Pupils at Kingspark School Entertain with Christmas Show

Earlier this afternoon, I enjoyed an enthusiastic performance of 'Snowy Chums', the Christmas Show performed by the talented pupils of Kingspark School.

I can't remember any previous school show where the Head Teacher had confidently asserted that every pupil in the school had been involved, one way or another, in the staging of the show and the performance. This was an outstanding example of pupils working together: designing the tickets, preparing the hand written invitations, singing and dancing, taking part in the video about the school, serving refreshments, as well as the enterprise group making and selling Christmas gifts and decorations. 

The performers on stage are to be congratulated for singing their hearts out and mastering and delivering their lines and dance moves.

Head Teacher, Laura Smith, and her staff deserve recognition too for having clearly embedded the 'Getting it Right for Every Child' in their practice. 

Dundee Welcomes the Olympic Torch Tonight - Tuesday 12 May 2012

At 18:14 tonight the Olympic Torch will begin its journey through the streets of Dundee from Commercial Street to Baxter Park via City Square. 
Leaving from Commercial Street at 18:14, it will call in at City Square around 4 minutes later. The relay and torchbearers will then move along Murraygate and Cowgate, up Princes Street onto Arbroath Road, then onto Baxter Park for 18:47. 


There will be nine nine torch bearers tonight ranging in age from 95 to 12 years old. Click on this link for further details of each of the torch bearers.


Amongst the three young people from our city who will be carrying the torch tonight, the nomination story of Kian Steel, one of our pupils from Kingspark School captured my attention:
Kian Steel Aged 12 Nomination story
"Kian has moved areas and schools a number of times in previous years but since coming to Kingspark he has settled in well and has shown good skills in a variety of sports. He is good working with the other pupils in his class with less ability than him. It is hoped in the future he will be an asset to the school in swimming and athletics events."
The other two young torch bearers from our city are
Michael Robb aged 18 from Baldragon Academy and
Shanon Davis aged 15 an Olympic figure skater.


I think they will all be assets to our city and their schools when they take their turn to carry the Olympic Torch proudly through our city streets. I hope they enjoy their 'moment to shine'.

Phoebe Caldwell - Remarkable Saturday Night Lecturer

Over the weekend, I attended the Saturday night lecture at Dundee University given by the extraordinary Phoebe Caldwell. 
Phoebe Caldwell is an expert practitioner in Intensive Interaction working mainly with children and adults on the Autistic Spectrum. She has over 30 years experience as a practitioner with people with severe learning disabilities. She describes her clients as experiencing 'behavioural distress' rather than their exhibiting challenging behaviour to others.
Her lecture was interspersed with well chosen video clips of her her practising in a variety of settings. The remarkable communicative 'break throughs' she demonstrated indicate an effective, if unconventional, approach to enhancing communication with people isolated by their autism.
I have written to the Director of Education and the Education Convener to suggest the Council consider inviting Phoebe Caldwell to work with practitioners in Dundee who work with children whose severe learning disabilities are linked with behavioural distress.

Education Committee Decisions Last Monday

At the Education Committee last week (Monday 23rd January 2012) we took three key decisions.

The first was to approve the school holidays for the 2013/14. This follows the new pattern of holidays which incorporate the October holiday in the second and third weeks of October. It is helpful to declare school holidays a long time ahead as these days many parents and carers make holiday arrangements a long time ahead. This allows them to do so with the confidence that they know when they can arrange their family holidays without compromising the education of their children.

Secondly, the committee approved the four classroom extension to Kingspark School at a cost just exceeding £1m. I was fully behind this expenditure but had previously voiced concern that the council had put the cart before the horse by seeking planning permission for the proposed building work in advance of seeking approval from the Education Committee. The inclusion of architectural drawings at the Education Committee and the City Architect available on hand to answer questions, provided reassurance that a development was appropriate to the needs of the children with multiple and profound disabilities that attend Kingspark and the short timescale had not compromised proper preparation of the proposal.

Thirdly, the Education Committee were advised that following a period of consultation, the proposal for a standardised 33 period week in each of our nine secondary schools had been dropped because it had failed to persuade parents, carers and teachers of its merit. Incorporated in this design was a proposal for a daily twenty minute period of Tutor time where pupils would met their, Tutor or Key Adult. This is defined as follows in the documentation for Curriculum for Excellence: 'All children and young people should have frequent opportunities to discuss their learning with an adult who can act as a mentor, helping them to set appropriate goals for the next stages in learning.'

I asked for reassurance that the provision of each pupil's entitlement for a Key Adult would be honoured in each of our secondary schools notwithstanding the 33 period week proposal falling.

