John Swinney Announces Step Towards End of Council Responsibility for Schools

Earlier today the Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney MSP launched the Scottish Government's new plan, Delivering Excellence and Equity in Scottish Education.

In his plan John Swinney takes a further step towards removing the role of local councils in our schools by announching a consultation in the early Autumn:

 "We will launch a Governance Review alongside the Programme for Government in September 2016. 

This review will examine the system changes required to deliver our commitments to empower schools, decentralise management and the support through the encouragement of school clusters and creation of new educational regions. 

The reforms are designed to ensure that parents, colleges, universities and local employers can better support efforts to raise attainment and ensure that young people progress intopositive destinations. Our clear objective is to devolve decision making and funding to schools and communities. This process will run in parallel with the review of the impactof the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 by the National Parent Forum of Scotland."

Council Recommends 44% Cut in the Places and £370,000 Savings in Support to Young People Disengaged from Full-Time Secondary School

Castlepark Centre in Dundee
Identified for Closure

On Monday the council published their report following their consultation on the proposed merger and downsizing of the Balerno, Connect Five and Castle Park Education Centres in Dundee. 

These three centres work with S1-4 pupils with complex 'social, emotional and behavioural' needs who have disengaged from full-time mainstream education. One of the main aims of the service is to provide support to maintain these young people within the city.

This report concludes that the Council should merge these three centres into one and places reduced by 44%. £510,000 savings should be taken from the work of these pupils and only £140,000 of the 'savings' reinvested in our secondary schools.

I have never been against the idea of finding better premises for these Education Centres two of which are based in buildings previously identified for closure. It is also clearly constructive to review how support for these troubled young people might be improved. Despite all the warm words in the Council's Report, it is difficult to believe that support for these pupils and their schools will be improved if overall resources are so drastically reduced. Most of the saving is coming from reductions in the highly skilled staff who currently work in these three Education Centres. Putting the job of working with these pupils back with our secondary schools is hardly a recipe for success. I am worried that if the resources of our existing secondary school staff are reprioritised for those disengaged from school, other secondary pupils will miss out on their entitlement to support for learning and guidance.

While the Executive Director of Children and Families' Service has provided more elaboration of how he thinks this will work, there are still many questions to be answered.

The Education Convener, Councillor Stewart Hunter, needs to tell us why he supports the reduction in cash for some of the most vulnerable young people in our city?

This is another example of how services for children's services in Dundee are being reduced by cuts passed on by the Holyrood Government; another short term cut which will cause long term damage.

Read or Download the Consultation Report

More Education Cuts in Dundee City Budget 2016-17 - My Contribution tot he Debate at the Budget Meeting

At the Budget Meeting on Thursday 25 February 2016, I made the following contribution to the debate about the SNP's budget proposals.

"Convener, with regard to Education your budget is full of short term cuts with long term damage to education in our city.

In June you are closing a well regarded and very well led high school in Menzieshill which parents and carers fought to retain. This will be happening at a time when the latest national population projections confirm a continuing and significant population growth in our city especially in the 0-15 age group.

In our primary Schools we continue to reduce capacity while there are proposals afoot to increase the nursery education and care entitlement. This would require considerable additional accommodation in our Primary and Nursery school buildings.

On Monday night I pointed out at the Education Committee that having 'Reserved Places' in four out of the soon to be eight secondary schools in the city is an indicator that our secondary schools are filling up and only Braeview, Craigie, St Paul's and Baldragon have some remaining capacity to cope with population growth in our city. 

Combined, Convener, with your fire sale of Council properties and sites, this means that not only will we have pressure on school places in the future but no Council owned  sites on which to build the new primary and secondary schools we will need.

In relation to the supply teacher budget, you have cuts back on this and gamble that there will be no no increase in demand such as a flu epidemic or an increase in staff on maternity and paternity leave that will increase demand for supply teachers in the next year. You are in my mind misleading people in Dundee when you claim this will make no difference. In the current year schools have been unable to spend this budget because of the lack of supply staff caused largely by the national shortage of teachers. If, as the Holyrood government tell us that they have at long last sorted out the lack of training places for teachers, we might have the potential supply teachers to employ next year but not the budget in our schools to pay for this. 

Short term cuts and long term damage Convener.

