Harris Academy - Education Committee Monday 28 November 2011

At the Education Committee last night Harris Academy was indirectly on the agenda.



The first item, The East Central Territory Hub, was about the arrangements for the continuing work to establish this organisation to procure capital projects such as new schools. Our immediate interest at the Education Committee in Dundee is the comprehensive refurbishment or replacement of Harris Academy. 


The East Central Territory Hub covers the huge area bounded by the former Tayside and Central regional areas and within that territory it will procure all major building projects for the 6 local councils, Police, Fire and NHS. This new set up is the Scottish Government's imposed way of purchasing capital projects like new buildings.


I hope something positive can come out of The East Central Territory Hub but I fear its been a giant smoke screen to disguise a lack of building projects from the SNP led government in Edinburgh. I am also concerned that it will lead to larger scale building contracts that will tend to exclude smaller local sub contractors based in the city.


Now a preferred Private sector Development Partner has been appointed, I had hoped that the rebuild of Harris Academy would be picking up from a snail's pace. 


The work on Harris Academy was begun by a feasibility study instructed in the time I was Education Convener May 2007 - March 2009. The SNP led Scottish Government announced their first tranche of school building in late September 2009 over two years after coming into office and Harris Academy was our one and only city school on their list. Two years later, and a start on site before 2013 seems unlikely. 


This is of course means that the SNP is millions of bricks short of meeting their manifesto pledge in the May 2007 Holyrood elections to match Labour's PPP school building 'brick for brick'. In Dundee, Labour's PPP programme built two new secondary schools and six new primary schools. In four years at Holyrood the SNP Government 2007/11 did not directly fund any new school building in Dundee.

Harris Academy Rebuilding To Be Procured by Hub

At the Policy & Resources Committee on Monday, the City Council approved a report recommending the council's participation in one of five Hubs being set up in Scotland for clusters of public bodies in Scotland to jointly procure new buildings, and run public facilities and services. Our cluster will include, for example, Tayside Health Board, Tayside Police and Angus Council. According to the Scottish Futures' Trust, "The hub model has been structured to give the potential to deliver a wide range of facilities to improve the provision of community services. Projects could include community health centres, dental surgeries, doctor surgeries, debt and citizens’ advice facilities, employment advice and a range of other community services, primary and secondary schools and police and fire service facilities." The council has been informed that the Hub will be the mechanism for procuring the rebuilding of Harris Academy. The original ministerial decision on the funding of Harris Academy was announced on 28 September 2009. While this means that the rebuilding of Harris will now progress, the next step may be delayed by the process of negotiating and setting up the Hub, which is essentially a new Joint Board, and then setting up an arms length development company, HubCo with a single preferred private sector developer.

At the meeting on Monday, I made the following contribution to the debate:

"Convener, I am delighted that the rebuilding of Harris Academy is a step closer. This is good news for parents, carers, teachers and pupils associated with Harris Academy. It is also good news for the building industry in Dundee. I hope that the contract to rebuild Harris Academy can be our Council's initial project to put through the procurement Hub. My welcome however is qualified by a number of concerns.

Firstly, the Hub is essentially a Joint Board on which two members of Council staff will sit with delgated authority. They and colleagues from the partner authorities and a private sector company will set up a HubCo. This seems to exclude the involvement of elected members and potentially might undermine democratic accountability and proper scrutiny.

Secondly, the HubCo will engage with one main private sector contractor. The scale of joint capital (building) projects under the auspices of the HubCo would seem likely to favour larger UK contractors and therefore exclude small and medium sized local contactors who are more likely to employ local building workers.

Thirdly, the projected savings of 1.5% need to be offset against the start up costs of £1.4 million. This would mean that savings to the public purse would only appear when the HubCo had progressed projects with an overall value in excess of £150 million.

