Deirdre Brock: “City of Edinburgh Music School must stay open”

Following reports that the City of Edinburgh Music School faces an uncertain future, Deidre Brock MP has written to the Council’s Education Committee calling for a rethink and assurances that the specialist service will remain open. The school is based in Flora Stevenson Primary and in Broughton High, in Deidre’s Edinburgh North and Leith constituency.

The SNP MP commented: ““I’m shocked to see that closure of the school is even being considered.

“The proposals being put forward are short-sighted. This isn’t just an Edinburgh School, it’s a National Centre of Excellence and is funded by the Scottish Government – if the council closes the school it will lose the funding so there would be no saving from closing the school.

“The Council must change tack and give assurance that the school will stay open and will continue to be a Centre of Excellence, providing the intensive music training that has already allowed so many pupils to hone their remarkable talents and make a career in music.

“I’ve written to Councillor Perry who is Convener of the Education Committee to make the case for the school and I’ll continue to fight for it.”

The SNP-Labour run city council announced proposals to close the city’s ‘jewel in the crown’ Music School last week. The proposal is part of the council’s budget consultation, which runs until 15 December. Once again the city council is looking to find savings, and they say closing the facility will save over £360,000. 

Education, children and families convener Ian Perry said: “The proposal to create a Citywide Equity and Excellence Music Service gives scope for increasing the number of pupils who can access creative instrumental music in larger groups across the city, particularly in primary schools and areas where there is a lower uptake of instrumental music at secondary school.

“A high-quality instrumental music service in every mainstream school would be maintained and the integrated specialist provision currently provided by the City of Edinburgh Music School would be delivered in several sites across the city, so fulfilling our commitment for developing our gifted and talented pupils.

“In addition, we would explore ways of strengthening our partnerships with professional music organisations and we have committed to protecting free school music.”