We can also see that the direction of travel will be to accommodate the rising number of pupils by allowing classes in our schools to get larger. Apparently you are happy for Dundee to be mid-table at everything  and not really ambitious to be outstanding. 

Convener, some of your colleagues have congratulated you on your creative approach to finding your budget cuts. But our constituents and our staff know that there are many dangers in your 'creative accounting'.

So Convener, I cannot support your budget today because you do not have the best interests of our city at heart. Your short term cuts will inflict long term damage to our children in our schools in the City. 

Not so much Getting it Right for Every Child, but Getting it Cheap for Every Child."

After the meeting I said:

It was very disappointing that the Finance Convener, Councillor Willie Sawers would not even allow a discussion of the Labour motion at the budget meeting. He just arbitrarily ruled it out of order, even though it had previously been agreed by the Council's Chief Legal Officer as a competent motion.. Councils must, by law, fix their budget for by mid March, so there was still time to put these savage budget cuts on hold and try, with a united political front, to negotiate a better deal for the city from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, John Swinney. I don't think any Councillor should dismiss an opportunity to try to negotiate a better deal for our city. 

Dundee deserves better

Commenting on Increasing Class Sizes in Dundee Primary Schools

I know parents and carers in Dundee will be concerned by the news that class sizes in Dundee are continuing to increase and the number of teachers we employ has declined significantly. They know that the quality of the education their children receive depends on the expertise and number of teachers in local schools.

The SNP's record of running Education in Dundee is imposing one cut after another in the number of teachers in our schools. In the census in September 2010 there were 1511 teachers in post and in September 2015 this was down to 1409. This loss of over 100 posts represents the equivalent of more than two teachers in each of the primary and secondary school in the city. We can't go on like this cutting the schools' budget year after year and not expect that this will undermine the attainment and achievement of our children.

Strangely when the City Council was provided with the opportunity to bid for extra millions of pounds to help close the attainment gap in our city, they have apparently declined the opportunity to employ more teachers to reduce class sizes, especially in the early years.

For the second year running, the Education Convener, Councillor Stewart Hunter is presiding over the worst record in Scotland for the proportion of pupils who are taught in class sizes of 18 or fewer in P1-3 classes in our Primary Schools.

The plain fact is that the cash the city has received from Scottish Government has been reduced year after year and the Council Tax has been frozen. While George Osborne and the UK Government has imposed significant cuts in the value of their annual block grant to the Scottish Government, the SNP government in Holyrood must also accept responsibility for imposing cuts in our schools by avoiding using the powers they possessed to increase the rate of income tax and failing to bring in a new system of local government funding to replace the Council Tax.

Better Budget Management by SNP Government Ministers Could Have Avoided Cuts in Schools Last Year

Click on image to enlarge

SNP Ministers at Holyrood underspent by almost half a billion pounds in 2013-14, according to a final out-turn report lodged at the Scottish Parliament the day after MSPs left for their Christmas holidays.

The government had £444 million left over from its £34.5bn budget last year, or 1.3 per cent of the total. This was the first time that an underspend had exceeded £350 million since the SNP came to power in 2007.

The underspend is usually less than one per cent. To get this into perspective, the projected underspend in the 20014/15 accounts for Dundee City Council is £45,000 (Dundee City Council, Policy and Resources Committee, 12 January 2014 - Revenue Monitoring Report). According to the Director of Corporate Services this represents 0.01% of the Council's net Revenue Budget for 2014/15. At a national level, the underspend by SNP ministers was proportionately 130 times larger. 

What a pity that these government ministers could not be as vigilant in deploying the cash that is available? 

Although the £444m will still be available for use this financial year, it means public services missed out unnecessarily on better funding in the last financial year.

The table above shows that, £165 million of the £444 million underspend by the Scottish Government in financial year 2013/14 was within the education budget. These were resources that could have poured into schools.

Across Scotland there are 4,000 fewer teachers in Scotland since the Nationalists took over and, in breach of their promise, primary school class sizes are bigger now not smaller. 

That £165m underspend on education was enough to employ 4,459 teachers, so they could have cancelled out their education cuts.

Dundee Has Lowest Level of P1-3 Pupils in Classes of 18 or Fewer

Scottish Government education statistics published on Wednesday have revealed that only 2.8% of Dundee pupils in their first three years at Primary School are in classes with a pupil teacher ratio of 18 or fewer. 

