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.

Roll above threshold at third of threatened schools

From tonights Evening News

Wednesday night's meeting

The meeting last night was well attended with around 150 parents and teachers present. Also there were Councillor Lesley Hinds (Inverleith ward) and Malcolm Chisholm MSP (Edinburgh North & Leith) who both pledged their support for the campaign. A lively discussion regarding the campaign ensued with a many positive suggestions as to the best way forward. There was also an opportunity for parents to sign up to help the campaign. Any parent that wishes to get involved can contact me through the blog and I'll pass on their interest.

'Stop The Council Cuts' website up and running

Here

Drummond School petition

Sign the Drummond School petition here

Chancellor attacks 'hash' made of school closures

This from today's Scotsman newspaper

We'll back you....until it's time to vote

From tonight's Edinburgh Evening News

We'll back you...

Stop Edinburgh School Closures website

An excellent website has been set up here

Please visit it regularly. It is full of useful information and links. It was set up by Parents in Partnership

The Background

On 17th August 2007, The Scotsman newspaper revealed the City of Edinburgh's proposals to close 13 primary schools, 3 secondary schools, 6 nurseries and 4 community schools in Edinburgh. One of the primary schools earmarked for closure is Stockbridge Primary School. The council's "Children and Families Propert Review report" can be viewed here.

http://tinyurl.com/2toy5p

Stockbridge primary school is a non-denominational co-educational, Local Authority Primary School for children between four and a half and 12 years of age. It is housed in a Victorian building on three floors and an annexe which accomodates the nursery. It is a very popular school and is operating at almost full capacity.

That's a photo at the top of the page. Nice isn't it. We certainly think so and we don't think it should close.

Stockbridge Primary school is a good school. Parents like sending their children there, teachers like teaching there and, most of all, the children like being taught there. It is right at the heart of our community and it should not close.