East Dunbartonshire Schools closures/consultation

The Scottish Socialist Party in East Dunbartonshire welcomes the protests against school closures and the extremely flawed consultation process in East Dunbartonshire and offers it’s help in this important grassroots reaction to the policies of Westminster that are impacting negatively on our local community.

The reduced budget sent north by Danny Alexander, Jo Swinson, George Osborne, Clegg and Cameron et al, is now effecting the future of our children (in the face of increased and much higher amount of revenue sent south).  Policy in Scotland, of not just the Scottish Socialist Party, but the SNP and Greens, has been to reduce class sizes and increase the ratio of adults to children.  The reduction of budgets has meant that the Westminster and local councils are at times quoting spurious research that goes against all that the monied class believe, ie, that small classes make no difference.

Cameron and his pals, pay large amounts of their accrued millions for the education of their children in order to ensure their children’s time spent with the teacher is maximised. 

In private schools, class sizes are as low as 8. 

It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that the amount of time a teacher can spend on children’s personal education is vastly different from a child thrown into new of the huge superschools. State schooling is being reduced to “controlling behaviour” with overcrowding the norm as soon as the new “minimum standard” superschool is opened.  It is a disgrace that the Liberal Democrats and Tories are telling working class/middle class families that their child deserves to be almost chained to a desk in the cramped conditions 32 in a class with one adult overseeing, creates.  Huge, impersonalised schools go against the spirit of the New Curriculum for Excellence – a curriculum designed to help give a child a love of learning, a freedom to explore and child centred/led education.

The present East Dunbartonshire Council, a coalition between vicious, uncaring Tories and New Labourites who have damned us to the thievery of PFI/PPP (which is ensuring our council is paying a huge chunk of your hard earned taxes, on an annual increasing basis, to private profiteers) have been determined to make our parents and children pay ever since the Save Our Schools campaign – a cross constituency united campaign – won their case within a week just over two years ago.  We knew this would come back sometime mid-term in the Council’s life.

The Scottish Socialist Party realise that the demographics of communities change, but at the same time, if that demographic has changed in such a way that ensures class sizes are not more than twenty, then the local schools and children benefitting from this change should be seen as the model for the future.  Not herding children across the constituency to be lost in schools of thousands of their peers.  The Tories, New Labour, and the Liberal Democrats seem to think we should always drive to the bottom, and this has become clear on the English NHS, pensions, welfare and painfully in England, education.

Twenty in a class is plenty – more than plenty. 

Twenty in a class ensures an average of 75 minutes a week of a teacher’s time is spent with your child.  The present 32 in a class means 46 minutes on average (compare this with the private school average of 187 minutes a week – over three hours – are we really “all in this together?”).

Large class sizes are detrimental to our children – and school closures rather than reinvestment in some of the smaller country and urban community schools, ensure our children struggle and have an unhappy school life isolated from their community. Current practise in replacing smaller schools with super-schools impair implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence, so disadvantaging our children. The marketisation of Education has disadvantaged many low and middle income families.

Research on lower Primary Years (P1-3) gives us much more to think of (while being told that because of our tax money being frittered on Bankers debts we must tighten our belts):

http://www.classsizeresearch.org.uk/results1.html (Department of Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.)

We were heartened to see the schools campaigners on the streets this weekend, the same weekend the YES Scotland campaign were campaigning for a fairer Scotland.  In an independent fairer Scotland, our children’s future would be placed above the profits of the PPP/PFI companies and budgets would be decided by people closer to where they impact. 

We urge all parents and those concerned with education to unite and fight the Tory/New Labour coalition in East Dunbartonshire Council as it places paying the increasing PPP/PFI bill above the future of our children.  Budgets should ensure maximised child/teacher time and space for children to learn.

To sum up - considerations for East Dunbartonshire Council and it’s current Education policy:

• The rising population in the country, and indeed the rising birthrate in East Dunbartonshire.

• The impact of closures on Class size. The need for larger classrooms, more “schooling space” – ie. indoors and outdoors and smaller class sizes.

• The impact on special needs pupils if forced out of building.

• The impact on mainstream children’s mental health after separation from their peers and established community.

• The financial cost of refurbishment/clustering/ sharing resources rather than closure/ building schools with larger populations.

• The community cost of closure.

• The impact on parents/children regarding childcare.

• The impact on implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence.

• The impact on children’s journey to schools. Child safety – children should not have to walk/travel far to school. This also affects children’s health, and road safety as those who have cars will tend to drive them.

• The impact on education workers. The diabolical numbers of newly qualified teachers in East Dunbartonshire, and indeed across Scotland, without work. The numbers of other educational workers who will lose work due to closures.

• The impact on receiving schools ability to ensure “McCrone” can be properly operated.

• The impact of the flawed consultations and subsequent 22 closures in Glasgow has already been proven to be catastrophic.

Of course, the Scottish Socialist Party feel that the only way to bring power to communities in Scotland over their budgets that impact our schools, hospitals, pensions and welfare, is to vote YES in 2014.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS IN EAST DUNBARTONSHIRE - Public Meeting

Public Meeting

Wednesday 9th June at 7.30pm

Campsie Memorial Hall Lennoxtown (Hall opens at 7pm)

Chair:

Willie Telfer – local SSP campaigner

Speakers:

Gerry McTiernan – Lennoxtown Primary Parents Council (in a personal capacity)
Richie Venton – Glasgow Save Our Schools organiser
Charles Kennedy – Campsie independent Councillor

Unite and stop all school closures!

