Monica Nall, Community Programme manager at Craigroyston Community High School, has been in touch to remind us that courses start next week – see attached document. The writing group is FREE and fee waivers for the other classes may be considered. For further information call 538 7285.
A collection of concerned local groups and tenants organisations have organised a public meeting to discuss a community response to the imminent introduction of the controversial ‘bedroom tax’.
The meeting takes place tonight (Tuesday) at 7pm in Craigroyston Community High School on Pennywell Road. Speakers from Govan Law Centre and Granton Information Centre.
All welcome.
The Scottish Government issued advice to landlords on the ‘Bedroom Tax’ yesterday:
Landlords should consider all possible options and use all reasonable means to prevent evictions of housing tenants struggling to pay rent due to the bedroom tax, Housing Minister Margaret Burgess said yesterday.
The Scottish Government has called for the UK Government’s under occupancy measures, that will cut housing benefit for those deemed to have a spare room, to be scrapped.
However, the policy remains set to come into force in April, and the Scottish Government has already made extra funding available to help provide advice and support for those who will lose out.
The Minister has now also written to landlords across Scotland to encourage them to consider the example of Dundee City Council, which is protecting tenants who genuinely cannot make up the shortfall in rent caused by the bedroom tax, which comes into force in April.
The Council has committed that, where the Director of Housing is satisfied that affected tenants are doing all that can be reasonably expected to in order to avoid falling into arrears, they will use all legitimate means to collect rent due, except eviction.
The letter also makes landlords aware that in certain circumstances it may be possible to reclassify rooms so they are not considered bedrooms. For example, this may help tenants who use an extra room to store equipment related to a disability and therefore do not use that room as a bedroom.
Mrs Burgess’ letter also:
Mrs Burgess said:
“I have made the Scottish Government’s opposition to the bedroom tax absolutely clear. Indeed, I put the case for it to be scrapped in the strongest terms to Lord Freud when we met in London.
“Sadly there appears to be indifference to this argument at Westminster, despite strong opposition from across Scotland.
“This will undoubtedly be leaving tenants, some of whom could lose a quarter of their housing benefit in April, seriously worried.
“That is why we have made an extra £2.5 million available to social landlords to ensure people affected by housing benefits changes have the advice and support they need. That is on top of the £5.4 million we have already provided to advice services to help those affected by benefit reforms.
“I have now written to landlords to encourage them to look sympathetically on tenants affected. We already have strong safeguards in place to ensure eviction is an absolute last resort. While we do not want to see tenants run up debts they cannot pay, it is important, in what will be challenging times, that extra consideration is given to people who are having housing benefit taken away.
“Dundee City Council has taken innovative action on this, clarifying that, where tenants are doing all that can be reasonably expected in order to avoid falling into arrears, they will use all legitimate means to collect rent due, except eviction. I know other councils are also working towards a similar position and I hope landlords across Scotland can follow this example.
“There are also circumstances where a bedroom’s classification may be changed and tenants not penalised. Again, I would encourage landlords to consider this possibility and work with their local authority if at all possible.
“But we simply cannot mitigate all the negative impacts of welfare reform or the bedroom tax.
“This illustrates that rather than simply trying to cushion the blows in Scotland, we need the powers of independence to cut them off at source. It would be far better to control benefits and welfare so unfair policies like the bedroom tax are not even considered, let alone implemented.”
Text from the letter includes:
“The bedroom tax also takes no account of circumstances in Scotland. Of the estimated 105,000 households in Scotland which will be affected by the penalty, around 78,000 would need to move to one bedroom accommodation in order to avoid the penalty. Last year there were also 23,000 homeless applications which would require one bedroom accommodation under DWP’s criteria. However there are only around 20,000 social lets of one bedroom properties each year.”
On DHPs:
“The Department for Work and Pension’s answer to this is in Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs). However, this is inadequate in Scotland. By DWP’s own analysis, London and Scotland will have the same number of people affected by the bedroom tax. However, London is set to receive £56m in DHPs while Scotland will receive £10m. This is just 6.5% of the total DHP allocation for next year despite having 16% of the total number of people due to be affected by the bedroom tax in Great Britain.”
