Castlebrae Community High School visit

I've posted up information, a couple of times, since the decision to keep Castlebrae High School open was made back in March ... here and here specifically.

And I did promise to write further about the Education Commission/Working Group, as it developed ...

... well, next Tuesday the Education Committee will consider a report (now available here) on the formal establishment of the Group - the Evening News covered some of the story last week - including the fact that my SNP-colleague, Councillor Cathy Fullerton, will Chair/oversee the upcoming work.

So, I was delighted earlier today to visit the school with Cathy, and to meet the Head Boy, Head Girl, and members of the Parent Council ... here's a shot of us outside the entrance to the school :-)

And, it gives me the opportunity just to reinforce the March Council decision ...

... if you want to hear either my own actual contribution to the debate on the 14th March, or Councillor Cardownie's, just follow these two links:

• Andrew Burns contribution
• Steve Cardownie contribution

To paraphrase my own brief speech:

• at the end of last year, we made it plain that the new Craigmillar Secondary School will be delivered by August 2020 at the latest.
•  I put all the documentation into the public domain at the time - follow the links from the 7-points here.
• we've now decided to keep the current Castlebrae Community High School (CCHS) open.
• an update report will now go the next meeting of the Education Committee on Tuesday 21st May.
• every effort, including the establishment of the community-requested 'Education Commission', will now be made to ensure that CCHS is successful between 2013 and 2020.
• the objective will be to ensure the current school remains open and successful until the new school is ready. 

I'm now really looking forward to hearing more from the Working Group and seeing its deliberations, and proposals, put into practice over coming months and years.