Demand smaller class sizes- not fewer schools – 20’s plenty in any class!
Unite and campaign for the funds from Holyrood and Westminster to invest in our schools and other community services!

Attend the meeting to hear a report of what is happening. Help set up a campaign- to make sure we are ready for the next attempt at making our children pay for the bankers bailout.

See below for reports

CAUTIOUS VICTORY TO THE SCHOOLS CAMPAIGNERS

The Labour/Tory coalition has been rattled by real people power.

After the SSP’s call for a demo outside the council chamber at tonight’s planned butchery of our children’s schools and our call for a public meeting next Wednesday (see HERE), over 150 members of the public crammed into the council chamber and overflow annexe. The outpouring of disgust at the planned school closures crossed the constituency as PTA’s, parents and independent councillors joined with us and made sure those who had planned using our children to pay for the bankers cuts knew we were not going to stand for it. The council, because of people power, kicked their own report and planned closures, temporarily, into the long grass rather than risk a split vote which could have brought down the unholy alliance of Tories and Labour.



Local SSP campaigner, Willie Telfer said, “getting so many people out in such short notice has been a victory for working class people in the East Dunbartonshire area. We will not pay for the casino money making that these millionaires have been doing with our savings and tax money. These schools are a credit and an asset to our communities and must stay open!”

He went on, “Although this is undoubtedly a temporary victory through pressure placed on the councillors by parents and parent councils, the majority who listened in the annex were left in no doubt a campaign must remain in place in order to keep vigilant as we know they will try to spring this on us again in the next 6 months- year.”


The meeting in Campsie Memorial Hall at 7.00-9.30 on Wednesday night will be going ahead in order to explain to parents and education workers what happened in the council chambers and what it means. We will also be planning a Save Our Schools campaign - making sure we are ready for the next attempt at making our children pay for the cuts.

Speakers will include SSP activist Willie Telfer; Lennoxtown Primary School parent and campaigner Gerry McTiernan; local Independent Councillor Charles Kennedy and Glasgow Save Our Schools coordinator, Richie Venton.

1/4 of Primary Schools to close in East Dunbartonshire

After the extremely flawed survey sent out to all homes in September last year, the Labour/Conservative coalition in Tom Johnston House have decided to close eight Primary Schools in East Dunbartonshire. (Our response to the "review" is HERE)

There will be a demonstration outside Tom Johnstone House, Kirkintilloch tommorrow (Thursday 2nd June) at 5.30pm to meet Councillors who have taken part in this decimation of provision to our children.

A meeting has been called in Campsie Memorial Hall (see below for directions to hall), Lennoxtown next Wednesday 9th June 7pm-9.30pm - representatives from all schools and communities effected(parents, education workers, PTA etc)are welcome. This meeting will be to help set up a Save Our Schools campaign in the area - a non-party campaign. Introducing the meeting will be local campaigner, Willie Telfer and Glasgow Save Our Schools coordinator, Richie Venton, who will be offering advice in building a campaign - and offering facilities to help with the campaign.

All issues will be discussed, including school rolls, travel etc.

Closures announced :

Twechar Primary School
Auchinairn Primary School
Baldernock Primary School
Gartconner P.S.
St Agathas P.S.
Lennoxtown P.S.
Lenzie P.S.
St Josephs P.S.

Directions to Campsie Memorial Hall (click on "view larger map" for road directions)


View Larger Map

BUILD A MASS, UNITED PUBLIC SECTOR DEMO ON 10th APRIL

Make the rich pay – bail out all public services, not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits

By Richie Venton – SSP national workplace organiser

9th March 2010

Photos: John Lanigan




Two major trade union events in the space of 48 hours demonstrate the seething anger at public sector cuts, the potential for a united resistance across the trade unions, and the potency, increasing popularity and urgent necessity of the Scottish Socialist Party’s alternatives to this assault on jobs, services and conditions.

EIS 10,000 march

On Saturday 6th March, 10,000 teachers, lecturers, nursery staff, parents, pupils and other trade unionists poured out of Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Park, snaking their way round a mammoth route to the EIS union’s rally in the SECC.

This was the first national demo called by the EIS in decades. The overwhelming majority of the marchers had never been on a demo before. The age profile was a whole cross-section, from toddlers in buggies and primary kids, through trainee and newly qualified teachers, to bearded veterans of the profession – united in their fury at education budget cuts, whilst bankers’ bailouts, renewal of Trident weapons and bloody war cost the public a fortune.

Anger at that obscene contrast was reflected in speeches by the EIS president and others at the rally. They denounced the governments of Westminster and Holyrood for regarding these expenditures as more important than the education of our children, who represent the future, and lambasted the SNP government for now confronting children with the choice of either free school meals or smaller classes, when they had promised both and children deserve both.



SSP on the march

The EIS march is part of a campaign they have entitled “Why must our children pay?”

The SSP was the only party with a leaflet that directly dealt with the issues of the march, demanding “make the rich pay – not our kids; bail out education and all services – not bankers’ profits; 20’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance.”