Fourthly, the rebuilding of Harris Academy has already been subject to delays. It is disappointing to remember that in May 2007 the SNP promised in their manifesto to 'match labour's school building programme brick for brick'. Three years into an SNP minority led government at Holyrood, and not a single school in Dundee has been procured by the Scottish Future's Trust. This is compared with the Labour led adminstration's PPP programme that delivered two new secondary schools (St Pauls and Grove Acaedmy) and six new Primary Schools (Craigowl, St Andrew's, Downfield, Rowantree, Claypotts Castle and Fintry). I hope that a start on the rebuilding of Harris Academy can be made before the end of the financial year as programmed in the council's capital plan.

Opening of Grove Academy will Fulfil 1913 Pledge

Next Tuesday we will be formally celebrating the opening of the new Grove Academy; the last of eight primary and secondary schools built by the Labour led administration's PPP building programme in the city.




Grove's new buildings incorporate outstanding facilities for teaching and learning that will help staff deliver the new curriculum for excellence.


The Grove campus has many admirable facilities including an assembly hall, sports hall, gym hall, dance studio, fitness suite and 25 metre six lane swimming pool. These recreational facilities are contained in a wing next to the school's main entrance on Claypotts Road carefully designed for dual use by the community. From Saturday 3 April 2010, Dundee Leisure will take over managing these recreational facilities out of school hours. After six pm week nights, over weekends and during school holidays members of the public will be able to use the gyms and swimming pool. Interestingly, the opening of the swimming pool will fulfill one of the long outstanding conditions contained in the agreement for the annexation of Broughty Ferry into Dundee in 1913. Dundee Leisure are already taking bookings for swimming lessons tel 01382 432332. The new Grove is already the base for BERAs continuing programme of evening classes. I am sure that the renewed Grove Academy will continue to serve Broughty Ferry as an outstanding school promoting the attainment and achievement of our young people. In addition, we can look forward to it providing a hub for our community learning and recreation.

PPP Schools Update - Statement to the Education Committee Monday 8 February

Convener, I am pleased to be invited to speak about the PPP school building programme. This indeed is a success story for pupils and their teachers in the two new secondary schools, six new primary schools and their associated nursery schools as well as the outstanding sports and recreational facilities for schools and their communities. Congratulations are, I think, deserved for the PPP Schools team under the leadership of Gillian Ross-Pond and David Dorward for his work on the board of Discovery Education, and of course our contractors, Robertson Construction.

The PPP schools could not have been built without the foresight and commitment of the Labour led administration of Dundee City Council. The form of funding available from the Scottish Government was to finance school building through a Public, Private Partnership (PPP). Had we listened to the carping of the then Opposition SNP Councillors in Dundee, no progress would have been made and these nursery, primary and secondary schools and fine new sports and recreational facilities would not have been built. If you live in a community in Dundee not benefiting from this programme, you may well be wondering what plans are in place for your local schools and what lies beyond the Labour led Administration's plans for five new Primary schools in Whitfield, Lochee-Charleston and the West End as well as the new Kingspark School.

So while celebrating success of one programme and our Administration's legacy of new school building and school refurbishment in the city, its difficult to identify the SNP school building legacy apart from Harris Academy. I hope for the sake of children in our city being educated in unimproved schools that your administration will indeed conjure up a school building programme, 'to match Labour's PPP programme brick for brick'.

Opening of Fintry Primary School – Questions for Keith Brown, Minister for Skills and Lifelong Learning in the Scottish Government

Today (Thursday 28 January 2010) is primarily about about celebrating the opening of the new Fintry Primary School; the sixth 21^st century primary school built by Labour's PPP school building programme in the city. The new school is built to barrier free design and accommodates the school, the language unit, which caters for pupils with speech, language and communication difficulties and the nursery. It has outstanding facilities for teaching and learning that will help staff deliver the new curriculum for excellence. I am sure that this school will serve the community of Fintry as a place for children to enjoy learning and celebrate their achievement and attainment. In addition, its provision of a Community Room and Sports Hall will mean that this school has the potential to develop into a resource for parents, carers and other adults to engage in community learning and recreation.