Compared with other Councils in Scotland, Dundee is bottom of this class. The average percentage across Scotland is 12.9%.

The overall Pupil Teacher Ratio in Dundee primary schools has also increased over the last year continuing a trend from 2008. 

In 2007, the SNP promised parents and carers in Scotland they would reduce class sizes for all P1-3 classes to 18 or fewer. More recently, they reduced their target to 20% of primary 1-3 pupils in these smaller classes. These statistics show that in Dundee they have totally failed with only a handful of classes across the city with 18 or fewer pupils.

Unfortunately Dundee is bottom of this national league table. Pupils, parents and carers in the City deserve better. 

SNP Councillors in Dundee have some explaining to do.

Commenting on Proposed Closure of Menzieshill High School at Education Committee 24 November 2014

Commenting at the Education Committee on Monday 24 November 2014 about the proposed closure of Menzieshill High School as part of the School Estate Review brought forward by Director of Education with the support of the SNP group of Councillors. 

Convener, (the SNP's Education Convener, Councillor Stewart Hunter) this report of the School Estate Review, has the structure of a playground joke. You have good news and bad news for parents and carers in Dundee. The good news is that the Council is proposing to build a new shared campus primary school in Whitfield combining under one roof St Luke's and St Matthew's RC Primary School, St Vincent's Primary School and Longhaugh Primary School. The bad news is that the Council is proposing to close Menzieshill High School and gamble that it has enough secondary school places for children in the combined area covering Lochee and the West End.

In my opinion, beginning the process of closing any school is a very serious business. As it says it in the marriage ceremony, 'it is not to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly'. Closing a secondary school which stands at the heart of its community as a school and recreation centre out of school hours must be a last resort and must be only when all the alternative strategies have been explored and rejected.

This sentiment is contained in the Scottish Government Guidance on School Closures contained in Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 Statutory Guidance issued on 1 August 2014.

In this case I am surprised and disappointed that you have been prepared to bring such a flimsy report to the committee and dismiss the achievements of pupils and teachers with such minimal written evidence.

So as I have said, I don't think the parents, carers, pupils and the teachers of Menzieshill High School are well served if we rely on one short paragraph and table showing comparative school roll 2008/9 - 2014/15 to begin the process of closing a school. All the report reveals is that the school roll has gone down by 10 pupils in the last year and 57 pupils in the last four years. That's the sum total of the evidence brought forward to support closure of a secondary school.

In fact when you (Education Convener Councillor Stewart Hunter) went to the press about this you provided some reference to additional evidence which you apparently have been privy to which led you to say - as quoted in the Council's official Press Release dated Friday 13 November:

“This is not an easy option to bring forward, but the situation shows no sign of improving and this will only hinder the education of pupils."
“It would be for the educational benefit of young people to attend Harris Academy in the future."
“If pupils go to the new build Harris Academy they will be offered the full curriculum. This is not the case at Menzieshill High at the moment because of the implications of such a small pupil roll."

So apparently the school estate issue has knock on effects to the breadth of curriculum on offer at Menzieshill High School but there is no mention of this in the report we have in front of us tonight.

This admission on your part also raises another important question. If Menzieshill High School cannot deliver a satisfactory breadth of curriculum, how is that any different from 2012/13 when it had just ten fewer pupils? If we accept your conjecture that the school is not delivering an adequate curriculum on your watch, why have you waited to bring this forward as an issue? There must be suspicion about why you delayed making this decision public until the later Autumn, after the Referendum. Importantly the Director of Education did not refer to the curricular shortcomings of small schools in his last annual Standards and Quality Report.

Convener, you are also quoted in that same Council press release as saying:
“Education officials work closely with officers from the city development department to carefully consider demographic trends and planning considerations."
“Numbers of pupils will not rise enough at the associated primary schools to offer an significant increase to the Menzieshill High intake."
I can also confirm that the secondary school identified for the Western Gateway is Baldragon Academy, so that development will have no impact on the roll."

There is no sign of these population projections in the report we have in front of us tonight. More worrying is that later on tonight, in the subsequent meeting of the Social Work and Health Committee, the Review of the Social Work Department Service Plan 2012-14 includes population projections for Dundee to 2032. These show that the under 15 population is projected to increase by 20% over the twenty year period to 2032. What difference will that significant growth in this age group make to the projected rolls of our primary and secondary schools in the city?