People snapped up the leaflets, smiled and murmured their agreement with the headlines, turned and quoted it to their friends as they assembled to march off.

The lively SSP contingent was joined by parents and children who fought the heroic Save Our Schools Campaign in Glasgow last year. As we marched we led the chant “Twenty’s plenty in any class – give our kids a chance”, which caught on with the crowd marching and bystanders on the pavements.

As the 10,000 trod towards the end of their marathon march to the SECC rally, we improvised an SSP “street meeting” on the pavement as they passed us! We belted out our message on a very loud PA system: “The SSP demands that the government tax the rich, to bail out education, not bankers’ profits and bankers’ bonuses.” Several sections of the march shouted back their agreement with us as they marched past, and even more contingents applauded us as they marched past. A sign of how profoundly the bankers’ bailout has changed people’s consciousness, including their open-ness to the SSP’s unashamed socialist demands.

The EIS leadership promised in speeches that this mass demo is just the start of the campaign, which is to be welcomed, and which EIS union activists and members will make sure is the case.

It is absolutely right that as the union representing 60,000 members in education they should take up the cudgels in defence of that service. But what would be tragic, and totally divisive and counter-productive, is if the EIS leadership argued for cuts in other services to save education; unity of opposition to all service cuts, combining the power and scale of members of all public sector unions and the communities they service is what is urgently needed to stop the slaughter.



Biggest civil service strike since 1987

It was therefore encouraging that an EIS representative (as well as speakers from the FBU, UNISON and STUC) addressed the 8th March strike rally in Glasgow, called during the 48-hour stoppage by all civil service workers, members of PCS.

This was the biggest civil service strike since 1987. Across the UK, over 250,000 workers brought services to a halt in tax and customs offices; Job Centres; driving centres; the Courts; the MoD; passport offices; the Scottish parliament (for the first time ever); Westminster … to name but some. 30,000 of these strikers were in Scotland.

They are overwhelmingly low-paid workers, whose partial compensation for low pay has been a modest average pension of £6,500 and a reasonable redundancy scheme – which is now under assault. The government has set in motion the legislation to slash the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, cutting the package that most workers would get on being made redundant by up to one-third, tens of thousands of pounds each. A sure sign that the Labour government (backed up quite openly by the Tories on this) want to slaughter tens of thousands of jobs on the cheap – in addition to the 100,000 already shed in the past 5 years – and usher in privatisation by making the prospect more attractive to the privateers.

The response to the 48-hour strike was absolutely overwhelming – forcing management to stoop to tricks like jetting in a handful of scab managers from Newcastle to open the Glasgow DVLA office.



Socialism in the civil service

Again, not only did SSP members in PCS play an instrumental part in building the strike, but our policies were more widely and eagerly embraced than for a long time: on the picket lines, at the PCS strike rallies in Glasgow and Dundee, and at the SSP public meeting in Glasgow after the union rally. This was a really large meeting, with over half those present attending their first ever SSP meeting. And strikers were enthusiastic in their support for our socialist aims – many commenting wryly that if only we could get a fair hearing in the media, imagine how popular our case would be – as well as our proposals on how to build public sector unity against all cuts in the immediate future.



Unity against the carnage - build 10th April Demo

Alongside a rolling programme of further industrial action by the PCS, railway workers are striking (Scotrail) and balloting for pre-General Election strikes (Network Rail). Numerous anti-cuts campaigns, involving council workers’ unions and communities, are campaigning against the brutal council cuts that loom. Already 5,000 council jobs face the chop, with hair-raising predictions of 32,000 jobs (one in every eight!) being butchered by 2014. And community centres face closure up and down Scotland.

So an immediate opportunity to tie all these strands of struggle into a rope to restrain the axe-wielders presents itself on Saturday 10th April. Scottish UNISON is calling a mass, national demonstration in Glasgow that day, in defence of public services.

SSP members in all the various trade unions – alongside other union members – need to move heaven and earth to make this an almighty display of the power of a united working class on the march, by calling on their unions to mobilise members into an event that dwarfs even the brilliant 10,000 on the EIS march.

As Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and SNP politicians sharpen their knives in a grisly pre-election competition for whose cuts are the deepest, the SSP in contrast will stand up for public sector workers and the communities that depend on public services.

We will build for a united march for public services – not private profit, demanding the governments tax the rich and bail out all public services - not bankers’ and billionaires’ profits.

We will campaign inside the unions for measures that would fund these services, protect and create jobs, and begin to re-distribute wealth from the millionaires to the millions.

Measures such as a 10% tax on every millionaire (to fund 80,000 new jobs in Scotland alone, on £25,000 a year for 3 years!); restoration of income tax on the rich to pre-Thatcher levels (83%) and likewise Corporation Tax on big companies, from the current paltry 28% to the 52% it was at before Thatcher and then New Labour made this country a tax haven for the tax-dodging rich.











A sea-change has begun in the outlook of workers in the frontline of public sector carnage by the parties that back big business and the profit system. Socialist measures – including full-blown public ownership of the entire banking sector, natural wealth, services and big industries, but with democratic control – are increasingly convincing to people whose future is under threat.

The time is ripe for the potential power of a united trade union movement to be mobilised – starting with 10th April – and for socialist demands to be boldly advanced amongst an increasingly receptive crowd of angry workers. The SSP will do its part, emboldened by the events of the past 48 hours.