On reclassification of bedrooms:
“I would also like to make you aware of flexibility that exists to classify bedrooms in your properties for the purpose of housing benefit. A process of reclassification is available, on a variety of grounds, for properties where circumstances change. For example, where a tenant requires an extra room to store equipment if he or she is disabled and therefore cannot use that room as a bedroom. The process is one that DWP leave up to the consideration of landlords and Local Authorities and involves landlords contacting their local authority Housing Benefit section to inform them of the change of classification.”
On tenants and landlords:
“We all agree that evictions are seen as a last resort. While we absolutely do not want to see tenants run up debts they cannot pay, or see landlords left out of pocket, this will be a very difficult time, when those who lose out will benefit from extra support and understanding. We have already provided additional protection for tenants through Pre Action Requirements.
“You may wish to be aware of the policy adopted by Dundee City Council which I believe provides a useful template to protect tenants who genuinely cannot make up the shortfall in rent caused by the bedroom tax. The Council has committed that, where the Director of Housing is satisfied that affected tenants are doing all that can be reasonably expected to in order to avoid falling into arrears, they will use all legitimate means to collect rent due, except eviction. I would encourage you to consider this as a mechanism to protect the most vulnerable of your tenants.”
Writer and commentator Owen Jones was the keynote speaker at the recent Anti-Poverty Conference held at Craigroyston Community High School.
Introduced by MSP Kezia Dugdale as ‘someone who tells it as it is’, Owen Jones didn’t disappoint. His hard-hitting speech covered the Thatcher years, the demonization of benefits claimants and some of the myths surrounding poverty. He also addressed the oft-repeated notion that ‘we’re all in this together’:
“It’s just nonsense – it’s still boom time for the people at the top. Look at the Sunday Times Rich List – the wealth of those at the top went up by nearly a fifth last year. There are tax cuts for the rich from this government of millionaires. But for the rest, living standards are declining at their fastest rate since my gran was born in the early 1920s. A Save the Children study has found that more and more parents are having to decide between heating their homes and eating, and many are skipping meals to allow their children to eat. School meals are being cut, breakfast clubs being closed. We’re the seventh richest country on Earth but we can no longer afford to feed our poorest children? It’s a disgraceful onslaught on people who are being made to pay for a crisis that was not of their making, that had nothing to do with them whatsoever. That’s the reality of Cameron’s Britain – a shame on this government and on this country”.
He concluded: “We won’t get change through the generosity and goodwill of the people at the top – the way we get change is by forcing our demands on those at the top, force them to listen. We must rally round a coherent alternative that gives people hope – we’ve got to give a voice to those who will otherwise be airbrushed out of existence. If we can do that we can not only take on this government and austerity, we can also lay the foundations of a new Britain, a new Scotland. We stand together, we fight together and we will win this together.”
Around seventy people attended the conference, which was organised by North Edinburgh Fights Back, STUC and Edinburgh Trades Union Council. The event offered a good mixture of speakers, workshops and information stalls and while numbers were down on the first year – mainly due to a similar event being held in the city centre – organisers were satisfied with the day’s programme.
North Edinburgh Fights Back’s Barbara Robertson said: “Thanks to everyone for attending and helping to make the second Anti-Poverty conference so successful. It is so worthwhile to get together in this fight against poverty and inequality”.
A new course starting soon at Craigroyston Community High School …
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.”
Craigroyston Community High School’s Christmas Fair will be held on Saturday 8 December from 11 am – 3 pm. Tables can be booked by individuals or groups – call 477 7801 for further details.
Craigroyston Christmas Fair poster
A group of Craigroyston Community High School students have been working with top author John Fardell over the autumn term. With John’s guidance the S2’s have produced their own story books, and the Edinburgh-based writer was full of praise for the students’ efforts when he attended his final session last week.
John spent his last session with the class looking at the students’ books – and he was delighted with what he read. He told students: “There is an incredible variety here – there are some amazing ideas and wonderful stories. I really do hope that you will keep writing.”
John was initially invited to Craigroyston by the school librarian Desmond Spiers, who explained: “The group of 16 pupils have literacy problems and during S1 they were targeted for extra support using a Literacy Programme called ‘SRA’, which is a reading support programme. Rather than having the work done with the pupils as a ‘stand-alone’ programme we wanted to embed and extend their work and progress with something outside the normal remit of the curriculum.