We need to know what cognisance has been taken of these trends in the Education Department and whether a move to six non denominational secondary schools down form seven would have sufficient capacity for the expanded demand for places. More specifically, in the context of the proposed joint catchment area for Menzieshill and Harris, can we say with confidence that all pupils living in the catchment area will be able to gain a place at the combined school? I am sure that parents and carers living in the current catchment area of Harris Academy will want to know the effects of current and future cohorts of Menzieshill High School pupils being shoe horned into their new school, will have on access to school places at the school and the quality of education.

Finally, Audit Scotland have criticised councils in Scotland in general and this council in particular for the absence of robust options appraisals when making important decisions. There is no options appraisal and apparently a quite Thatcherite There is No Alternative (TINA) response from the Director and the Administration of the Council. This report is therefore an inadequate response.

We should also examine the catchment area for the western gateway. Indisputably Menzieshill High School is closest geographically to the western gateway area and it is in my opinion it is the mark of a geographically challenged person to claim the this expansion area should continue to fall in the nominal catchment area of Ardler Primary School and Baldragon Academy. When you Convener confirmed that this was the case in the press release it was as though you were slamming the door shut on any initiative to support enlarging the potential roll of Menzieshill High School.

In the belief that it would be totally wrong to initiate the closure Menzieshill High School on the basis of single paragraph and a single table of historic pupil numbers in a report reviewing the school estate in the city, in a report that clearly identifies that the targeted school for closure is assessed as being in superior physical condition to two other secondary schools in the city, in the absence of any educational case for closure, and in the absence of an options appraisal, the following amendment is proposed:

2. Recommendations

ii First Bullet Point
Delete 
"the closure of Menzieshill High School (including the delineation of its existing catchment area within Dundee) to the new Harris Academy, and"

B

Insert
ii Third Bullet Point
"Invites the Director of Education to return to the Education Committee with a comprehensive report about the future of secondary Education at Menzieshill High School containing:
the projected rolls of primary schools in respectively the Menzieshill and Harris catchment areas;
an assessment of the impact of re-delineating the western gateway area from the catchment area of Ardler Primary School/Baldragon Academy to Camperdown Primary School/Menzieshill High School and
an education, pupil focused, options appraisal about the future of Menzieshill High School.

This motion was defeated by all the SNP Councillors voting against it in a block.

Commenting on Proposed Closure of Menzieshill High School

It is very disappointing news that the SNP Administration of the Council are proposing to close Menzieshill High School as part of the Review of the School Estate. 

Pupils, parents and staff will be wondering why their secondary school has been allowed to wither on the vine as the school roll reduced over recent years. It was a missed opportunity that the catchment area of the school has not been extended to increase the potential pupil numbers. For example, the Western Gateway area is currently in the catchment area for Baldragon Academy when Menzieshill High School is much closer in distance.

There are many questions to be answered about this proposal with very flimsy details in the Education Committee Report.  It surely needs more than two brief paragraphs to justify the closure of one of our Secondary Schools?

Before the meeting of the Education Committee in ten days time, my Labour Group colleagues and I will want to consult with Head Teachers, parents and carers in the schools together with the relevant trade unions affected by the closure of Menzieshill High School and the other schools affected by the wider proposals in the Schools' Estate Review.

Scottish Labour Leader Johann Lamont MSP Expresses Concern that Council is Robbing Peter to Pay Paul

© Dundee Courier Tuesday 4 March 2014

Click on image to enlarge

Yesterday, I accompanied Scottish Labour Leader Johann Lamont MSP and Jenny Marra MSP to two meetings about the plight of the Early Years Practitioners that currently work in twenty two Primary Schools in Dundee. In the Council's budget meeting last month, SNP Councillors bulldozed through proposals to move these staff from working in P1-3 classes so that they could make up the numbers of staff required in nursery schools. This was despite Dundee Labour Councillors proposing a budget amendment which would have kept the Early Years Practitioners in their Primary School posts.

The first meeting was at St Andrew's RC Primary School where Johann met Michael Wood, Director of Education; David Dorward, Chief Executive, Lina Waghorn, Head of Primary Education and Avril Barnett the Acting Head Teacher at St Andrew's. Following that meeting, Johann's response to the Courier is detailed in the article above. 