A celebration like this is also a time to look back and look forward. How did we get here? How are we ensuring that more communities in Dundee can also celebrate the opening of their replacement new or refurbished Primary School? Fintry Primary School could not have been built without the foresight and commitment of the Labour led administration of Dundee City Council. The form of funding available from the Scottish Government was to finance school building through a Public, Private Partnership (PPP). Had we listened to the carping of the then Opposition SNP Councillors in Dundee, no progress would have been made and this school and the other five Primary Schools and two New Secondary Schools in our city would not have been built. If you live in a community in Dundee not benefiting from this programme, you may well be wondering what plans are in place for your local schools.

Today is also a good opportunity to ask questions of Keith Brown, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, who will be joining us for the official opening of Fintry Primary School. In the May 2007 elections for the Scottish Parliament and Local Councils, the SNP promised to match Labour's PPP programme brick for brick. Furthermore, they claimed that they would introduce a cheaper way of financing school building under the auspices of the Scottish Futures' Trust (SFT). After a delay of over two years finding out what detractors forecast; that the SFT wouldn't work, a decision to partly fund the refurbishment of Harris Academy in Dundee was announced when Keith Brown was last it the city for the Education Department's Focus on Achievement Awards in September. Can Keith Brown confirm this is the extent of new investment in school building in Dundee by the SNP led government? Furthermore, will he confirm that work on Harris Academy is unlikely to begin before the May 2011 elections to the Scottish Parliament? Does he agree that, important though the rebuilding of Harris Academy will be, in practice this commitment will fall far short of matching Labour's PPP programme of two secondary schools and six primary schools? Finally, does he agree that his government's delay in getting on with a school building programme will consign many pupils and their teachers in Dundee to learning in worn out and unsuitable school buildings?

Tour of Grove Academy

This morning I was invited on a tour of Grove Academy who moved into phase two of their new school buildings last month. The school has fully removed from the old Grove and is now accommodated in, and enjoying, their impressive new accommodation built as part of Labour's PPP programme in the city. I am sure these will facilitate enhanced teaching and learning and through this higher levels of attainment and achievement.

The school has many additional facilities not contained in their previous building including an assembly hall, dance studio, fitness suite and swimming pool. These outstanding facilities are contained in a wing next to the school's main entrance on Claypotts Road carefully designed for dual use by the community. From March/April 2010, Dundee Leisure will take over managing these facilities out of school hours. After six pm week nights, over weekends and during school holidays members of the public will be able to use the gyms and swimming pool. Interestingly, the opening of the swimming pool will fulfill one of the long outstanding conditions contained in the agreement for the annexation of Broughty Ferry into Dundee in 1913. Well done Dundee City Council!

What Next After PPP Primary Schools in Dundee?

A celebration like the official opening of Rowantree Primary School today, is also a time to look back and look forward. How did we get here? How are we ensuring that more communities in Dundee can also celebrate the opening of their replacement new or refurbished Primary School? Rowantree Primary School could not have been built without the foresight and commitment of the Labour led administration of Dundee City Council. The form of funding available from the then Scottish Government was to finance school building through a Public, Private Partnership (PPP). Had we listened to the then Opposition SNP Councillors in Dundee, no progress would have been made and this school and the other five Primary Schools and two New Secondary Schools in our city would not have been built. While we were waiting for the successor school building programme from the SNP government in Hoyrood, we did not sit back on our laurels. We commissioned the building of a number of schools using prudential borrowing:

• Replacement Kingspark School for pupils who have learning difficulties (nearing completion on a new site on Clepington Road);
• Replacement school for Whitfield (detailed design work underway);
• Replacement twin campus schools for Dundee West End and
• Replacement twin campus schools (2) for Lochee Charleston.
  (Note: both sets of twin campus schools were progressed by the Labour led Administration of the Council; they are now on pause awaiting Government decisions about the sites selected prior to consideration of planning applications and detailed design work)

