Category: Uncategorized

Website Changes

Alas, it is no longer possible to keep hosting these pages on a free webhost.  The downside is that we now have to pay a small annual fee for hosting these pages, but on the upside, we shouldn’t have to change our website address for at least a year, we get a much better domain name, and we get additional web services.

If you’re reading this, you’ll already be aware, however, the new home address of the website is…

http://www.oxgangsparent.org/index.html

…please update your bookmarks and links.

The website itself has changed.  The “Documents” page has now changed to “Meetings”, we’ve added a “Survey” page – which I’ll explain shortly, and we’ve beefed up the “About Us” page.  We’ve also added more content to the Links page: we’ve started to add content on specific areas that some parents have concerns about.  This time it’s Bullying and Additional Support resources.  If you’d like to see other specific areas of interest, please get in touch.

Surveys

We’ve introduced an ongoing survey in order that parents can suggest and vote for activities they’d like to see at the school – for either themselves and/ or their children.  Also, this ongoing survey attempts to capture the untapped potential of our parents – if you can help us or the school along the way, please let us know.

The Parent Council usually carries out an annual survey of parent attitudes to the school and their child’s education.  The associated reports are also on the “Surveys” page, where we’ve summarised the year on year results in a series of graphs.  The reports are a dry read and hopefully parents can see the general trends from these graphs. Unsurprisingly, satisfaction with the school building took a bit of a hit last year, as did other areas, but on the whole, parents continue to express satisfaction with the school.

School Inspection by HM Inspectors

As you will all know, the school will be subject to examination by HM Schools inspectorate next week.  The last time the school was inspected was 10 years ago and that report can be found here.  Last year was not easy, but our academic attainment is holding up regardless: we have a lot to be grateful for.  How well the school does is also, in part, a reflection of us as a parent body and we wish the school well.

Parent AGM and Council Meetings

Since the start of term we have held both a Parent Forum AGM meeting and a Parent Council meeting.  One comment  was that we didn’t give enough advanced warning of these meetings – consequently, we’ve put the schedule of planned meetings for the upcoming year on the “Meetings” page and on the calendar on the home page.  Our next meeting is at the end of January, and then again in May.

A list of all current Parent Council members is on the “About Us” page and we’ve also put contact details on the notice board opposite the school office.

Hot topics at these meetings included: traffic and parking around the school, being part of the Parksmart initiative, changing the school photographer as well as various other issues and opportunities.

Pick the School Photographer

Several parents have questioned if the current school photographer is providing good value.  Consequently, during some of the upcoming parent consultations there will be a chance for parents to compare their school pictures with those of an alternative photographer.  Parents can then vote for which photographer they would like to adopt.  If you have a chance, please look out for the display and express a preference.

It’s Chriiiisssstttmaaaas! – well almost, 11/11/2016

The pace of school life continues to pick up as we approach Christmas and there are lots of fun things on the horizon.  Please watch out for and support the PTA in their fundraising and support activities, and enjoy!

This year’s Parent Forum AGM will be held at 7 pm in the School Dining room on the 20th September.  The Agenda for this meeting can be found here.

The terms Parent Forum, Parent Council, & Parent Teacher’s Association are all inherited titles; they would not necessarily qualify for any “Plain Speaking” awards.  So, in the spirit of helpfulness, here’s a brief explanation of what the terms mean…

Parent Forum – Collective name for every parent, carer or guardian of an Oxgangs pupil.

Parent Council (PC) – Represents the parents at the school and comprises volunteer parents from the Forum.

Parent Teachers Association (PTA) – Organises various fundraising events throughout the year, e.g. the May Fair, which provide the means for activities and facilities the school would not otherwise be able to support.  The PTA has its own organising committee, but is part of the Parent Council.

The AGM is an opportunity for the Parent Council to report their activities over the year to the Forum, for parents to ask questions, and for parents to get involved (the AGM is typically where parents volunteer to be on the PC or PTA).  All parents are warmly welcome.

Welcome

A warm welcome to all parents with children returning to Oxgangs, and especially to those parents who are new to Oxgangs.  The drill holes have gone, as have the Mobile Elevated Work Plaforms and the scaffolding, leaving the school infused with a faint smell of new paint, expectation and hope.  We wish everyone a very good school year.