In the early evening, Johann Lamont, Jenny Marra and I attended a meeting with the Early Years Practitioners at a meeting convened by UNISON. What struck me was how highly motivated and dedicated these Early Years Practitioners are. Unlike many disputes, this group of trade unionists are not campaigning for their jobs, rather they are campaigning for the continuation of their roles in Primary School classrooms. While they have been promised continuing employment working in nursery classes from August this year, their concern is for the children with whom they currently work who will miss out when they are withdrawn from their primary schools at the end of June. Their removal will represent a cut in the front line staff working directly with children in primary school classrooms. 

I am sure that pupils, parents and carers and class teachers will notice the difference when their Early Years Practitioner is withdrawn. Link to the list of twenty two Primary Schools that will lose their Early Years Practitioner in June 2014. The last word should go to Johann, "I don't think this kind of 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' is the way to address our education provision."

Labour Budget Proposal Can Retain the Early Years Practitioners Based in 22 of Our Primary Schools

At the Council's Budget Meeting this afternoon (Thursday 13 February 2014), the alternative budget savings Labour Councillors have identified will allow us to propose an amendment to the budget brought forward by the SNP Administration of the Council. 

I am relieved that we have found a way to stop the removal of the Early Years Practitioners who work in twenty two of our Primary Schools in the City. These practitioners, many educated to degree level, make an important contribution to pupils learning by, for example, taking reading and maths groups in P1-3 classes.

I trust that the SNP Administration will recognise the weight of public opinion against this damaging cut and support our amendment.

Since the SNP took over the administration of the Council in April 2009, they have removed staff from our Primary Schools year after year.

In successive budgets they have cut a Deputy Head Teacher from each of our Primary Schools, removed the team of visiting teachers of PE and Music from working in all our primary schools and increased class sizes.

This time I hope they will step back from imposing a damaging further cutback in our Primary Schools, which we have shown can be avoided.

Council Urged to Support Youth Work Provision in Dundee With More Than Words

At the Policy and Resources Committee on Monday evening 10 February, we considered a draft response to:
"Our ambitions for improving the life chances of young people in Scotland: Draft National Youth Work Strategy 2014-19."

This is my contribution to the debate:

Convener, we welcome this strategy and the Council's draft response. Our young people, deserve quality youth work provision wherever they live in Dundee.

This Draft Strategy for Youth Work states that:

"All young people should have access to high quality and effective youth work practice. It is only by planning young people at the heart of our work that we can begin to develop services and realise ambitions."

These objectives are ones we support.

But the Council's ringing endorsement of youth work and the new strategy appears to be at odds with the budget proposals we will be considering later this week (Thursday 13 February 2014) which propose a reduction of the equivalent of 4 full time Youth Workers. Over two years this would amount to a 7% cut in youth worker provision in Dundee.

Words in a strategy are cheap Convener. Young people in Dundee will judge you by your actions and whether your administration is at least maintaining the number of youth workers in our city.

Revealed the 22 Dundee Schools Which Will Lose their Early Years Practitioners in Proposed Budget Cuts

The Head of Primary Education in Dundee has confirmed that the following 22 Primary Schools in Dundee will lose their Early Years Practitioners (EYPs) as proposed by the SNP administration of the Council. These staff will be removed from every one of of these schools in the proposed budget cuts for the year April 2014-March 2015.

These twenty two schools were previously chosen for these appointments on the basis of the challenge that many of their pupils experience in their learning. I think parents and carers whose children have a reading or maths group taken by an EYP will want to know how that work will be covered once their valued knowledge and skills are removed. 

Despite claims to the contrary by members of the Council Administration, these cuts will clearly reduce front line services in each of these schools:

1. Ardler
2. Craigowl
3. Sidlaw View
4. St Andrew's
5. St Fergus
6. Ballumbie
7. Fintry
8. Longhaugh
9. St Luke's and St Matthew's
10. Rowantree
11. Claypotts Castle
12. St Vincent’s
13. Camperdown
    
14. Gowriehill
15. St Clement’s
16. St Mary’s
17. Ancrum
18. Dens Road
    
19. Rosebank
20. St Peter and St Paul
21. Clepington
22. Our Lady’s

Commenting on the Proposed Loss of Early Years Practitioners from 22 Primary Schools in Dundee

On Monday Councillors received a copy of a letter sent by the Early Years Practitioners who work in 22 of our Primary Schools in Dundee. They are very concerned that as a budget saving their jobs in Primary Schools will disappear from June this year. 

