Wednesday after school for P1 and P2 families
Tag: St Davids
Science Festival gets off to an explosive start at St David’s!
Edinburgh International Science Festival, powered by EDF Energy, visited St David’s R.C. Primary School on Monday to give a hand in launching the school’s Science Week to show how much fun learning about STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) can be. It involved some thrilling experiments that saw the pupils learn how rockets work by launching their own made from balloons and bottles! Continue reading Science Festival gets off to an explosive start at St David’s!
Spartans all set for school sports day
Spartans Community Football Academy are hosting a sportsday for local primary schools on Wednesday 24th May. This is the fourth year of this annual event and primary 7s from Craigroyston, Forthview, Pirniehall, St David’s and Ferryhill primaries are all set to attend. Continue reading Spartans all set for school sports day
Spartans CFA Girls Football Fun Day
Spartans Community Football Academy are hosting a Girls Football Fun Day for local primary schools on Friday 10 June. This will be the second year of this annual event and Craigroyston, Ferryhill, Trinity, Pirniehall, St Davids and Wardie P6 & 7 girls will be taking part.
Everyone’s a winner at Spartans Olympics
Medals for all at sporting event
Spartans Community Football Academy at Ainslie Park was the venue for North Edinburgh’s very own Olympic Games earlier this week. Continue reading Everyone’s a winner at Spartans Olympics
PPP school closures: independent inquiry confirmed
The city council has confirmed that an independent inquiry into school closures will commence after the summer holidays. Continue reading PPP school closures: independent inquiry confirmed
Schools: the jigsaw’s almost complete
Places now found for all primary school pupils
All primary pupils affected by school closures now have alternative education plans put in place, the city council has announced. It’s been a massive challenge, but council officers have now found temporary places for almost six thousand city schoolchildren displaced after structural faults were found in seventeen PPP1 schools.
The jigsaw was completed late yesterday afternoon when pupils from the final five primary schools affected – Forthview, Pirniehall, St David’s, Broomhouse and St Josephs – were found alternative education provision.
The children will be relocated to alternative venues across the city from Tuesday next week, and it’s almost a case of ‘any port in a storm’. Some local children have been found accommodation in nearby schools including Granton and Wardie, but for other classes it’s going to mean long daily bus trips at rush hour to places including Wester Hailes, Abbeyhill and Craigmillar
The arrangements are far from ideal: the travel and strange new surroundings can be disruptive and upsetting for children and their families, but for now they know where they are going – at least in the short term. There is no indication yet just how long their own school buildings will remain closed.
Work is ongoing to identify alternative arrangements for some remaining S1 to S3 pupils.
It’s been a dreadful week of uncertainty for families, but in the past four days the Council has now put in place alternative arrangements for 5,900 pupils, which is quite an achievement. Parents have been directly notified of the new arrangements and details are available on the Council website.
Council Leader Andrew Burns said: “I’m delighted we have now been able to put in place arrangements for our primary, special school and majority of secondary pupils. Work is continuing to accommodate our S1, S2 and S3 pupils.
“The integration of pupils sharing schools has been going well and all our host staff and children have been welcoming the additional pupils and their teachers. I again want to pay credit to the Chief Executive and his team for their work on what has been a huge logistical challenge for the Council.
“On Wednesday evening the Council received early indications that suggest evidence of faults across all 17 affected schools to a varying extent. At the moment it is too early to say what the impact will be as full survey results from Edinburgh Schools Partnership have not been yet been received. Some faults may be easy to fix and may not present a major problem while others could be longer term.
“We will provide parents with further information on the impact of individual school surveys once the full reports are received and assessed.
“What is certain is that we won’t take risks with the safety of our schools children and schools won’t reopen until Edinburgh Schools Partnership can assure us of their safety. As part of the contract, Edinburgh Schools Partnership own, maintain and assure the safety of the affected buildings.
“We will publish further information on individual school surveys when these are formally received and of course provide an update to parents on their individual schools and the remediation works required.”
The programme of structural surveys arranged by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership is ongoing.
The Council will update parents directly, via text message, the Council website (www.edinburgh.gov.uk/schoolclosures and via the Council Twitter @Edinburgh_CC as soon as information becomes available.