Change of Address

As a result of Google changing its web-hosting provision we’re moving these pages over to a new web-host.  Consequently, our new website address has changed to…

http://oxgangsparent.comli.com/index.html

PLEASE UPDATE YOUR BOOKMARKS AND LINKS

Oxgangs Wall Collapse

The history of Oxgangs is not without incident, however, last year the fabric of both the school building, and consequently the school community, was sorely tested.  Seven months on from the wall collapse, the school building and, I would suggest, the Oxgangs community are all stronger from the experience.  We are all heartily grateful that no one – no child – was killed or injured as the result of the wall collapse.  But we all want a just outcome, and we all want lessons to be learned, so that no one’s safety, least of all that of a child, is jeopardised for the sake of expedience.  Injury was avoided by chance, not by design.  Oxgangs is now at the centre of a City Council funded inquiry into the construction practices and contractual frameworks that provided the tax payer with expensive, and more importantly, demonstrably unsafe, public buildings across Edinburgh, and Scotland. The findings of the inquiry are due by the end of 2016.

The BBC made a documentary about school building safety across Edinburgh and Scotland, featuring Oxgangs, which aired 22/08/16.  It can be found on the iPlayer for the next couple of weeks, “BBC Scotland Investigates: How Safe is My School?”.

We will continue to post any information we receive on these pages.

Upcoming Events – Parent Forum AGM

There’s not much on the calendar at the minute, but please keep checking this web page, the PTA Facebook page, and ParentMail for any upcoming events.

The first Parent Council event will be the Annual General Meeting of the Parent Forum on the 20th September, at the School.  The “Parent Forum” is the official term used for all parents or carers of children who attend Oxgangs Primary School. If your child attends Oxgangs Primary School, please come along: you are very welcome.  The AGM is an opportunity for the Parent Council and the Parent Teacher Association to inform parents what they’ve done over the last year, and for interested parents to become members for the next year.  At the very least, it’s an opportunity to learn what parents can do to support the education of their children at Oxgangs. There is no obligation to join either the PC or the PTA at the AGM, everyone is welcome.

School Survey, 17/06/2016

Please complete our survey of parents and carers – it’s findings are read and, where possible, acted upon by the School.  It’s an important opportunity for you to make your opinions and ideas known.  For reasons familiar to everyone, we’re late in holding it this year and are adopting an on-line format.  Paper copies are available from the office, should you prefer. Closing date for replies is 24th June.

Wall Collapse, 17/06/2016

The Chair of the independent inquiry into the school closures subsequent to the Oxgangs wall collapse has been announced as John Cole, CBE. Further details can be found on the Council website, here.

Parent Council Meeting News, 14/06/2016

There was a Parent Council meeting on Tuesday 7th June – minutes of which will be posted after they have been approved at the next meeting. The approved minutes of our January meeting can now be viewed in our “Documents” page.

Our meeting was shorter than usual but we addressed a number of pressing issues such a Road Safety, how the Parent Council communicates its activities to parents and how parents can be more involved as well as discussing matters relating to the wall collapse and hearing regular updates from Mrs Walshe and the various Parent Council subgroups.

Most notably, the PTA indicated that, though the figure was not yet final, the May Fair has brought in approximately £4,500.  Given the timescale the May Fair was organised over, and the late access to the building, this is an excellent result.  A massive thank you to everyone who organised it, who helped set it up, and who came along to support it – all of the money raised goes to help support the children attending Oxgangs Primary.

A little later than usual, the Parent Council hope to conduct our annual survey of all parents and carers of children at Oxgangs.  Because we’re pushed for time before the summer break, and to make it a little more manageable, this years survey will be on-line.  If you don’t have internet access and would like to submit a response we can arrange a paper copy for you to complete. Please look out for the ParentMail!

The next meeting is the Parent Forum meeting, which the Parent Council organises.  This meeting gives the Parent Council a chance to tell all parents what we’ve been doing over the previous year and also elect new members to the Parent Council – this usually means no more than sticking your hand up and saying you’d like to come along to our meetings and take part.  All parents are warmly invited – the date for this meeting has been penciled in for the 20th of September 2016.

You can access the survey directly here.  Thank you.

News Relating to the Wall Collapse, 14/06/2016

Despite the school looking like “The Beirut Hilton”, as one Edinburgh Council official noted, most parents and children are relieved and happy to back in the building.  However, there are still some outstanding matters.

Councillor Corbett forwarded a response from Will Rudd Davidson concerning the question “Why a full structural survey was not done after the first wall collapse in January”, the context being, were our children prematurely returned to an unsafe building?  This communication can be read here.  The PC Chair has since written a response, which can be read here, indicating that Will Rudd Davidson’s answer is not satisfactory.