In the SNP's budget proposals their jobs they will be cut from the primary schools and they will transferred to work in the nurseries to support more nursery hours for 3-5 year olds. This seems like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

I think the Early Years Practitioners are right to be concerned on our behalf about a significant reduction in front line staff who work directly with children in our Primary Schools. The Early Learning Practitioners, many of whom are educated to degree level, work with reading groups and support children who otherwise might fall behind with their learning. On my recent visits to Primary Schools, I have seen at first hand the positive contribution they make supporting the teacher and the learning in our primary classrooms. For example; taking P1 reading groups involved in the new Read Write Inc reading programme. Some of these posts were established under the Raising Early Attainment in Dundee as long ago as 1997.  

This proposed cut will make it much harder to believe that the Council is committed to its Fairness Agenda and getting it right for every child.

Unfortunately, the SNP administration have a poor record on Primary Education. In their recent council budgets year after year they have removed teachers and staff concerned with children's learning in our Primary Schools.

I hope the letter from the Early Years Practitioners prompts the SNP administration of the Council to think again and find a way to withdraw this damaging 'saving' from their budget proposals.

Commenting on the SNP's Proposed Further Cuts in Dundee Primary Schools

Once again the SNP Administration have not spared our primary schools from their cuts announced late on Wednesday afternoon. 

At a time when the Primary School rolls are rising with 300 additional pupils expected across the the city in August this year, Primary Schools will have to make nearly half a million pounds of further savings on staff.

In addition, robbing many Primary Schools of their Early Years Practitioner so that they can be redeployed in Nursery Schools to help provide the extra nursery hours is robbing Peter to pay Paul. 

When I have visited Primary School recently Head Teachers have told me about the challenging agenda for change  they are leading in their schools including the Curriculum for Excellence and the new Read Write Inc programme and initiatives for numeracy as well. Along side this they will now be also expected to reduce their school's energy consumption by 5% in 2014/15 and a further 5% in 2015/16. While reducing waste seems like an obvious target for savings, many schools lack adequate controls on site for the school's heating system. It's difficult to be held responsible for expenditure over which you have limited practical control. Presumably a school that doesn't achieve its projected energy savings will have to reduce expenditure elsewhere in order to pay for the gas and electricity.

Many of these short term cuts will inevitably inflict long term damage in our schools. Dundee deserves better!

Ardler Primary School and Nursery Class - Inspection Report 19 March 2013

On Wednesday, Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education (HMIe) published their report of their inspection visit to Ardler Primary School and Nursery Class.

The report identified that the school and nursery class had many strengths and areas where they have been making significant progress.

It also identified three key areas for improvement:

• Improve arrangements for meeting children’s needs at the primary stages;
• Improve primary-aged children’s attainment in reading and writing and
• Use self-evaluation in a focused way to secure further improvements in learning, teaching and curriculum development.

The report concluded that:
'.... the school needs additional support and more time to make necessary improvements. Our Area Lead Officer along with the local authority will discuss the most appropriate support in order to build capacity for improvement, and will maintain contact to monitor progress. We will return to evaluate aspects of provision and the progress in improving provision within twelve months of publication of this letter. We will then issue another letter to parents on the extent to which the school has improved.'

Parents and Carers with children at Ardler Primary School will want to be reassured that the Council will now provide the 'additional support' required and explain how the areas for improvement. will be progressed.

In October 2012, the Inspection Report on St Andrew's RC Primary School was published and that report also indicated that the school required 'additional support' from the Council.

I think it is significant that both Ardler Primary School and St Andrew's RC Primary School lost a Depute Head Teacher in the SNP's budget cuts introduced in April 2011. Now we are seeing the effect of this and other cutbacks in our schools. When these budget savings were announced, I warned that these short term cuts would cause long term damage.