East Dunbartonshire Council Review of Primary School, Nursery and Special Schools Estate

a response by Campsie Scottish Socialist Party



In view of the “consultation” on Schools, and taking into consideration the issues raised by the undemocratic and extremely flawed process in Glasgow (see HERE ), East Dunbartonshire Council need to take into consideration a number of points to ensure children have the best educational experience possible. Campsie Branch SSP have, with the consultation of members involved in Education, written this document.

Considerations for East Dunbartonshire Council and it’s current Education policy:

• The rising population in the country, and indeed the rising birthrate in East Dunbartonshire.

• The impact of closures on Class size. The need for larger classrooms, more “schooling space” – ie. indoors and outdoors and smaller class sizes.

• The impact on special needs pupils if forced out of building.

• The impact on mainstream children’s mental health after separation from their peers and established community.

• The financial cost of refurbishment/clustering/ sharing resources rather than closure/ building schools with larger populations.

• The community cost of closure.

• The impact on parents/children regarding childcare.

• The impact on implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence.

• The impact on children’s journey to schools. Child safety – children should not have to walk/travel far to school. This also affects children’s health, and road safety as those who have cars will tend to drive them.

• The impact on education workers. The diabolical numbers of newly qualified teachers in East Dunbartonshire, and indeed across Scotland, without work. The numbers of other educational workers who will lose work due to closures.

• The impact on receiving schools ability to ensure “McCrone” can be properly operated.

• The impact of the flawed consultations and subsequent 22 closures in Glasgow has already been proven to be catastrophic.

Dichotomy

There is at present a real dichotomy in Scotland between the new skills based practices needed and being highlighted by progressive educationalists through publication of the New Curricullum for Excellence and the older, outdated, more conservative practices and cheap class environments wanted by those who want our children to behave like profitable products. Education is a public service – a right, not a market or a business. It should be run according to the needs of the children, not on the basis of how much profit can be made.

The newly built “cost effective”, privately funded classrooms built to minimum standards do not allow movement in the way the Scottish New Curriculum for Excellence calls for. Children in large classes are more likely to spend most of their day sitting at a desk for four hours – or more - of their six hour school day. Crowd control becomes the onus of the schools staff, rather than the children’s learning experience.

The present Government are creating a three tier system – private schools for those who can afford it; and a two streamed system based on the results of outdated tests and teaching practices and financial ability to move schools. Our present strained system and the financial plundering of education, instead of challenging an unequal society, reproduces it, benefiting those pupils and students from well-off families who can push to have their children moved to more “desirable” seemingly competitive schools, and who can then drive their children to these schools far from their homes. Choice is only available to families with the least constraints on their time and finances. This fails to meet the needs of most children in Scotland, especially those from working class families, single parent families and minority ethnic groups.

Competition and Crowd Control

Children, in the present system, learn to step on each other to “win” and come first, and also learn under these cramped, and therefore necessarily regimented crowded spaces, that their opinion is “unnecessary”. In a competitive learning system, there can only be one winner - and the rest of the children are "losers". There are other ways to encourage learning/ life long learning. Schools should be encouraging discussion, debate, critical thinking and peer to peer teaching. Cramped schools, isolated from the communities they serve, do not promote this at all.

New Curricullum for Excellence

If properly implemented, The New Curriculum for Excellence allows teachers to introduce proven, up to date educational methods that raise the attainment of children across the board – ie, those of “emulation” and democratic class and school methods – and these are most effective in smaller class sizes and in classes with less groups. The Government has cut funding for schools with special needs and for children who need help beyond a traditional classroom, but at the same time justify this by calling for “integration” etc. In the competitive classroom practises advocated by successive neo-liberal administrations, this is extremely alienating for huge numbers of disadvantaged, working class children. New, “emulation techniques,” rather than encouraging detrimental competition between individuals, ensures children as well as teachers, learn to pass on skills to their peers. A competitive system creates children who think, “I did better than you… I am better than you,” whereas an emulation system creates children who think, “I know something you may not. Passing my knowledge and skills to you improve the class group/community/society.”

The New Curricullum, regardless of the method of implementation advocated by the teacher/learning establishment/ local authority is extremely difficult to implement in an atmosphere of control/ in a place with little democracy/ in a place far removed from their community and in buildings built only to the minimum specifications in order for the private building company to make the biggest possible profit. Context in education is paramount. Children need friendly, welcoming, local schools with the maximum amount of adults per child possible (20 or less per adult). School closures negate all attempts to implement the very essence of the New Curricullum - democracy in education... and the active, spacious classroom needed in order to do so. Current policy in re-builds delivers the minimum specification possible in order to ensure profits for the corporations.

Outdoor Schooling

HMIE have called for more outdoors teaching – this, for any one adult, becomes difficult with class sizes over 20. It is a dichotomy to call for one thing, but make it near to impossible to implement. Smaller class sizes, plus close-to-home local schools where parents can help out etc can ensure a better learning experience.

Further considerations:

Research on lower Primary Years (P1-3) published in 2003 gives us much more to think of (while being told that because of our tax money being frittered on Bankers debts we must tighten our belts):

http://www.classsizeresearch.org.uk/results1.html (Department of Psychology and Human Development at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.)

