Month: March 2017

School Survey 2017

PLEASE take a couple of minutes to complete this years survey which is now live.  This survey is important in gauging parent views and in directing us to the issues we need to address going forward.

The survey will be live until March 31st and can be completed online at:

 https://goo.gl/forms/zUL5rQnDfRsNzwF23

If you have problems, please try again later… if you still have problems, please contact me at oxgangspc@gmail.com.

Paper copies are available from the school office.

Road Safety

The overwhelming majority of parents who drive to school do so with consideration and care for the safety of children and other road users. However, there is a minority of parents who do not.

Bad parking puts lives in danger – and we’re not alone in having this problem: the BBCwrote an article about children from a school in Norfolk who handed out parking tickets to offending drivers.  One parent commented, “I really agree with them getting tickets. I think it’s disgusting that they think they can park where they like and put kids in danger.“

As stated in previous news items, the Council and Police are actively monitoring the situation around the school.  Because some parents continue to disregard the existing no-parking areas, the council are seeking to designate areas around the school as loading areas – this will allow offending cars to be ticketed (by the authorities, not the children). The Parent Council has been asked to support this, and to ask for the support of other parents. Our primary concern will always be the safety of children in and around the school and we will support any initiative to that end.

The proposed layout can be seen here, and the notice here.

Please indicate your support for these restrictions by 17/03/17 via:

Email: trafficorders@edinburgh.gov.uk

Phone: 0131 469 3122

Write: Traffic Orders, 249 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1YJ

In your communication, please quote:

Traffic order: TRO/15/61

Order Title:  Prohibition and restriction on waiting

Your full name and address.

 

The Cole Inquiry into the Construction of Edinburgh Schools.

Again, Prof Cole’s report into the Edinburgh Schools Construction can be found here.

There are two main issues we believe were not adequately addressed.

The first is that, subsequent to any school building failure, there should be an appropriate risk assessment carried out on the remaining structure.  Prof. Cole says the Council did all it could, but an appropriate risk assessment was not initially carried out at Oxgangs; a decision that, as we later discovered, put the lives of children – and others –at risk and caused significant disruption.

The second concerns the question, Is there a link between PPPI funding and building quality/ safety?.  Prof. Cole says that there is no reason why a PPPI funding should not deliver high quality buildings.  We feel this is disingenuous.  Prior to PPPI, the Council was the client for procuring new public buildings and the Council was answerable to the tax payer.  However, under PPPI, the council relinquished all client authority to a funding vehicle (ESP in our case) who then took over the client role.  The line of Client responsibility was therefore broken.  A funding vehicle has different objectives: as a client, a funding vehicle wants a building that returns a profit to its investors which, in the real world, means cutting costs and maximising returns.  We see this as an inherent conflict of interest and we can point to 20 odd poorly built buildings around Edinburgh (at least) as evidence.  Our experience is that PPPI schemes put children at risk and are expensive to the tax payer.

I wrote to the Evening News on this matter and my letter was published on 14/02/17.

The publication of Prof. Cole’s report effectively ends our evidential role in drawing conclusions from the events of last year.  Alistair Gaw has written to all Parent Council chairs to say that Prof Cole’s recommendation for parents and Council to discuss plans for any future crisis will be addressed through the Council Consulting with Parents (CCWP) committee.  At present Oxgangs is not directly represented on this committee, nor is it likely that any other affected school will be represented.  I have written to Mr Gaw to suggest that the CCWP is an inappropriate forum for such planning and that, at least, the PC chairs of the affected schools should be invited to any relevant CCWP meeting – as they will have the experience required to inform any such planning.  We’re currently waiting for a response.

Inspection Report Summary Findings

The inspection report has now gone before the relevant council committee for sanction and it is likely that the report will be approved without further note.  In essence, this means that the Council are happy with Her Majesty’s Inspectorates (HMI) findings, and that both HMI and the Council are confident Oxgangs is on the right path and requires no follow up action.  I attended the meeting and was asked by the Inspectorate to reassure parents that attainment standards are much higher and that “Satisfactory” really is the new “Good”.

Additional Parent Council meeting

2016 was a busy year and there was much to discuss at our last meeting – so much so that we ran out of time.  So, we plan on having another meeting on the 28th March, 7pm in the school staff room.  Please come along if you want to find out more.