Horsemeat: Amey apology ‘not enough’

AMEY, the private contractor responsible for providing school meals to a number of primary schools where mince containing horsemeat may have been served to children, has apologised to the City of Edinburgh Council and parents for ‘an unfortunate and unacceptable lack of communication’. The company has also made a donation to a children’s charity, but parents say the apology just doesn’t go far enough and questions must be answered.

The city council wrote to parents after results of its own tests on a batch of frozen mince taken in late February from the shared kitchen of Pirniehall and St David’s Primary Schools were confirmed, assuring them that there was no risk to their children’s health. Local primaries Craigroyston and Forthview were also among the schools affexted.

Amey Built Environment (Amey) has since responded to a request by the City of Edinburgh Council to explain why they failed to notify the Council of the presence of horsemeat in beef mince which they had used in school meals in six school kitchens on 8 March, and when they themselves were first alerted to the fact by their supplier, 3663.

The company has also provided a list of meals containing beef mince which were on the menu at each school in the five-week period between w/c 3 February 2013 and w/c 4 March 2013 and which may have contained mince from the affected batch which was later recalled by 3663.

During this period, one week was a holiday. This information, together with a statement of explanation and apology from Amey, has been included in a letter which was sent to parents in the six affected schools on 4 April.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener, said: “As soon as we became aware through our own tests that mince containing a small percentage of horsemeat had been supplied to a number of our schools, we immediately took action by contacting parents to let them know. We also checked each of the school kitchens to make sure there was no mince from this batch remaining.

“It was only after we raised the issue with Amey that they advised us that this same batch had in fact been recalled by 3663 on 8 March. “It is unacceptable that the Council was not given this information immediately – had we known on 8 March, we could and would have alerted parents to this at that time. We are pleased that Amey have now apologised for this lack of communication and are grateful to them for their cooperation in this matter.

“Parents are quite right to expect the highest possible standards from the food their children are served at school and the Council prides itself on providing meals which are nutritious, satisfying and value-for-money. It is absolutely crucial therefore that any problems with the produce supplied to our school kitchens are flagged up to us immediately so that we can take appropriate action.”

Gillian Duggan, Managing Director of Amey Built Environment, said: “Recently we have commenced an investigation into how contaminated meat made its way into our supply chain at a date between February 2013 and 8 March 2013. Tests have revealed that a small amount of contaminated meat containing up to 5% horse DNA was served to six schools in Edinburgh before a product recall notice was issued by the meat supplier on 8 March 2013.

“Although checks confirmed no current stock of the contaminated meat in any of the premises, there has been an unfortunate and unacceptable lack of communication from Amey to the City of Edinburgh Council regarding this issue. This resulted in a delay in the Council being able to notify parents. We at Amey are very sorry this issue has occurred, and for any distress caused to parents, who quite rightly expect high standards.”

Ms Duggan added that Amey would be making a donation to the Scottish NSPCC on behalf of the schools affected and added that the company would be undertaking a review of its supply chain and an enhancement of their communication and escalation procedures.

However the apology and charity donation are not enough according to some parents. One West Pilton mother, with two children at a local primary school – who preferred not to be named – said: “Everyone’s been talking about it and I think most parents are disgusted with what has happened. You expect your bairns to get good quality dinners at school so this is really shocking – it’s like a breach of trust. Everybody wants to know how long this has been going on – I think parents have got a right to know, we deserve answers. It’s very easy to say ‘sorry’ and making a donation to charity is easy for a big organisation like AMEY – they must make a fortune out of the PPP school contracts so that charity donation is sweeties for them.”

Horsemeat traces found in local school kitchens

Traces of horsemeat have been found in food supplied to six city schools including Craigroyston, Pirniehall, St David’s and Forthview, the city council has confirmed.

Tests carried out on a batch of frozen mince in February found that the meat contained between 1% and 5% horsemeat. The sample was taken from the shared kitchen of Pirniehall and St David’s, and the same batch was also supplied to Forthview, Craigroyston, Oxgangs and Braidburn primary schools.

A letter from Mike Rosendale, Head of Schools and Community Services, has been sent to parents of pupils at each of the six schools, advising them of the test results and reassuring them that there is “no risk to health from consuming horsemeat”.

Councillor Cathy Fullerton (pictured below), the council’s vice convener of education, said: “It’s very important to emphasise that there is no risk whatsoever to people’s health from consuming horsemeat, but obviously we all want to be certain that we know exactly what we are eating. This is why the council chose to seek extra assurance that our external suppliers were not providing any products containing horsemeat by carrying out our own testing.