Most importantly I extracted a commitment from the Director of Education, that he would report to an early meeting of the Education Committee about the Council's proposals for the senior phase (S4-S6) and the new S3 running for the first time from August 2012. Most controversial in these changes is likely to be the restriction to six subject choices in the new National 4 and 5 exams to be taken at the end of S4. This is 25% fewer choices than the maximum number currently available with Standard Grades which are to phased out. We were also promised that, before the middle of February, parents and carers would be invited in to their child's secondary school for a briefing on the latest phase of implementation of curriculum for excellence. It is curious that the really important decisions about plans for what will takes place in the classroom, are kept at arms length from the Committee by the Convener of the Committee and the Director of Education. 

Commenting on the Announcement that the Council is Seeking to Build Extra Classrooms at Kingspark School

I was utterly amazed to be notified on Tuesday that the Council has put in for planning permission for extra classrooms to be built as an extension to Kingspark School. My surprise is that there was no mention of this in the report on the School Estate (buildings and facilities)  to the Education Committee only ten days previously on Monday 12 December. 


More significantly, when that report was considered by the Education Committee, questions from opposition Councillors like me focused on the insufficiency of classroom accommodation in schools such as Craigowl and Barnhill Primary Schools and Morgan Academy. This was on the basis of the figures in the report. There are no such statistics about overcrowded or insufficient accommodation at Kingspark School in that report.

I want to make it clear that I shall be supporting this proposed spend at Kingspark School. If we need more classroom accommodation in the city for children with learning difficulties and many of those with additional physical disabilities, the Council should respond positively. But I think it is wrong that there is no previous reference at any Council Committee about what must amount to a spend of £1 million.

Doubts were raised at the Education Committee on 12 December about the competence of the report about the School Estate (buildings and facilities). This announcement about Kingspark School, does not give me confidence the Estate Review would be a sound basis to guide the future direction of investment in school buildings in Dundee. 

In addition, I think senior Council staff and the Education Convener have answers to provide about why they have have not brought this to the attention of the Education Committee before seeking planning consent. 

I  have asked the Director of Legal Services to investigate my concerns about whether this is an acceptable way for the Council to proceed.

Opening of Kingspark School - Credit Where Credit is Due

I attended the official opening of the new replacement Kingspark School on Friday 18 February.

Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning unveiled the opening plaque. The real stars of the event were the children who performed in a concert for the assembled invited guests, parents and a majority of the pupils. The programme was introduced by Mrs Laura Smith, the Head Teacher. It included spirited performances by the Kingspark choir and instrumental groups. I particularly enjoyed their singing of Calendonia as well as their rendition of Mhairi's Wedding that accompanied children dancing on the stage.

The children's performances gave some indication to the remarkable capabilities and life skills that the school nurtures amongst pupils with a range of disabilities and learning difficulties. After the ceremony, guests were taken on a conducted tour of the school. The positivity of the school 's ethos permeated all that I observed.

I am proud to have been the Education Convener when the planning of this school was undertaken and sanctioned by the Council. This is another one of the legacy achievements of the then Labour led administration of the City Council that built six new Primary Schools and two new secondary schools under the auspices of its PPP building programme. Kingspark was in the next part of the Labour led council's ambitious capital plan which also included the replacement Whitfield Primary School and the two new twin campus primary schools in the Westend and Lochee/Charleston.

When delivering his speech, Mike Russell, suffered from political amnesia counting the new Kingspark School as though it was part of the SNP's school building programme. The school was in fact built with a mixture of local funding and prudential borrowing by the City Council.

So while celebrating another success of our Administration's legacy of new school building and school refurbishment in the city, it's difficult to identify the SNP school building legacy apart from Harris Academy whose construction is projected to begin in 2012/13. I hope for the sake of children being educated in unimproved schools that the SNP administration will indeed will indeed conjure up a school building programme, as they promised in May 2007, 'to match Labour's PPP programme brick for brick'.

New Kingspark School almost Ready

Earlier this week, I attended a meeting of the Kingspark Project Board. The board have been supervising the building of the replacement Kingspark School for children in our city with disabilities. The Board met in the conference room in the new school which is built on one level to facilitate access. After the meeting there was a tour of the campus featuring a 20 metre swimming pool, a hydra therapy pool with sound and music, a sports hall and a sensory garden in the quadrangle behind the main entrance. The completed building is about to be fitted out with classroom equipment prior to the move from Gillburn Road scheduled to take place between the summer and autumn terms. I am proud to be part of the former Labour led administration of the council that brought this proposal forward and subsequently commissioned the building of this new school.