Councillor Rust has also forwarded to all relevant parties a draft of the Terms of Reference for the Edinburgh Schools inquiry: a copy of this communication can be read here.

A draft of the transcript of our meeting with Council Executives on the 26th of April has been put on the “Documents” page.  Not all the comments have been attributed.  From the audio, though it is easy to pick out voices familiar to us, the unfamiliar have gone unaccounted.  If you attended and we’ve wrongly, or not, attributed your question or comment, please get in touch and we’ll amend.  The transcript will remain as long as this website is available, however, the audio will be taken off, along with all news items for this academic year, and archived in August, prior to the commencement of the new school session.

Regular Parent Council Meeting, 06/06/2016

There will be a regular Parent Council meeting on Tuesday 7th June, between 7 pm and 9 pm.  The Agenda for this meeting is attached here.

Meeting of Primary Parent Council Chairs and Edinburgh Council, 06/06/2016

The PC chair was invited to attend a meeting between the PC Chairs of all schools built under PPP1 and Mr Andy Gray, the Head of Schools for the City of Edinburgh Council on the 24th of May.

As well as Oxgangs’, the PC chairs of St Peter’s and St. Joseph’s attended.

Other than to confirm that the cosmetic repairs to the school building will take place over the summer, there was little more information received that was specific to Oxgangs that has not already been noted elsewhere.

More generally, it was confirmed that a council instigated enquiry will take place into the provision of Edinburgh public buildings under PPI contracts.

Ensuring Child Safety around the School, 06/06/2016

The “Links” page has been reworked as a “Useful Info.” page.  The first item to be added is a working document on the laws and rules associated with car parking and dog handling around the school.

No parent wants their child put in harms way and no right thinking person would purposefully put a child in harms way, however, it is all too easy to inadvertently make an accident more likely.  We need to be child aware in moving around the school, especially at drop-off and pick-up times; we need to work together to ensure the safety of all.

Please get in touch if you think it’d be useful to have other specific information here, or if you’ve any links you think would be useful to other parents.

Firhill Partnership Project, 06/06/2016

We have had no adverse comments so far about the construction of this facility at the entrance to the school car park: all seems to be going well, the site is well enclosed and well operated.  Again, please get in touch if you have any concerns.

May Fair, 06/06/2016

After near heroic efforts by parents on the PTA as well as those parents and teachers who helped, the May Fair went ahead as normal on the 28th May.  The May Fair is one of the main parent led fund raising activities which provides the means for all children to have access to facilities, experiences, and equipment the school would otherwise not be able to afford.  A more accurate figure will be published in due course, but the ball-park figure for funds raised is about £4,000.  A huge thank you to all those who pulled it together, to those who helped in whatever way they could, and to those who came along to support it.

School Reopening, 17/05/2016

I’ve written to Andy Gray to ask if there has been any change to the anticipated reopening date on the 24th.  His response was:

“There will be updated communications this week. There is nothing which makes me believe the 24th is still not the expected return date.”

I specifically asked about the drill holes for the wall tie reinforcement, the rendering at the upper end of the affected Gable Wall and the plasterboard that can be seen waiting to go into the building.  The response from Patrick Brown was:

“The external render has been recognised as an item to address over summer. The external cosmetic issues also.

The plasterboard will be for boxing in all the additional steelwork and will be subject to joints taped and filled for decorating. There are no associated wet trades.“

We’ve been here before, but it sounds reassuring.

Matters relating:

– Call for CEC Enquiry

City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) Corporate Policy and Strategy Committee today debated the Edinburgh Schools Report (provided to us by Councillor Rust in the first instance, and can be found here).  The committee debate webcast can be found here under Item 7.1 –Edinburgh Schools.  Much of the discussion centres around the setting up of an enquiry into the structural problems affecting those schools and public buildings built as part of the PPP1 project.

– Locality Meeting

Two members of the Parent Council attended a regular, Council led, Locality Group Meeting on the 11th May.  These meetings are a means for CEC to update parents and carers of all children in the South West Locality via Parent Councils.  These meetings also provide a means for parents to feed back to the Council and other parents.  In terms of school closures, the update from the Council was largely a re-iteration of the information already published on their School Closures website.  We were again able to share our experiences, particularly our concern that our children were sent back into a school that was subsequently declared unsafe (despite assurances that safety was a top priority), that some relocation decisions could have been better, and that – though they assert they have communicated – CEC’s communications were both last-minute and lacking in sufficient content to assuage the resulting anger and concern felt by the vast majority of all parents.