“Parents can be reassured that we have taken absolutely the correct course of action in immediately making sure there is none of this frozen mince remaining in school kitchens. We have written to all parents in the six schools to let them know about this and will be happy to discuss any further queries they may have.”

Food at all six of the schools is procured by the PPP contractor, who sourced the frozen mince from catering firm 3663. 3663 recalled all batches of this product on 8 March.

The council has been carrying out tests on meat products supplied to schools, residential homes and other local authority establishments since 14 February under the direction of the Food Standards Agency as part of their UK-wide authenticity survey. Eighty-five meat product samples have been taken from council catering establishments to date and to date all except one have tested negative for the presence of horsemeat. The results have been reported to the Food Standards Agency.

Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and food spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, says the confirmation is further proof that we need to rethink our approach to food. She said: “This latest revelation will be a great worry for parents and it proves we need greater investment and increased traceability in our publicly-procured meals. The council’s website claims that it uses local suppliers for meat so it is extremely important we are told what has gone wrong.

“I have real concerns about the way our schools have moved away from real meals cooked in proper kitchens to ready meals heated up in microwaves. It’s also hard to have confidence when the many of our schools are supplied by massive companies who describe themselves as strategic outsourcing providers rather than caterers, and whose main motive is profit. This isn’t exactly suprising as public procurement favours cheaper bids.

”In recent months in parliament I have highlighted the Soil Association’s Food for Life programme which currently ensures one in ten schools in Scotland has confidence about where its food comes from. I again urge ministers to increase their support for the scheme and encourage local authorities to adopt it.”

CRAIGROYSTON is one of six affected schools

Council warns school placing requests ‘may not be met’

It’s often a worry for parents when their wee ones make the step up to ‘big’ school, but even more so for the parents who choose to send their child to a school outside their catchment area. It’s not always possible to get a place at the school you’ve chosen for your child, and many face an anxious wait over the coming weeks …

The City of Edinburgh Council is warning parents who have applied for primary school places outwith their catchment that they may not be met due to the pressure of rising rolls.

A report to the Education, Children and Families Committee on Tuesday (5 March) will list the schools where placing requests may not be met.

The number of P1 registrations has increased by 3.5 per cent on last year to 4632 and the Council has received more than 700 placing requests so far for the next school year.

There has been a decrease in the number of these requests following a concerted campaign to encourage parents to learn more about their local catchment school and the benefits of their child attending there. This has led to a 15 per cent reduction on the number of requests received last year.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener, said: “Parents who have submitted a placing request should be prepared for the fact that they may not get the place they were hoping for and recent experience has been that appeals are unlikely to be successful. However, their child will be registered with their local catchment school and will start next August alongside other local children.

“Historically, Edinburgh has had a high rate of placing requests when compared with other parts of Scotland. However, since I became Convener of Education I have met a number of parents who faced similar situations in the last few years. Happily, they report things have worked out and that their local catchment school is providing very well for their child. I would encourage all parents who are thinking about placing requests to reconsider their catchment school and perhaps pay it a visit, as it is becoming clear many requests will be refused this year.”

To help ensure there are enough places for catchment children, planning permission has now been received for extra classrooms at three city primary schools – Wardie, Trinity and Granton, all of which need of more classroom space due to the large number of registrations. These extensions will be in place by August, and a planning application for new classes at Victoria Primary is also being considered.

A working group made up of parent, officer and school representatives has been set up to look at the challenges facing city schools in light of rising rolls and an increase in population.

WARDIE - extension agreed — WARDIE – extension agreed

MBE for top teacher Tracey and more Forthview news

Our thanks to P5 teacher Ian Holden for keeping us up to date with everything that’s going on at Forthview Primary School:

We put out an appeal for used stamps last year and the response was really good – they were able to support a local charity called Pass It On, who help disabled children with access to computers, with a big donation. We’ll continue collecting until June, when we hope to sell the stamps to collectors and give the raised funds to The Sick Kids Hospital and Pass It On. I’ve tried to up the pace of our appeal now, contacting lots of local businesses to see if they can help – United Wire have already been helpful, as have City of Edinburgh Council and I am sure others will be too in due course. If you can help please get in touch!

Forthview’s P5a appeared at the childrens’ exhibition in the Mews at The Queen’s Gallery at Holyrood last month, one of four local schools involved. I’m also pleased to say that 16 pupils from my class won the best film category in the Children and Families department’s Safer Internet Day competition, designed to increase awareness of how to work safely online.