In the later Primary years (P4-7), large class sizes meant that, according to this research, “Pupils eligible for free school meals were found to make less progress than those not eligible in both literacy and maths during these years. These pupils were also behind in Key Stage 1 (nursery – P3), and fell still further behind during the later years. Pupils with special educational needs were found to make less progress in both maths and literacy. Girls were found to make more progress in attainment in literacy, whilst conversely boys were found to make more progress in maths.”

The research goes on to say, “Class size effects on classroom processes are not singular but multiple. As the size of the class increases, size and/or number of groups increases, and the management of groups, both in terms of size and number, becomes ever more crucial.
Perhaps the clearest effects of class size were on teaching. Pupils in smaller classes were more likely to be the focus of a teacher’s attention and experience more teaching overall in mathematics, while in larger classes pupils were more likely to be one of the crowd. Many teachers worry that in large classes they cannot meet the needs of all the children in their class.”

Large class sizes are detrimental to our children – and school closures rather than reinvestment in some of the smaller country and urban community schools, ensure our children struggle and have an unhappy school life isolated from their community. Current practise in replacing smaller schools with privately funded super-schools impair implementation of the New Curriculum for Excellence, so disadvantaging our children. The marketisation of Education has disadvantaged many low and middle income families.

read Rich Venton on "Twenty's Plenty in any class!"

Glasgow Council admit "Gaffe" over School Closures

- and the Gaffe, as well costing safe, friendly, community schools - is going to cost existing schools £2million of their valuable funding... see HERE

Goodbye, safe, friendly community based schools...

Today, the Wyndford Primary School was bulldozed to the ground.

Quite symbolic really as the Government look for further cuts...

We have paid for this crisis with OUR tax money to plug the hole left by greedy bankers. We are paying through job losses; wage freezes and low pay.

Our children are also being made to pay.

LAST DAY TO SIGN THE SCHOOLS PETITION!

Please sign, regardless of where in the world you live. This could set a precedent for other countries/cities across the world with the problem of undemocratic "consultations" on schools.

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to conduct a public investigation into the impact the proposed closures of schools and nurseries by local authorities has on education policies, class sizes, childrens health and safety, social inclusion, jobs, and whether the process of consulting with parents and wider communities on the provision of education complies with local authorities statutory duties and democratic principles.

SIGN HERE

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN PRESS RELEASE

- for immediate use (Thurs 20th Aug 2009)


SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGNERS CELEBRATE RESIGNATION OF EDUCATION CHIEF MARGARET DORAN


The Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign, which led the mass movement against school and nursery closures since January, is delighted at the resignation of Margaret Dorarn, chief education officer for the Labour council, given her central role in the closures.


Richie Venton, Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, today said:


“The resignation of Margaret Doran from her £120,000-a-year job is a victory for those of us who fought the vicious closures of primaries and nurseries that she was at the heart of.

“The parents, carers and communities of 2,000 children who have been uprooted and dumped in bigger classes, further from home, will have a very simple response to Ms Doran’s departure: ‘good riddance to bad rubbish!’.

“The statement announcing her decision talks of ‘financial challenges facing the council’. Are the thieves falling out?

“Margaret Doran was a critical player in drafting the butchery of our kids’ education and community facilities – but under orders from the Chief Axe-man himself, Labour Council leader Stephen Purcell.

“Far from hinting at any disagreement with the elected Labour politicians’ closures package, Ms Doran was a strident advocate and defender of them. But the ferocious opposition of parents, carers and communities, led by the Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign, undoubtedly caused private divisions amongst council leaders and officers on how best to cope with the public fury.

“So when Labour councillors sing hymns of praise for her ‘leaving a tremendous legacy’ for Glasgow kids’ education, it’s enough to make you vomit.

"Her ‘legacy’ includes chaos in the first week of school term, with kids packed into far bigger classes, many of them travelling dangerous and long routes, some teaching staff only hearing where they were to work a day before the new term started, and many parents facing loss of their jobs because they can’t juggle between childcare arrangements and working times.

“We celebrate the departure of one butcher of kids’ education – the unelected £120,000-a-year bureaucrat – but intend to work for the removal of the bigger butchers – the Labour councillors who rode roughshod over people’s needs and wishes.”


For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or email richieventon@hotmail.com

July updates...

The East Dunbartonshire/Campsie blog has been inactive in the past couple of weeks due to holidays. Updates will be sporadic during July, returning to full service in August. For news from the SSP and stories from a working class perspective, please access our main site - www.scottishsocialistparty.org

Below is the latest update about the courageous Wyndford Primary School occupiers (released 13 July by Save Our Schools, Glasgow), plus a message of support recieved from the protestors down in Lewisham Bridge...

WYNDFORD SCHOOL SIT-IN ENDS – BUT THE BATTLE CONTINUES

The group of courageous parents who have occupied Wyndford primary school since Friday 26th June have decided to end their sit-in, but to fight on against the injustices and education cuts by the Glasgow Labour council, more angry and determined than ever.
They left the building in tears – sad to have to leave the building to the tender mercies of the Labour council vandals, angry at what the council is inflicting on their kids and community.