Link to Ardler Primary School and Nursery Class HMI Report

Labour Seeking to Keep Smaller Classes for S1 and S2 Maths and English Classes in all our Secondary Schools

Later today Labour Councillors will be proposing our alternative proposals at the Council's annual budget meeting. In Education, we are proposing to reinstate classes of twenty for English and Maths in the first two years in five secondary schools in the City where the SNP administration are proposing to withdraw these. They propose to introduce larger classes for Maths and English - up to a maximum of 33 - in Harris Academy, Menzieshill High School, St John's RC High School, Morgan Academy and Grove Academy.

It seems common sense that English and Maths are central to success in examinations at school and beyond. In Secondary school, competence in Maths and English is required in order to engage with the rest of the curriculum. So smaller class sizes in these subjects makes sense in S1 and S2. In fact the SNP ruling group of Councillors agree with this assessment because they are retaining smaller claszses for Maths and English in St Paul's RC Academy, Baldragon Academy, Craigie High School and Braeview Academy. If it's good for the pupils in those four Secondary schools, surely it will make a negative difference in the five secondary schools where it is being withdrawn.

In recent years Dundee pupils have performed much better in Maths and English in SQA examinations. Six years ago a quarter of pupils were ending their schools days without English and Maths at Foundation Level in Standard Grade. Steadily this figure has improved in all of our secondary schools and our overall performance is now above the national average and on a par with our comparator councils. If our amendment to the budget is not accepted, we run the risk, that improvements in the overall examination results in our schools are halted and start to slide backwards. I don't think parents and carers with children in the five secondary schools that will lose out will think this is wise. Why are their children subject to cutting corners in Maths and English lessons?

I think parents and carers and teachers will be very disappointed if the ruling group of SNP Councillors won't accept our amendment to their revenue budget. We have uncovered a pot of cash which they had overlooked. Money set aside for paying DEROL (the operators of the incinerator at Baldovie)  for ash from the incinerator when none has been produced since the major fire shut it down in May 2012. Furthermore, there is no definite date for the DEROL reopening in the new financial year. So there must be up to £600,000 available. 

Out of the ashes, let's put some of that money to work paying for smaller class sizes in English and Mathematics in all our secondary schools.

Issues Raised at Education Committee on Monday 28 January 2013

I made two comments and posed two questions at the Education Committee last Monday (28 January 2013) in the context of commenting on the sole agenda item: Education Department Standards and Quality:

Firstly, I said:
This report is an important report which I welcome. I am pleased that we have an opportunity to talk at the Education Committee about core issues such as the attainment of our pupils in examinations in S4-6.

There are some promising trends. I particularly appreciate the hard work of teachers and pupils to improve the proportion of pupils gaining a minimum of Standard Grade in English and Maths. The increase in passes from a level that was beneath the national average to level that is above the national average and our comparator authorities is a real achievement.

I think that we all appreciate that improvements like this are unlikely to come from a wee sprint in S3 and S4 but build on incremental changes in Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools over a number of years. After all, the results referred to in this report come after a pupil will have spent up to two years full or part time in a Nursery School, seven years in Primary School and between four and six years in one of our secondary schools.

Convener I would therefore like to recommend to you that we ask the Director in subsequent reports to include facts and figures we already collect about the performance of our pupils at earlier points than the end of secondary school. For example, for more than five years our primary pupils have been linked to the Durham University's Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPs) tests on reading and writing in early, middle and upper primary.

Now I note that in the equivalent reports in other authorities in North East Scotland for example, Perth and Kinross and Angus, there are references to these wider measures which I would argue are milestones on the route to attainment at the end of our pupils' school days.

Convener, I have a motion on this but would hope you would agree that this is a constructive suggestion and one that we shouldn't need to divide about?

So shall we agree to take this forward for the Standards and Quality Report in 2014?"

The Convener accepted my proposal.

Secondly, I asked:
"Convener in the SNP manifesto you campaigned on in the local government elections last May your party wrote:
'Under the SNP, Dundee City Council will continue to deliver new schools, smaller class sizes, breakfast clubs in every school and after school clubs in every area of Dundee.' ....
'As every parent knows, smaller class sizes means more teacher time and better learning.' (Extracted from Re-Elect an SNP Council, Moving Dundee Forward)

Convener, will the improvements in attainment, that the Standards and Quality Report promises be helped or hindered by increases in class sizes in S1 and S2 Maths and English in five of the nine secondary schools in Dundee?"

