New school website

The new Stockbridge primary school website is now online. See the Links section or click here.

School closure plan officially ditched

A 15 minute meeting yesterday saw the council's school closure plans ditched. Read about it here.

Campaigning at Stockbridge Village Fair

Stockbridge Village fair was brilliant this year. A beautiful day, in contrast to last year, saw hundreds of Stockbridge residents enjoy the stalls, the music, the food and the beer. Campaigners were out in force and hundreds of signatures were collected. Here are a couple of pictures. In the first we can see the fantastic new banners and logo designed to highlight the campaign. In the second two campaigners try to persuade a bald man (me) that he's been in the sun to long.

Emergency meeting called for next Saturday

Labour and Green councillors have demanded an emergency meeting next Saturday to discuss the U-turn by the Liberal Democrat-SNP administration over the planned school closures. Read about it here.

The council regroups

Read about it here.

Please remember the Stockbridge Village Fair taking place tomorrow from 10:30 until 5:00. The weather forecast is good and it should be a great day out. Stockbridge school will be well represented with a stall being manned all day and the P7 choir due to perform at 2:00. If anyone can spare a little time to help out with leafletting, collecting signatures etc then just call at the stall.

Pupils quit threatened schools

This is one of the saddest aspects of this whole sorry and badly handled episode.

And now the fallout

SNP told to find cash to keep city schools open. Read more here and here. Not sure how Lib-Dem councillors can order SNP coucillors to do anything but there you go.

More worrying is this report regarding budget cuts headteachers are facing.

Stockbridge Village Fair

This Saturday (September 8th) will see the second Stockbridge Village Fair taking place at Edinburgh Academicals Rugby Ground in Portgower Place. Stockbridge parents will be running an information stall and collecting signatures in support of the school and the Stockbridge Primary school P7 choir will be performing at 2.00. This is a great opportunity to show just how much this school means to our community and a strong turnout would send that message out loud and clear. Information leaflets can be downloaded from the Save Stockbridge School website so everybody should visit it and look at the forums for updates on what is being planned.

The pressure tells

SNP councillors have withdrawn their support for the schools closure program. This is fantastic news for all the threatened schools. You can read all about it here and here.

Save Craigentinny website

The website for the Save Craigentinny campaign can be found here. I'll create a permanent link in Links section also.

Stockbridge parents campaign at Edinburgh Mela

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the campaign to save Stockbridge school was taken to the Edinburgh Mela. Camapigners encountered universal support for the campaign and many signatures were collected for the petition.

The cracks are beginning to show

SNP councillors are set to rebel against Edinburgh's school closure plans in a move to send the controversial scheme "back to the drawing board". Read more here

New petition to the Scottish Parliament

The Scottish parliament has finally put the e-petition online. The wording is as follows;

Petition by Scott Reed calling on the Scottish Parliament, in light of the proposal to close Drummond Community High School in Edinburgh, to urge Scottish Ministers not to grant consent to school closure proposals where the school role exceeds 80% of the school?s capacity. The petitioner said;

"I'd like to have included all schools but unfortunately the petitions clerk said it had to be an issue over which the parliament has some power. The parliament has the final say on schools with an occupancy above 80%, therefore this is the line which was taken."

The petition can be signed here

Pupils protest takes to streets

Hundreds of protesting children downed pens and walked out of primary classes on Friday morning. More here

Teachers to be given black mark for talking

Teachers may face disciplinary action if they speak out openly against plans to close their schools. More here

Parents put PM in the picture

Yes, I know education is a devolved matter, but if one parent is moved to join the campaign to save their local school as a result of reading this article then it has been worthwhile.