Work begins on new West Dunbartonshire high school

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work has officially started on a new £25million secondary school in Dumbarton.

Construction of the new Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School is expected to take 18 months with the first pupils set to be welcomed to the building in October 2017.

The three-storey school, which is being built on Council-owned land in Bellsmyre, will accommodate 1000 pupils and feature state of the art classrooms, an ICT suite, construction skills area, hospitality kitchen, outdoor teaching spaces and an allotment garden.

The facility will also include a floodlit all-weather sports pitch for football and hockey, three outdoors games courts, a fitness suite, gyms, games hall with retractable bleacher seating and a flexible social space incorporating a performance area. All of the facilities will be available for community use outwith school hours.

S1 pupils Michael Harkin; Erin Lynn and Evie McEwan joined Educational Services Convener Michelle McGinty and Depute Convener John Mooney to break the ground at the site and officially mark the start of work on the project.

Councillor Michelle McGinty, Convener of Educational Services, said: “This project is about improving the life chances of our children and young people and providing them with a school which will fully support their learning, attainment and achievement. In reality the whole community will benefit from the fantastic facilities which are being developed on this site.”

Councillor John Mooney, Depute Convener of Educational Services, said: “As a Council we’re committed to ensuring that our young people are educated in the best possible facilities. When the new Our Lady and St Patrick’s is constructed it will also complete the full regeneration of our mainstream secondary school estate moving thousands of pupils into buildings which fully support their needs and aspirations.”

Headteacher Christopher Smith said: “Our pupils, parents and staff are very excited about the work beginning on our new school campus at Bellsmyre. The new school and the new facilities will continue to support our work and the ambitions and high expectations that we have for every young person at Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School.”

Secondary School Teacher’s National Ballot

This provides an update on current developments at a national level and the potential for industrial action by Secondary School Teachers Trades Unions.

In December 2015, teaching union EIS announced that they had consulted their members on possible industrial action in response to workload concerns related to the new SQA qualifications.

Of those who participated 93% expressed support in principle for industrial action. On Friday, 13 May, EIS announced plans to hold a statutory ballot of members over these concerns.

It follows a review by a working group established by the Scottish Government to examine ways of reducing bureaucracy and extra workload linked to the new curriculum and qualifications.

The Assessment and National Qualification Working Group has since published an interim report setting out a series of recommendations to address concerns under four main headings:

• Changes to national qualification assessment requirements
• Quality assurance and verification
• Expectations on advice and good practice, and
• A new programme of engagement with teachers and schools.

Teaching unions have indicated that they do not believe it will make an immediate impact on workload concerns.

National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) began taking action short of strike from 12 May in relation to this issue.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) are also balloting members with a view to seeking a formal mandate for action.

Subject specific SQA guidance is set to be published at the end of May, and this also has the potential to have an impact on workload.

Ballot papers will be issued to EIS members over the coming weeks.

The EIS has stated that any action would stop short of a strike but would see teachers working to contract.

If support is given for the action, it is believed this would begin close to the start of the summer holiday period at the end of June and would likely impact on assessment and reporting related to the new qualifications.

This is a national campaign, and while as a Council we are already introducing a number of measures to reduce workload at a local level, we would not be involved in any local negotiations to influence the outcome of the ballot process.

If support is achieved for industrial action, it is believed this would begin at the end of June and would likely impact on assessment and reporting related to the new qualifications at our secondary schools.

Leaders Column the Lennox May 2016

 

 

It is extremely pleasing to see a number of key projects progressing across the area as we continue to build a better West Dunbartonshire.

Just last week work officially started on the new £25m Our Lady and St Patrick’s High School in Bellsmyre.

This state-of-the-art facility will take around 18 months to build and once completed will provide a modern, fit-for-purpose school for 1,000 pupils.

While it was a frustrating wait before funding from the Scottish Government could be confirmed, I am excited to now see the project on site.

As well as the fantastic teaching facilities, the new school will also include a floodlit all-weather sports pitch for football and hockey, three outdoors games courts, a fitness suite, gyms, games hall and a flexible social space incorporating a performance area.

These fabulous sports spaces will all be available for the community to use, which will play a part in improving the health and wellbeing of our residents.

Two other new sports facilities have also now opened to the public and are already being used by a number of teams throughout the area.

Argyll Park, in Alexandria, now boasts a full-size 3G synthetic pitch and the existing facility in East End Park, Dumbarton, has been upgraded to provide a modern 3G pitch.

The Council’s £865,000 investment in these facilities, which was complemented by a number of external funding sources, is part of a major programme of sporting investment across the area.

Further developments are on site, including a new sports facility at St Ronan’s Primary nearing completion, which continue to transform our communities.

In addition another £1m of community capital projects are being rolled out across the area and we are already looking ahead to other potential projects for 2017.

The dust is also just settling on the most exciting election fight for the Dumbarton constituency. This was as predicted the closest contested seat in the whole of Scotland.

The two main contenders Labour and SNP fought a really tough election, which in the end was settled by just 109 votes. Congratulations to both candidates for a great campaign.

Despite the Scottish Parliaments in-built, pro-independence majority, there is absolutely no possibility of another Referendum over the next five years as the previous White Paper was shown to be utterly flawed and instead of a potential surplus to fund all of the promises we ended up with a £15 Billion deficit.

However, one thing we can be sure about is the Scottish Parliament will be really interesting as the minority Scottish Government will be forced to deal with the Tories to get their budgets through, forced to deal with Labour to get progressive social welfare policies through and forced to deal with the Greens to ensure real progress on environmental issues.

Martin Rooney
Leader West Dunbartonshire Council