– Transcription of Parent/ CEC meeting on 26/04/16

The initial transcription of the audio for this meeting, held on 26/04/16, is now finished (thanks Gill), however, we need to go through it to make sure the content and attributions are correct.  Please be patient – the audio is still available under April news items.

Parking and other things, 17/05/2016

It’s been a fraught time for everyone at Oxgangs since the end of January, but I’m sure everyone would hope we come out of it stronger and more determined to do the best we possibly can for all children attending the school.

Before the wall collapse, the regular items on the Parent Council’s Agenda were parking around the school, dogs within the school boundary and dog fouling around the school.  These matters are once again becoming a concern.

We appreciate that some may take being challenged on these things personally, may be offended at being challenged, or think that its unreasonable to be challenged for seemingly minor infringements under extenuating circumstances, but it really is this simple: the safety of all children attending the school must be our top priority and we’re all responsible – we all have to care about it.

Within the last 18 months there has been at least one near miss around the school where a child narrowly avoided injury from being hit by a car. One child too many.  At drop-off and pick-up times the roads around the school are very busy and congested, not only by those attending Oxgangs, but also Firhill and Braidburn, as well as other peak-time passing traffic.  Parents running late or under other external pressure sometimes park unlawfully, e.g., on the zig-zag lines outside the school gates.

Beyond raising it with the local authorities the Parent Council can only re-iterate what the rules are and that Edinburgh Council and the Police are taking an increasingly active interest, not only as a result of parents individually voicing concerns, but also, unfortunately, it has led to abusive exchanges between parents.

Zig-Zag lines:

Instruction on the operation of Zig-Zag lines can be found here and here but the main points are as follows:

Yellow zig zag lines can be found at the entrance or exits of hospitals, fire stations, police stations or ambulance stations and are used to indicate the length of road where you should not wait, stop or park a vehicle.

Where there is an upright sign, there is a mandatory prohibition of stopping during the times shown. (This is the case at Oxgangs)

Yellow and white zig zag road markings are placed to show that the area must be kept clear to allow an unrestricted view for approaching drivers and riders or children wanting to cross the road.

School Car Park:

The school car park is intended for the use of staff at Oxgangs and Braidburn schools it is not intended for use by parents or carers during school hours, the exception being for those with valid disability badges. Amey prior to closure, has started to enforce this restriction.

Recommendation:

If parents cannot find a legitimate parking space around the vicinity of the school then the recommendation is that they park in the Tesco car park and walk their children to school from there.

There are no ideal solutions and Oxgangs is not alone: some primary schools in the capital are currently piloting a project to completely ban cars from outside the schools for an hour at the beginning and end of the day to alleviate similar problems.  The Parent Council is opposed to this as a solution for Oxgangs, but without parental co-operation and respect for other children, other road users, and the laws of the highway, we would have little evidence to demonstrate that we all take child safety seriously.

Dogs:

Dogs are not allowed in the school playground, unless they are registered assistance dogs.

Many parents have mentioned to us that their children have an innate fear of dogs –please, if you bring a dog to school, be considerate and keep it on a short leash around the school and tether it away from main entrances and exits if you intend entering the school playground.

Owners of dogs fouling outside the school playground who fail to remove the faeces are committing an offence under the Dog Fouling (Scotland) Act 2003 and are subject to a fixed fine.

We extend a heartfelt thank you to all parents who do handle their dogs with care and consideration.

Firhill Partnership Project, 17/05/2016

Some of you may have noticed that construction of the health centre at the entrance to the school car park is seemingly underway.  Construction of this facility, first proposed in 2007, has been a long standing item on the Parent Council agenda and we have been involved in the various consultations for this project.  Our standing concern is that the site is operated safely during construction, specifically that safe pedestrian access to the school is preserved.  I have had no adverse comments so far and the site appears to be well enclosed and in good order.  Please get in touch if you have any concerns.

Links, 17/05/2016

I’ve added some links to the links page: more will be added in due course, but if you have a link to a resource that you think would be useful to Oxangs’ parents, then please send it in.

May Fair, 17/05/2016

All things going to plan, this year’s May Fair will be held at the School on Saturday the 28th May.  The May Fair is one of the main parent led fund raising events, funding which goes to ensure all children have experiences and facilities which the school cannot otherwise provide.

Volunteers are still required to help set-up on Friday the 27th May and on the day.  Anyone wishing to help, who’s not already volunteered, please drop an email to: oxgangspta@yahoo.co.uk

Other than that – please support this happy community event.