Issues Arising From the Consultation About The Proposed 33 Period Week In Dundee Secondary Schools

The series of consultation meetings about the proposed thirty three period week kicked off at Grove Academy on Monday evening. 

About eighty parents and carers gathered to hear from Acting Head Teacher, Lesley Elder and Acting Head of Secondary Education in the City, Paul Clancy. The new Head Teacher of Grove Academy, Graham Hutton, (prior to taking up his new post at the end of the month) was also on the platform.

While many issues were satisfactorily clarified and the exchanges between parents and carers and senior teachers and school managers remained polite, a number of reservations remained at the end of the evening. These were particularly about the implementation of the proposed thirty three period week as it would affect Grove Academy.

Firstly, strong concerns were raised about the proposed closing time of 15:15 on the four shorter days - Tuesday to Friday. If left as it appeared on the template projected onto the screen, it would clash with the main closing time for pupils at Eastern Primary School. While alternatives were discussed, there appeared to be insufficient acknowledgement that a clash with the finish time at Eastern Primary School was not an option. It was mentioned that a differential start and finish time for the school day in Grove Academy and Eastern Primary School had been guaranteed at the Project Board meetings that David Dorward, the Council's Chief Executive, had chaired in advance of the move by Eastern Primary School to the 'old Grove' site.

Secondly, it became clear that no provision had been made to gather the opinions of parents who were not able to attend the formal consultation event. Is the opinion of Grove parents in this consultation restricted to the less than 10% that were able to attend the meeting on Monday night?

Thirdly, it was clear that some parents were shocked and disappointed at the related news that when the proposed new timetable begins in August 2012, pupils in Dundee Schools will apparently take 6 school subjects from S4 leading to the new national examinations in S4. This is a reduction from the eight choices currently available in our nine Secondary Schools at Standard Grade starting in S3 and examined at the end of S4. This was a matter of regret for some parents who pointed out that Grove had very recently been rated as the twentieth most successful state Secondary School in Scotland by the Sunday Times. 


Incidentally, this apparent reduction in subject choices has not yet been brought to the Education Committee.