And last but definitely not least, Forthview’s Family Support teacher Tracey Berry received an MBE in the New Years Honours List for services to education.

Head Teacher Moira Heatly said: ‘Tracey Berry has been working with families at Forthview Primary and previously at Craigmuir for 18 years. As a teacher she took on the role initially as home link teacher but over the years that followed, the value of the role was recognised and it has since evolved to being a crucial part of Forthview’s school community. Tracey sees her role being about making the sure that the children are ready to learn and to do this she reaches out to all the parents, carers and families, many of whom did not have positive experiences at school, to help them to engage in learning with their child. Tracey is highly valued by the families at Forthview, who know that she always goes above and beyond to support them. They are happy to acknowledge the impact she has had on their lives. This award of an MBE is well deserved.’

Everyone at Forthview is very proud of Tracey – congratulations!

Ian Holden, Forthview Primary School

MY CHILD consultation at West Pilton

Are you a parent or a carer of children aged from birth to seven years? West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre is designing My Child, a new programme that will benefit you and your family

You can find out more about My Child at a consultation event in the Neighbourhood Centre in West Pilton Grove next Tuesday (15 January) from 11am – 1pm; buffet lunch and creche are provided.

For further information call Gina Ahmed on 551 3194 or Alan Addison on 332 6316.

Pass marks for city schools

A report to the city council’s Education, Children and Families Committee sets out how Edinburgh Schools have been performing in the last year – and the report shows that, in the majority of indicators, city schools are performing above the national average.

Changes of note include improvements for some of the lowest achieving pupils, who have made considerable improvement over the last three years to within one per cent of the national performance level. Overall evaluation of improvements in early years level have been classified as ‘very good’ and there has been an improvement in Maths and English by the end of S4 which now sits above the national average. This clearly demonstrates the impact a renewed focus on employability skills is having.

Across the board there has been significant improvement in PE by the end of S4 which can be linked to Health and Wellbeing education under the Curriculum for Excellence and the 2 hours of quality PE prescribed by it. In Higher exams, there has been very good performance across the city in English, Mathematics, French, Physics, Computing and German.

High Schools that achieved very good examination results include The Royal High School, Boroughmuir HS, Currie HS, Firrhill HS, James Gillespie’s HS and St Thomas of Aquin’s, with significant improvements having been made at Craigroyston HS and Wester Hailes Education Centre.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education, Children and Families Convener said, “I would like to congratulate schools for their continued improvement, the report shows how much is being achieved across the city. It’s clear from this report that some schools are making significant improvements and I would like to congratulate them for that. We will be looking to all our schools and continuing to work closely with them to ensure the upward trend continues.”

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Outstanding Oaklands!

Local school MOVEs on up to become Centre of Excellence

Oaklands School is to become a MOVE Centre of Excellence – only the third school in Scotland to achieve that status. The special school on Ferry Road will receive the MOVE quality mark accolade at a special assembly on Monday 17 December.

MOVE (Movement for Learning and Life) helps children who have complex disabilities to:

Acquire and maintain increased independence in sitting, standing, walking and transferring,
Learn, gain and maintain more mobility through transference of skills,
Experience better health, enhanced personal dignity, improved communication skills and access to education.

The MOVE programme is shown to improve functional mobility skills and empower children and adults who have complex physical and learning disabilities to better direct their own lives. The MOVE Programme uses a family/person centred approach to develop functional mobility, based on current theory and research in education, therapy, biomechanics and motor science.

MOVE teaches functional motor skills that the child will need as he / she grows and develops and begins to access the wider world outside of school and home life. Skills taught are carefully selected and aim to help the child reach their identified goals and may include learning to walk 100 meters so they can walk from a car to the entrance of cinema, being able to sit unsupported so they can travel on a bus or being able to pivot transfer to access toilets in the community where disabled facilities can be poor.

Increased abilities in sitting, standing and walking decrease the burden of care for families and care providers. These increased abilities also bring new opportunities for greater participation and involvement in family life and for inclusion into the wider community.

Oaklands School embarked on the MOVE programme with three pupils in 2003, and now supports 23 pupils following the MOVE programme – four pupils have graduated from MOVE. The school has enthusiastically embraced the MOVE concept, and annual MOVE Day celebrations are a particular delight at Oaklands – whether that’s travelling through time and space or enjoying an unforgettable Strictly Come Dancing event!