Parents and carers living in communities in Dundee not benefiting from these school building programmes, may well be wondering what plans are in place for their local schools. Now the SNP run both the government in Edinburgh and the Council in Dundee, this is a pertinent question for Liz Fordyce, Convener of Education in the city and Mike Russell, the new Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning in Edinburgh. In the May 2007 elections for the Scottish Parliament and Local Councils, the SNP promised to match Labour's PPP programme brick for brick. Furthermore, they claimed that they would introduce a cheaper way of financing school building under the auspices of the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT). After a delay of over two years finding out what detractors forecast; that the SFT wouldn't work, a decision to partly fund the refurbishment of Harris Academy in Dundee with an anticipated start on site in 2012/13 was announced in Edinburgh at the end of September. This is I think likely to be the extent of new investment in school building in Dundee by the SNP led Scottish Government 2007-11. A slow down in school building in Dundee will have serious consequences. Firstly, and most obviously it will lead to more pupils and teachers consigned to learning in existing school buildings some of which were not designed for the twentieth century let alone the twenty first century. Secondly, it will also condemn many construction workers in Dundee to unemployment. I have asked the Liz Fordyce, the Education Convener about her ambitions for commissioning new schools in Dundee. At the last meeting of the Education Committee, she was unwilling to reply to my question about her school building legacy in Dundee. I think she was loathe to admit that she will be presiding over another SNP failure to deliver on their electoral promises about schools.”

Cabinet Secretary for Education & Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop, Demoted in Cabinet Reshuffle

Earlier today, First Minister Alex Salmond admitted, "education needed a fresh look" when he announced a mini reshuffle of his ministerial team. Fiona Hyslop, the under pressure Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning was demoted. She is to be replaced by Mike Russell, previously the Culture and External Affairs Minister. Fiona Hyslop takes over the role Mike Russell is giving up.

Laurie Bidwell, Labour's Education Spokeperson in Dundee said:

"Today's move follows a dificult time for Ms Hyslop, who has been under fire for months over not delivering on the SNP's manifesto commitments. More particularly, not reducing primary school class sizes in years 1-3 ; not cancelling higher education student debt and not matching Labour's PPP school building programme 'brick for brick'. It will however take much more than a reshuffle of his pack to make some impact on the issues where Fiona Hyslop was not making much headway. The reason why local authorities were finding it difficult to follow her tune was down to tightly restricted resources. If her successor is more persuasive in Cabinet and commands more cash for schools some progress can be made reducing class sizes and building more schools. Ironically, to achieve that, Mike Russell will need to squeeze wasteful public spending such as the National Conversation, Scotland's most expensive blether, which until today he was promoting in his former role."

Another Success from PPP Building Programme Celebrated at Opening of Rownatree Primary School

Laurie Bidwell, Labour’s Education Spokesperson on the City Council in Dundee said:
“Earlier today, I was privileged to attend the official opening of Rowantree Primary School. Today was principally about celebrating the emerging identity of this new school which is the result of the merger of Mossgiel and Mid-Criagie Primary schools sixteen months ago.

The children entertained us with recitations of poetry, singing, dancing and music making. The thoughtful programme featured a fine blend of tradition and modernity, interweaving the songs and poems of Robert Burns with songs by the Proclaimers and Dougie MacLean. The opening celebrations also included playing by the staff band who demonstrated that, like their pupils, they were a very talented team.

The new school is built to barrier free design with outstanding facilities for teaching and learning that will help staff deliver the new curriculum for excellence. I am sure that this school will serve the communities of Linlathen and Mid-Craigie as a place for children to enjoy learning and celebrate their achievement and attainment. In addition, its provision of a Community Room, Sports Hall and external all weather pitch will mean that this school has the potential to develop into a resource for parents, carers and other adults to engage in community learning and recreation."