In 2006 and 2007 we had a very successful project with the author Keith Gray working in school for a year as our ‘Writer in Residence’ and we decided we would like to do something similar with this group of pupils when they entered S2 in August – this time we would have a writer in for a term. John Fardell was recommended to us by colleagues in other schools – he is both a writer and illustrator, having published a range of picture books and fiction books for older children and he has also contributed regularly to the adult comic Viz.”
Desmond continued: “John worked with the pupils for five sessions over the Autumn Term, talking to the pupils about how he gets his ideas for stories, how he goes about constructing a plot and then writing a story. He’s explained how pictures tell a story, along with lots of hints and tips for the pupils. He has also brought in and shown the pupils examples of work in progress from the first rough ideas and drafts to the finished book.
“John’s visits have been funded by the ‘Live Literature’ programme at Scottish Book Trust, who pay half of the costs with the school paying the remainder. This project has also been encouraged and supported by Education Advisors in Support for Learning, English and Literacy.”
In between John’s visits the pupils worked in class writing their own short stories which were then bound into books, and their creations were presented to the author at John’s final session on 8 November.
Every single book received positive comments and there was helpful feedback for each writer – among the comments:
‘Nice simple uncomplicated style’
‘Great use of white space – makes the pictures stand out’
‘Great work – go for what you find interesting’
‘Very striking – fine story and excellent design’
‘Wild, psychedelic colours and a really, really good fantasy story’
‘Lovely ideas on themes of friendship – wonderful illustrations’
‘Great first sentence for a story and mixes text and pictures really well’
‘Very original, with some fantastic cartoon baddies. A good fun, exciting story’
‘Nicely laid out – excellent mix of excitement and humour’
‘Very dark, bleak opening but you can start a story like that. Great atmosphere’
‘Nice use of wild lettering and curly writing, sort of Pop Art collage. Unique style’
‘Really good use of illustration, unique and personal’
‘Nice style with fluffy thought bubbles – I really like the diary format’
‘A collection of poetry with a contents page – some lovely contrasts here’.
In short, John was impressed!
Summing up, he told the students: “It’s great that these 17 books are all so wonderfully different. They are all very individual and that makes them unique and exciting books. I know you have all worked really, really hard and you should be very proud of what you have achieved. Keep your drawer full of rough ideas – you have shown a real talent, fantastic”.
John clearly possesses an infectious enthusiasm for books and 13-year-old Keiran Blackie was particularly inspired by working with the author. “John was brilliant to work with – he gave us lots of helpful tips and ideas and he was also very funny sometimes! My book is called The Best Accident and the idea for it came while I was watching the Paralympics on television. It took me around seven weeks from start to finish – I enjoyed writing it and I do like the way it looks now it’s finished. I’ve tried to write before but this is the first time I’ve really succeeded, and it has given me confidence – I think I will hopefully do another one.”
Teachers Margaret Beveridge and Eric Freund did the majority of the classwork with the pupils, and both were full of praise for John. They said: “He helped reinforce lessons already undertaken with the students, fired their imagination and left a body of work that we can build upon and extend over the coming months. We hope we can repeat this excellent project again next year.”
Young people from Muirhouse Youth Development Group and Craigroyston Community High School will be making a mighty splash when they take part in a 24 hour sponsored swim next week.
The 24 hour Swimathon – which starts at 9am next Thursday (1 November) – has been organised to raise funds to support CCHS’s extra-curricular and outdoor activities programme, including Duke of Edinburgh expeditions and residential fields trips. These excursions will be staffed by a qualified team of youth workers from MYDG and MYadventure (MYDG’s social enterprise arm), who are experienced in supporting the needs of young people and regularly deliver high quality and professional level training and activities.
The money raised during the swimathon will be spilt – 50% will go to school funds to support and subsidise trips, excursions and outdoor activities while the remainder will go to MYDG to support the core programme, which includes lunchtime activities and youth hubs.
The November event has largely been organised by a group of Craigroyston sixth year pupils who are also active participants at MYDG.
During the duration of the Swimathon Craigroyston’s swimming pool will not be unoccupied for a full 24 hours – staff, pupils and volunteers have all be drafted in and recruited to either swim or be a lifeguard!
The Swimathon begins at 9am on Thursday and will run (swim?) until 9am on Friday!
MYadventure and CCHS invite you to pledge a donation towards their worthwhile cause: you can sponsor by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/24hourswimathon
or by texting CCHS 67 to 70070 with the amount you wish to donate, e.g to donate £10 text CCHS 67 £10 to 70070