Richie Venton, Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, today said:
“The decision by these fearless fighters to leave Wyndford primary came about because the Judicial Review which they had hoped for, on the flaws in the council’s sham consultation, has fallen through – despite the obscene injustices involved.
“They occupied the building to retain it as a school building, to stop the council stripping and demolishing it, whilst lawyers pursued the case of a nursery child’s mother who was never consulted over the closure of Wyndford primary, which her child was meant to go to.
“The legal challenge collapsed on the outrageous grounds that because the city council placed an advert announcing the closure in the Evening Times, that that constituted consultation. This outrage becomes even more obnoxious when it is known that the parent involved has reading difficulties!
“So much for the impartiality of the law; so much for justice for working class people, including those in most need of protection!
“The fearless fighters who staged this sit-in to defend a school from the Labour council vandals deserve the highest public praise and applause.
“And it is even more to their credit that they have pledged to fight on regardless of having to physically withdraw from the school, by helping build support for the Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign petition to the Scottish parliament on school closures and class sizes, and to continue our battle for classes of 20 or less for all kids.
“One chapter of the struggle has closed; the next one is merely opening!”
Three of those at the heart of the sit-in by a much larger group – Donna, Alison and Nikki – have this to say:

”The reason for us occupying the building has gone, so we are coming out.
“We were proven right to fear that the city council would try to strip the place and put it in the hands of a demolition firm once the school term finished. Within a day of the school year ending they sent 30 vans to uplift equipment and furniture, and the building has been handed over for demolition.
“We occupied it to stop this happening, while we tried to get the legal challenge, the Judicial Review. That has fallen through, so we are ending the sit-in.
“But the fight goes on. It is too late now for our schools, but we will go on to fight for the future.
“We know how scary it is to put our kids into bigger classes. It is ridiculous that classes are getting bigger. It is as if they have decided kids are getting a bit too well educated, so they want to take them down a peg or two.
“The education received by our kids is brilliant compared to when we, the parents, were at school. But now we are going backwards again, with bigger classes, when the government should be taking us forwards, not backwards.
“We have still got the anger – especially towards Steven Purcell and the Labour council. We hate them. We’ll be there to oppose them at every opportunity.
“And we want to thank all the people who have supported us in our fight.”

The Lewisham Bridge message of support can be found HERE

Glasgow City Council Cuts off water from Wyndford School

Campsie Branch delivered food - and 60 litres of water - to the brave Wyndford Primary School occupiers.



Glasgow City Council showed it's bullying side again today when council workers were sent in to "check out a gas leak" and then turned off the water from the part of the building the parents are occupying. The parent occupiers of Wyndford Primary School were adamant that this disgusting bullying would not put them out. One parent told a visiting Campsie SSP member, "they want to starve us out - but we are here to stay!"

Richie Venton, Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, spoke to parents inside the sit-in.

Sit-in at Wyndford Primary continues – they need your support.

Parents have occupied Wyndford primary school in Maryhill since Friday 26th June, as the doors were slammed shut by Glasgow Labour council at the end of the school year.

This audacious action has thrown the arrogant council leader, Steven Purcell, who expected all to go quiet over the summer holidays, hoping that by the time of the next council elections in 2012, everyone would have forgotten about their dirty deeds against kids and communities across the city.

The council has made no pretence of negotiations with the sit-in. They have just fired out statements that the sit-in is pointless, the school is shut, end of story.

Yet despite all their arrogant strutting, the same council has thrown sops towards the local community in the form of proposals for a new Family and Recreation Centre, based in the neighbouring school (also shut), St Gregory’s.

This is a crude attempt to buy off the anger in the community, generated by their brutal closures, which leaves the Wyndford estate a desert in terms of facilities. None of this would have happened without the ferocious battle mounted by local people, through the Save Our Schools Campaign. And it is too little, too late.

I spoke to several of the parents staging the occupation, inside the school, about their aims and feelings.

I would appeal to everyone reading their comments below to:

(a) contact them with messages of support on 0778 350 8740

(b) try to visit the sit-in at Glenfinan Drive, near Tescos in Maryhill Rd - if possible with supplies of food and water

(c) build attendance of adults and kids at the sit-in’s Water Festival, Thursday 2nd July at 1pm – in response to the council’s dirty tricks department – who today (Tuesday) cut off drinking water supplies under the disguise of checking an imaginary gas leak.

Bring the kids, bring water pistols, bring supplies.

Tell the Council that the school occupation won’t get dirty like the Glasgow Labour Council!!

WHAT THE OCCUPIERS SAY:

“We want a school in the community. We have nothing. We are waiting for a Judicial Review on the issue of nursery parents not being consulted on the closure of the primary.”

“We don’t WANT a school – we NEED a school in this community!”

“The other schools offered by the council are too far away, along dangerous routes.”

“On 23rd June the council put a proposal to make St Gregory’s primary into a Family Centre, and to turn the existing Recreation Centre into a power station for the Wyndford estate.

So if St Gregory’s is good enough for a Family Centre, it’s good enough for a school. All we are asking for is one school in the estate, we’re not even being greedy, asking to keep both St Gregory’s and Wyndford primary.”

“Family Centres can be built anywhere, so why compromise a school for it? And the Glasgow council are only offering this because right throughout the campaign we shouted that we have nothing, no facilities, from one end of Maryhill to the other.”