The school was visited by MOVE Partnership’s CEO Nigel Carter in September and he was clearly hugely impressed – a subsequent glowing Quality Mark report said:

‘The MOVE Programme at Oaklands School is of high quality and is outstanding as compared against the components of the MOVE Quality Mark. The programme is outstandingly led and managed by Anke Baillie, the MOVE Programme coordinator, with outstanding support from the Head teacher, Maureen Mathieson, the leadership team and the Oaklands MOVE Group, who are ensuring that all possible time, effort and resources are being made available to ensure the success of the MOVE Programme.

‘Documentation and procedures are outstanding enabling all to understand and follow the MOVE process and procedures across the school. Students are well motivated and enthusiastic to do their best due to high expectations and a commitment and enthusiasm from all staff.

‘The superb learning environment of the school allows a creative and innovative approach to the delivery of the MOVE Programme that focuses on the key elements of individual pupil need and ensures that MOVE is integrated fully into the school systems and processes. Students make excellent progress and are keen and willing participants in their programme and are supported fully by their parents and carers.

There is a great deal of innovation taking place at the school that it is a model for excellence for the MOVE Programme.’

In short, Mr Carter described the Oaklands setup as ‘the best evidence of good practice I’ve ever seen!’

The presentation of the MOVE Quality Mark and MOVE Regional Centre of Excellence award will take place on 17 December.

Congratulations to all at Oaklands on a tremendous achievement.

Award for Gala organisers

West Pilton and Muirhouse Community Gala’s committee have received an award for their achievements. The group, which managed to plan, organise and deliver a very succesful Gala in just a few short weeks (an even arranged some sunshine!), was highly commended at this week’s Children and Families Achievement Awards at the Assembly Rooms.

Committee chair Sean Gardiner said: “We were nominated for the award by Edinburgh Council’s local Community Learning and Development team and, out of 8000 entries, we were selected as finalists. The event was hosted by Grant Stott (pictured below at the Gala) from Forth One who was extremely happy to see an event he had been involved in had gone so far!”

The Yard is primetime TV tonight

Don’t miss the live broadcast of BBC’s DIY SOS The Big Build at 8pm tonight – the hour-long DIY SOS special in support of BBC Children in Need features The Yard, the Eyre Place Lane adventure playground for children and young people with additional support needs.

The BBC intro says: ‘Emotions run high as Nick Knowles and the team enlist local tradespeople to come to the aid of a centre in Edinburgh for children with additional needs.

‘The Yard is a unique indoor and outdoor centre that helps 1,500 young people and their families each week. They provide a space where families can gain much-needed respite while their children make friends, develop their confidence and learn vital life skills.

Children in Need provides support, but the Yard is housed in a building that is in desperate need of a complete overhaul. There are just ten days to complete the build and make sure these children get the future they so richly deserve.’

Did the team complete the challenge? We’ll find out tonight, but The Yard’s Chief Executive Celine Sinclair said:

“The programme will highlight the highs and lows that went into transforming The Yard into the spectacular space it has become, as well as focussing on the importance of The Yard as a place to play for children and young people with additional support needs. So if you haven’t managed to visit us since the Big Build, don’t miss tonight’s programme and be sure to visit soon – you will be as amazed by the transformation! Once again I would like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and families, Nick Knowles and his team and all the tradespeople involved in the build.”

For further information about The Yard visit their website at www.theyardscotland.org.uk

To donate £5 to CiN, text DIYSOS to 70705. Text messages will cost five pounds plus your standard network charge, and five pounds will go to Children in Need. For full terms and conditions visit bbc.co.uk/pudsey.

Happy birthday, Rowanfield

A very happy birthday to Rowanfield Special School, which has now been part of the Drylaw community for ten years!

The school celebrated their special birthday with an extra-special party on Friday – and the children were all involved in planning the programme IN JUST A WEEK!

They did a great job – there was a piper, a video booth, a memories tree, food and refreshments (thanks to Miss Thomson, P6/7!), and videos of past events at Rowanfield.

Then there was an opportunity to sing the Rowanfield School song, a presentation to Mr Glover who’s been a volunteer at the school since it opened and three P7 pupils devised, wrote and recorded a Rowanfield Rap – all in under an hour!

You can’t really have a birthday party without a birthday cake, and Rowanfield pupils starred again – Cameron baked a lovely cake and Darren decorated it with the party’s Angry Birds theme!

Head Teacher Leanne Sharpe told guests: “I think our children have done remarkably well in organising our party – every one of them has helped in some way and they have all worked really hard to make the party a success, so it’s great to see everyone enjoying themselves”.

Senior pupils Dale and Liam helped the Head Teacher cut the birthday cake.