Copy of my letter to Councillor Fordyce, Education Convener, (email dated 13 March 2011) calling for an early date for the consultation about the Law Nursery School:
Dear Liz,
In the Council's press release, 'Law Nursery Informal Consultation', issued on Monday afternoon 28 February, prior to the Education Committee the same evening, you were quoted as follows:
Education convener Cllr Liz Fordyce said
"I asked that this report was withdrawn to allow more time so that we can consult informally with parents and carers of children attending Law Nursery.This will be an extra consultation exercise that will help to inform any report that goes back to committee recommending formal consultation on a relocation proposal."
Please can you advise on the timescale for and form of this consultation? I hope that as Education Spokesperson for the major opposition group on the Council, I should be invited to attend any consultation event along with the local Councillors.
Although you also said that,
"This means that any move (for Law Nursery School) for August this year is no longer an option."
I think you will be aware that this still means there is uncertainty beyond school year 2011/12. Many children spend two years in nursery education prior to transferring to primary school. It follows that parents and carers making choices about their three year old children entering Law Nursery School this year can have little confidence that it will still be operating on its current site from August 2012. This continuing uncertainty is corrosive and risks undermining what, according to the School Inspectors is an outstanding Nursery School. Accordingly, I urge you therefore to organise your consultation event before the Easter holidays so that your proposal can then be scrutinised by the Education Committee at the April meeting.
I hope that in any further contact with parents or press statements, neither you, nor any member of the SNP group, will raise any more misleading claims that there are health and safety issues at Law Nursery School. I have now read the Electrical Services Condition Survey Report on the School dated October 2009. Comments such as under Kitchen Installations "Very small kitchen" (which is only a servery for meals that are supplied from the School Meals service) does not suggest to me that a complete refurbishment of the kitchen area is justified or necessary. Of course I am only a lay person with no qualifications in health and safety. But I assume that since the Education Department have had this report for over sixteen months, were there any significant health and safety hazards, you would have taken immediate steps to protect our children and staff. I am sure you need no reminding of our responsibility as corporate parents for the children of Dundee and of course our responsibility as an authority for health and safety and environmental health.
I remain of the opinion that you and the Education Directorate have not advanced a convincing educational case for uprooting and undermining a successful Nursery School nor that there are significant real savings to be found in so doing.
Finally, I have copied this email to the press.
