusion, toughen them up!!!

60. Benthehoose

"Shut down facilities that are not needed anymore ans concentrate the staff to other schools to give a better education to our bairns"

That would be ok if that were true of all the schools they were shutting down because its definitely not true of Stockbridge.

7. NorT

That argument does not fit Stockbridge:

Over 89% full.

All the labour party trolls on here trying to tar the SNP with this decision (and that of the trams) should think before they spout off their gibberish; the trams and this decision to close schools came about due to lib dem/labour/tory policies. Show me one quote where that idiot Aitken denies that, had labour won the council electios, labour would not have began closing schools. And, the SNP did NOT vote for the trams; that was the unionists who did that. All of you should hang your heads in shame; Edinburgh will not forget the lib dems/labour/tories for their political manouverings...

63; spot on.

Fly Fifer

I was horrified at your initial outburst but you make a very good point, if we don't like the education system then Home Educate!

I don't agree with the school closures, I certainly think the trams are a waste of money, but I think parents need to consider carefully their childrens education and not view school as free childcare so that they may carry on working as if they never had children.

Each child is an individual, I have one at the local secondary (planning to stay on to S6), one at Watsons and one at home being home schooled. These choices were made as the best ones for each child not convenience of location or social kudos of attendance at a particular school. Had I been asked to pay a fee to send one of them to an out of catchment school as it was the best option I would have done it gladly.

#68

Presumably the SNP group on the council will make their views clear at some stage ?

The silence so far has been deafening !

Don't care what they did or didn't do on trams, are they prepared to support the Lib Dems right wing agenda ? They are coalition partners after all !

On the catchment of schools my Daughters who attend Drummond which is their catchment area for
parts of Easter Road, But their cousins who are situated at Wakefield near the Kings Road (Porty)catchment is Leith Academy we are 2minutes from Leith Academy this closure is all to do with money and maximising the land potential i.e Stockbridge,Abbeyhill, Broughton,Drummond are in areas that substantial land value are returned ever since this PPI &PFI more of our assets are being sold to developers this is where the problem is can you imagine the scenario developers in discussions with the Council to determine where the best sites to build on you can make up the rest

Closing schools 'for educational reasons' would suggest these schools are failing their HMI inspections, but are they? The reasons thus are clearly financial. Have the Council thought through the spiralling cost of the predictable increase in social and economic deprivation and crime in these areas when local schools are closed? Perhaps it would be good idea to harness Edinburgh's creativity by asking what alternitives there are to addressing the falling school roll and the Council's shortfall? Perhaps the shortfall is not entirely the result of the falling school roll. Perhaps schools could be used for other community work and for adult education and outreach centres? Or perhaps Edinburgh should promote itself more aggressively as a child-friendly city, to attract more children into its schools? Just some thoughts.