“Our fear is that the council want to demolish the school building – possibly to use the ground for a part of the Family and Recreation Centre. CMI, a demolition firm, has already been in twice to inspect the building, for asbestos before demolition. That’s another reason we’re holding the sit-in, to stop demolition.”

“Since we occupied the school last Friday afternoon we’ve not seen the Council. No talks or negotiations. Then today (Tuesday) they sent along a council worker pretending to be looking for a gas leak, cutting off the water to the school. And it seems it’s just the drinking water they’ve cut off. Well that won’t shift us either.

“In reply we are organising a Water Festival on Thursday (2nd July) at 1pm – a bit of fun for the kids, with paddling pools and water pistols. Our message is ‘join us – don’t let the school occupiers become as dirty as Glasgow city council!’”


“The community is still united. St Gregory’s parents have been in to help us occupy Wyndford, and they have helped stage the barricades on the gates to stop the Council getting equipment out of the building.

“On Saturday they sent in 30 vans. They loaded up with school furniture and equipment. But because parents, kids and supporters refused to budge on the gates, we forced them to unload again and have the vans inspected by us before they went away!

“On Monday they sent two vans to pick up the safe and photocopiers, but pickets on the gates appealed to them, sat down on the road, and the drivers turned away empty-handed.”

“We’re appealing for support and supplies – including food and water – from the local community and people from other areas and schools. We’ve had parents and grandparents from as far away as Barmulloch, St Gilbert’s and St Agnes schools here supporting us.”

“As Barmulloch parents we think it is great what Wyndford are doing. We are happy to help in any way we can.”

“We’re not moving until they give us a school; they can turn off whatever they want. Our message to the council is ‘you’ve shut our schools, but we’re still here, we’re still in your face’.”

Inquiry into the impact of school and nursery closures

Raised by: Richie Venton on behalf of Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign on 17 June 2009

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to conduct a public investigation into the impact the proposed closures of schools and nurseries by local authorities has on education policies, class sizes, childrens health and safety, social inclusion, jobs, and whether the process of consulting with parents and wider communities on the provision of education complies with local authorities statutory duties and democratic principles.

Sign the petition HERE

PARENTS RE-OCCUPY WYNDFORD PRIMARY IN OPPOSITION TO CLOSURE BY LABOUR COUNCIL

- Latest - Council plan to stop people geting in or out of Wyndford from 8pm! Urgently need supplies before then, and anyöne who can join the sit-in...
PRESS RELEASE … for immediate use (26th JUNE)- Latest-

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign

PARENTS RE-OCCUPY WYNDFORD PRIMARY IN OPPOSITION TO CLOSURE BY LABOUR COUNCIL



Parents at Wyndford primary school have this afternoon occupied the school in fury at its closure by Glasgow labour council.



Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, today said:



“Parents sacrificed their Easter holidays, occupying the buildings of schools facing closure. The Labour council ignored this community uprising and the mass opposition across the city to their butchery of primaries and nurseries.



“Parents who have re-occupied Wyndford primary as the council slammed the doors shut today are expressing the fury of a community at the damage done to their kids’ education – but also at the Council’s planned demolition of one of the few remaining community facilities in Wyndford.



“This school won numerous awards for high achievement, partly based on smaller class sizes. Now kids are being scattered to the four winds by the heartless Labour axe-wielders, who also hope to bulldoze the building. The parents staging the sit-in against Labour’s vandalism deserve massive public support.”



For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

Or Nikki Rathmill 07894123721



END

Sign the Scottish Government petition - what impact do these closures have?

Sign the Petition:
"Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to conduct a public investigation into the impact the proposed closures of schools and nurseries by local authorities has on education policies, class sizes, childrens health and safety, social inclusion, jobs, and whether the process of consulting with parents and wider communities on the provision of education complies with local authorities statutory duties and democratic principles."

Click on the petition below to go to the online petition:

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN CONDEMNS COUNCIL FOR CAUSING CHAOS IN FINAL WEEK OF SCHOOL TERM

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign

The Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has reacted with rage at the chaos caused to kids, carers, parents and staff in the final week of term in the 22 schools and nurseries facing permanent closure. Glasgow Labour council tried to shut the schools two days prematurely, on Wednesday 24th, and just days before this was due to happen, reversed their plan, throwing people’s lives into turmoil.

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, today said:

“The Labour council are not only butchers of our kids’ education, but obscene in their haste to bury the schools, and utterly incompetent into the bargain.

“They have been traumatising kids by sending council vans to pick up furniture, smart boards, paperwork and other equipment as the kids spend their final weeks at schools they love.

“Then they unilaterally decided to shut the schools two days earlier than everywhere else in the city, punishing parents and carers who had to disrupt work and holiday plans, forking out money to get their kids cared for at very short notice.

“Now, after our campaign raised hell about this in our meeting with the Scottish government’s Education Minister last week, the council belatedly declare on Friday 19th that they actually never had permission off the government to shut the schools on Wednesday 24th, so they will stay open until Friday 26th! So they are having to draft in supply teachers and other staff to occupy the kids for the final days of term.

“What about parents and carers who had managed to get time off work, or changed their holidays at short notice, or paid out for childcare for the final two days of the school year?

“Will they be compensated by the vindictive, incompetent axe-wielders in the Labour city council, who have treated kids, communities and school staff with utter contempt on every front over the past 6 months in their crazed rush to cut costs?