The Convener did not address his answer to my question.

It's Confirmed that Grove, Harris, Morgan, Menzieshill and St John's will have larger classes in English and Maths in S1-S2 from August

In Budget papers issued by the Council on Thursday 24 January, the Education Director clarified that the five secondary schools in Dundee which will have larger classes in English and Maths in S1-S2 will be:
Grove Academy, Harris Academy, Morgan Academy, Menzieshill High School and St John's RC High School

In these five schools S1 and S2 Maths and English classes will increase from 20 up to a maximum of 33. This would represent a 65% increase in class sizes for these subjects.

I think parents and carers in the city whose children are will be in S1 and S2 at these secondary schools will want to know how this significant increase in class sizes will affect their child's learning and attainment in these core subjects.

The four secondary schools maintaining average class sizes of 20 in English and Maths S1-S2 will be: Baldragon Academy, Braeview Academy, Craigie High School and St Paul’s RC Academy.

Significantly, the Director of Education's paper to the Education Committee on Monday night 28 January, 'Education Department Standards and Quality', makes no case for such a change nor provides the school by school statistics on examination passes that might support a rationale for four of our secondary schools retaining smaller classes and five secondary schools losing theirs. 

Finally, I think parents and carers will wonder why this damaging proposal on class size increases in our Secondary Schools is not to be referred to the Education Committee on Monday night when Councillors will be joined by additional members representing Parents. Teachers and senior Pupils. It's hard not to think that the SNP led administration are trying to mask their abandonment of their commitment to smaller class sizes in our schools and don't think they could win the argument at the Education Committee.

SNP's Broken Promises on Primary Class Sizes in Dundee

"Under the SNP, Dundee City Council will continue to deliver new schools, smaller class sizes, breakfast clubs in every school ....."

".... And as every parent knows, smaller classes means more teacher time and better learning." 

(April 2012 SNP Dundee Manifesto - see below)

"Removing the restrictions of class sizes of 18" is proposed by SNP in Council Budget Paper last week providing a saving of £595,000 per year.
(January 2013 Budget Paper see below)

Call for Clarity About Which Secondary Schools in Dundee Will Have Larger English and Maths Classes in S1/S2

Last week, the SNP led Administration of the Council made a shock announcement about their cuts in staffing at our Schools. From August 2013 they have proposed to withdraw smaller classes in Maths and English in the first two years at five of the nine secondary schools in Dundee. These classes are currently capped at 20 and will, under these proposals, increase to a maximum of 33 pupils.

The Education Convener, Councillor Hunter justified this by saying that four secondary schools had less positive exam results and keeping the smaller classes for them would help improve their results. Presumably, by that line of reasoning, exam results in those schools where the smaller classes are being withdrawn will be undermined.

But so far the Education Convener has avoided spelling out which four secondary schools will retain their cash for these smaller Maths and English Classes in S1 and S2 and which will lose out. Parents and carers who have children moving from Primary to Secondary School this summer have a right and a need to know this now. They need to know because whether a secondary school will or will not have smaller classes in Maths and English is something that might sway their decision about which school to request for their child.

These parents and carers shouldn't be asked to wait for his announcement until after the Budget Meeting on Thursday 14 February, because they must finalise their parental choice for a secondary school by the Council's deadline. Placing requests must be submitted to the City Council by the first Monday in February which this year falls on Monday 4 February. 

Of course Councillor Hunter could have chosen to put this on the Agenda of the Education Committee called for Monday 28 January, but I notice that he has avoided doing this when I looked at the papers that have been issued. As Convener, he still has the opportunity to put this on as a late item and allow Senior Pupils, Parent Council Representatives and Teachers from our schools to have their say along with Councillors.

Like his predecessor, Councillor Fordyce, Councillor Hunter can try and hide the issues that are really important from the Education Committee but he must come clean and tell us where his axe is going to fall in Maths and English Classes. Parents and carers won't thank him from hiding this from them when they have to make their placing decisions over the next few days.

The nine Secondary Schools in Dundee are:

• Baldragon Academy
• Braeview Academy
• Craigie High School
• Grove Academy
• Harris Academy
• Menzieshill High School
• Morgan Academy
• St John's RC High School
• St Paul's RC Academy