CLOSED SCHOOLS: DETAILED SURVEYS UNDERWAY
‘The safety of children and our staff is our main priority’ – City Council Chief Executive Andrew Kerr
The Chief Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and senior education officials met with directors of the Edinburgh School Partnership (ESP) this afternoon (Sunday 10 April) to receive an update on the programme of detailed structural surveys which is underway on the PPP1 schools. Continue reading CLOSED SCHOOLS: DETAILED SURVEYS UNDERWAY
Tree-mendous: Christmas arrives in Muirhouse!
Tonight’s the night at Muirhouse Shopping Centre
Dull old Muirhouse Shopping Centre will be transformed into a local winter wonderland tonight when Community Action North (CAN) kicks the Christmas season off in style!
Why are we doing this? During the first phase of the Community Action North project we spoke to dozens of local groups and hundreds of local people – and one of their biggest complaints was about the state of the shopping centre. Everyone agrees it’s not the most welcoming environment, so we decided to do something about it – even if only temporarily. And when Urban Union kindly offered to donate a real Christmas tree we thought: if places like Corstorphine, Morningside and Stockbridge can have public Christmas trees, why not Muirhouse too?
It’s taken a while to organise and has presented a number of challenges – I’m sure Santa’s Christmas present run is easier to plan – but we’re almost there and tonight we hope local people will join us to celebrate our community at a very special time of year.
We’ve been working away to make the Centre look a little bit brighter – children from the local primary schools created some brilliant snowflake stencils and these are now being painted on the walls by a team from Tomorrow’s People, supported by Austeja from North Edinburgh Arts.
Our Christmas tree, a mighty twenty-two foot Norwegian Spruce, was delivered and erected yesterday and will be decorated today. We’ll also be adding some more lights around the Centre to give it that festive feel. There’s still a lot to be done, but we’ll get there!
So what could possibly go wrong? Well, quite a lot – as many local people have been quick to point out! However we’ve looked at all the possibilities, we’ve weighed up all the risks and we’re giving it a go. Christmas is a time of hope, of new beginnings and more than anything it’s about children – and we believe our local children deserve to have their own tree, here in their community.
Among tonight’s highlights:
- Christmas Tree lighting ceremony
- Music from Craigroyston Community High School
- Free festive food and drink at North Edinburgh Arts
- Sweets for the children
- A visit from Santa
- An opportunity to hear about CAN – what CAN can do for you, for groups and for our community
The festive fun kicks off at 5pm. Santa Claus is coming to Pennywell tonight – we hope you will too!
Andy and Dave, Community Action North CAN
Sun shines down on Autumn Games
More than four hundred and fifty P7s from eleven local schools took part in the Active Schools Autumn Games at Broughton High School today. The children took the opportunity to try out six different sports and there were prizes at the end for top school teams too.
Active Schools coordinator Robert Ure, who organised the event, explained: “The eleven primary schools who took part were Pirniehall and St Davids from the Craigroyston Cluster; Granton, Ferryhill, Flora Stevenson and Stockbridge from the Broughton Cluster; Trinity, Wardie and Victoria from the Trinity Cluster and Abbeyhill and Broughton from the Drummond Cluster.
“They are all P7 classes and I’d estimate we had between 450 – 500 pupils in attendance. The pupils competed in six different competitions – girl’s rugby, boy’s rugby, lacrosse (new this year), football, Tae Kwon Do and fencing – and the winners were presented with a shield to keep for a year.”
Robert thanked the coaches and volunteers for their essential support in making the event such a success – and there was also a huge thank-you to the school children who took part: while the competition was spirited and enthusiastic, the young athletes were impeccably behaved and a credit to their schools throughout.
And the winners on the day?
Tae Kwon Do – Trinity
Boys Rugby – Wardie
Girls Rugby – Flora Stevenson
Fencing – St David’s
Football – Granton
Lacrosse – Victoria
Congratulations to all the winners, but as we all know it’s not just about winning, it’s the taking part – so well done to all 450 young sports stars who helped to make the Autumn Games so special!
More pictures on our Facebook page