New 33 Period Week Timetable for Dundee Secondary Schools Beginning Tuesday 31 May 2016

Parents, carers and pupils are reminded that the new 33 period weekly timetable begins with effect from Tuesday 31 May 2016 in the following Dundee Secondary Schools:St John's RC High School, Baldragon Academy, Morgan Academy, Braeview Academy, Craigie High School and Grove Academy. 

I am informed that Menzieshill High School and Harris Academy will not be running a 33 period week until August and that St Paul's Academy will be running with one or two small modifications to the new timetable (see above) between now and August for transport purposes.

If in doubt, I recommend that parents and carers check with these schools for the details of the specific arrangements that will apply.

The new School Day for the six secondary schools making the change immediately begins Monday to Friday at 08:45. 

School ends at 15:40 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 

On Thursday and Friday school ends at 14:50

Lunch times are also staggered.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday lunch will run 13:10-14:00. 
On Thursday and Friday the lunch break will be 12:20-13:10.

All Dundee Schools Open Monday 18 April 2016

Earlier today on the City Council website the following statement was posted:

A Dundee City Council spokesman said:

“A survey of all eight PPP schools* in Dundee has been carried out and no safety issues have been found.


“All Dundee schools will be open on Monday April 18 following the end of the spring holiday.

“The council also carries out regular reviews of all its school buildings. A structural inspection is carried out at each school every three years by the council's City Engineer and this determines any remedial works required. There are regular reports on the condition of school buildings to councillors.”

* the eight PPP built schools in Dundee are
Secondary: Grove Academy and St Paul's RC Academy
Primary: Craigowl, Claypotts Castle, Fintry, Downfield, St Clement's RC/Camperdown** and St Joseph's RC/Victoria Park**.

** Shared campus Primary Schools

Response to Publication of HMI Report on St Paul's RC Academy

The Report by Her Majesties Inspectors (HMIs) on St Paul’s RC Academy was published on Tuesday.  


While the report acknowledges that the school is a caring community, it's summary of the school performance against quality indicators, identifies significant weaknesses:

"Here are the evaluations for St Paul’s RC Academy:

• Learners’ experiences - satisfactory
• Improvements in performance -  satisfactory
• Meeting learning needs - weak

We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school:

• The curriculum - weak
• Improvement through self-evaluation - weak"

The report also concludes that:

"We discussed with staff and the education authority how they might continue to improve the school. This is what we agreed with them.

• Raise expectations and improve the consistency of young people’s learning experiences and achievements.
• Improve arrangements to meet the learning needs of young people, including those requiring additional support.
• Improve the curriculum to meet the needs and entitlements of all young people.
• Develop consistent and rigorous approaches to self-evaluation.

As a result of our inspection findings we think that the school needs additional support and more time to make necessary improvements."

This is a very disappointing first HMI report on one of our new flagship PPP secondary schools in the city; most importantly because the attainment and achievement of the school's pupils is apparently not being sufficiently nurtured and exploited. Councillor Liz Fordyce, the Education Convener of the Council, needs to immediately reassure parents and carers and members of the Education Committee what 'additional support'  will be provided to St Paul's RC Academy so that it can make the necessary improvements. She will however be judged not on her words but on her deeds and the effect of these. In this financial year she has already removed one of the of the Depute Head Teacher posts in St Paul's. When she and her SNP colleagues published their cuts in the Education budget earlier this year she claimed that £4.5 million reduction in the budget would improve educational outcomes in the city.

Councillor Kevin Keenan, said:

"St Paul's RC Academy is in my constituency. As a local Councillor I am really concerned by the performance of St Paul's RC Academy as reported in their HMI report. Like Councillor Bidwell, I want to know what actions will the Education Convener put in place from this month to begin to improve this school? In my role as Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, I will write to the Chief Executive of the Council and the Director of Education to ensure that this report is on the Agenda of the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee on 14 December 2011.   However, action is required now to address the shortfalls identified in this Report."

A copy of the full letter from HMI is available on the Education Scotland websitewww.educationscotland.gov.uk or by clicking this link http://www.hmie.gov.uk/ViewEstablishment.aspx?id=12197&type=3.