Closed schools: contingency plans swing into action

Back to school – at West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre?

Royal High senior pupils to return on Wednesday

The City of Edinburgh Council has drawn up contingency plans to ensure all primary and special school pupils will be back in schools by Tuesday of next week (Monday, ironically, is a school Spring holiday).

In some cases alternative arrangements could be in place by this Wednesday. This is subject to the Council being able to access to the closed schools whilst the surveys are ongoing.

Locally, it’s understood that community centres will be deployed to help get children back into education. West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre has reported that it has been asked to accomodate local pupils. A statement on the Centre’s Facebook page confirms:

‘As you will be aware, there are problems with many local schools and we have been asked to accommodate schoolchildren in the Centre up to 6pm from Monday to Friday.

This does mean that some daytime and evening groups will have their rooms and/or times changed. We are not sure how long this will be for so will take it on a week by week basis.

If your evening group was due to start before 6.00pm, contact your tutor/group leader to find out the room or time changes.

As a consequence of the room changes, we have to cancel SOFT PLAY which would normally be on Thursday 9.30-11.30am.

We do apologise for any inconvenience, but as I am sure you can appreciate we must do everything we can to help our local schools.‘

Significant work has also gone on today (Monday 11 April) to ensure the 2,000 S4, S5 and S6 pupils affected by recent school closures will be accommodated in high schools in Edinburgh. This will ensure they are fully supported in readiness for their exams.

S4, S5 and S6 pupils from Firrhill, Drummond and Royal High Schools will be able to return to their own schools on Wednesday. These three schools only had partial refurbishments as part of the PPP1 project.

An update for S4, S5 and S6 pupils at Gracemount and Craigmount High schools will be made tomorrow once arrangements are finalised.

For all S1 to S3 pupils in the five high schools work continues to identify alternative arrangements.

The Council is contacting parents directly and full details of the arrangements once they are finalised will be on the Council website.

Additional offers of support with accommodating pupils have come in from Edinburgh University, the Scottish Parliament, NHS Lothian, community groups and venues and private sector companies.

A programme of structural surveys arranged by Edinburgh Schools Partnership are continuing this week, with updated information being confirmed as early as possible in respect of each school.

Chief Executive Andrew Kerr said: “We have plans in place to ensure all primary and special school pupils will be back in schools by Monday of next week subject to the Council getting access to the closed schools.

“Our focus is very much on getting our school children back into education as soon as possible. That remains our priority, particularly for those pupils preparing to sit their exams in May.

“Edinburgh Schools Partnership are continuing with their programme of inspections which began on Friday, and have committed to providing new information as and when it becomes available.

“I fully recognise the significant inconvenience to parents caused by these closures and I want to thank them for their patience as we continue to work through this issue. I can assure them that as soon as we have new information, we will pass it on. Daily updates will also be available via the council website.

“I also want to pay tribute to the response from a number of city organisations, both public and private sector, who have come forward with offers of help. There’s been a real sense of the Edinburgh community pulling together and we are very grateful for that.”

Early indications are that the issue that prompted the decision on Friday has been identified in other buildings but as yet the council is unable to determine the full extent of this or the potential impact it may have.

The Council will update parents via the Council website (www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolclosures)  and via the Council Twitter @Edinburgh_CC on a daily basis.