“If parents withdrew their kids from school without good reason, or chopped and changed when their kids went to school, they’d face fines. That’s the very least the Labour councillors deserve; the sack would be more appropriate punishment!”

For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN TO MEET WITH SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

A delegation of parents affected by Glasgow city council’s school closures are meeting with Scottish government Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop.

The meeting will be held in the Scottish parliament on Thursday 11th June at 4pm. We have been invited by Fiona Hyslop, after the Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign wrote requesting meetings with the Scottish government two months ago.



Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, who is part of the delegation, today said:



“We are pleased to be meeting with the Education Secretary of the Scottish government.

“We requested this meeting in April because we strongly believe the consequences of the Glasgow Labour council’s butchery of primaries and nurseries are of national significance – as well as having a devastating impact in Scotland’s biggest city.

“We have appealed throughout for the Scottish parliament and the Scottish government to shout their opposition to the closures from the rooftops.

“The closures will mean bigger classes and fewer teachers, at a time when two-thirds of newly qualified teachers cannot get permanent full-time posts.

“Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has consistently fought for class sizes to be reduced to a maximum of 20. But classes of 25, 26 and more will be commonplace after these closures.

“That flies in the face of the Scottish government’s aim of 18 in P1-3, so we will appeal to the Cabinet Secretary to unreservedly condemn the closures and to ask Glasgow city council to suspend their ill-considered, undemocratic plans.

“We will ask Fiona Hyslop to make a clear public declaration on behalf of the Scottish government condemning the blatant denial of democracy involved in the city council’s sham consultation process; the savage assault on vital community facilities that go far beyond just being a school or nursery in socially deprived areas; the unreasonable and dangerous distances young children will now be expected to travel; and in favour of investment in schools and nurseries within safe walking distance in every community, with cuts to class sizes, not cuts to kids’ education and closures.”

“We look forward to the government of the Scottish people publicly siding with the people of Glasgow against the worst attack on education in years.”





For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

Save Our Schools Moves to Holyrood...

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN CALLS ON 129 MSPs TO SIGN DECLARATION IN DEFENCE OF EDUCATION IN COMMUNITIES

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign has taken nearly 100 parents to the Scottish Parliament today, met with a group of MSPs, and started the process of getting a parliamentary majority of MSPs to sign up to a Declaration calling on the Glasgow city council to suspend its hasty attempts to close schools and nurseries by June, and asking for an urgent parliamentary investigation into the impact of these closures.

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, today said:

"We met with a group of MSPs from the Lib Dems, SNP and Labour. Two-thirds of them agreed to sign our MSPs' Declaration on the spot, and to pursue other MSPs to do likewise.
"Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign will now write to and speak to every MSP to seek their backing, to further isolate the cost-cutting councillors in their George Square bunker. "Our aim is to pound the council into retreat with the help of the Scottish parliament.
"The issues involved are of grave concern for the whole nation, as well as traumatising 2,000 young children in its biggest city.
"The Labour council's closures will mean bigger classes and less teachers -
both of which completely contradict the declared aims of the Scottish
government and the advice of educational experts.
"The so-called consultation procedure, where over 96 per cent opposition to
the closures was ignored by Steven Purcell and his puppet councillors,
undermines the whole idea of democracy and the Scottish parliament's own
guidelines for public consultation.
"We appeal to the Scottish parliament to not remain silent on such key
issues, but to shout its opposition to these regressive, cost-cutting
closures from the rooftops.
"Our MSPs' Declaration calls on the Scottish parliament to hold a thorough public investigation into the impact of the threatened closures on education, children's health and safety, social inclusion, jobs, and the implications for the democartic process of consultation with communities.
There is no reason why any MSP of any party would not sign up to this Declaration."



For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at
richieventon@hotmail.com

GLASGOW SAVE OUR SCHOOLS CAMPAIGN SEEKS MEETINGS WITH SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT & MSPs

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign

PRESS RELEASE … for immediate use (1^st May)

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign is taking its battle against Glasgow city council to the Scottish parliament and First Minister Alex Salmond, seeking meetings and a parliamentary debate on the issues.

Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign organiser, Richie Venton, today said:

“We have said for weeks we will take this battle to the highest political institutions in the land, because there is no way we are giving up just because a bunch of Labour councillors see fit to slash our kids’ education.

“Today I have written to every one of the 129 MSPs, seeking their support in pursuit of a motion in the parliament to condemn and oppose the closures, on educational grounds, in defence of communities and indeed of democracy itself.

“I have also written to First Minster Alex Salmond, seeking meetings of a parents’ delegation with him and his government Ministers, to spell out the details of our case and seek the support of the Scottish government.

“It is blatantly obvious the Labour council in Glasgow is contradicting the declared aim of the Scottish government to cut class sizes.

“Bigger class sizes – which would be the inevitable result of this closure and job-cutting package – also contradicts educationalists’ professional opinion, the policy of the teachers’ unions, and I believe even Glasgow Labour party.

“So we hope we can win cross-party support for a parliamentary debate and a motion opposing the regressive closures, to add the powerful weight of the Scottish parliament and government to our determined resistance to these closures. ”

For more info contact Richie Venton on 07828 278 093 or at richieventon@hotmail.com

END