Our Children: Education and Families

My colleague Cammy Day, has drafted a short piece on 'Our Children: Education and Families', which is over on the Edinburgh Labour website --- I'll reproduce the text below, for those interested:

For the last five years, as part of the Capital Coalition, Labour has taken the lead in Education for the city - our current Convener of Education, Councillor Cammy Day, outlines our achievements:

Community Access & young people

Edinburgh Labour have continued to deliver more Community Access to our school estate. In partnership with community organisations and Edinburgh Leisure we want to ensure our schools are used to their best potential and that local communities are a key part of the school community.  Already Edinburgh Labour have delivered partnerships with James Gillespie’s and Portobello High School – and will do much more.

Recently we launched our Youth Work Strategy with the Edinburgh Youth Work Consortium, confirming our commitment to youth work services in the future. We have expanded participatory budgeting into Youth Work – to give young people their say in not only setting the agenda for youth work but deciding on what should be funded in the future. Over the next three years we want to see youth work funding set and agreed by the young people who use the services.  Next year, 2018, sees the International Year of the Young Person – and Edinburgh Labour will ensure our young people are leading the charge to ensure a capital city that young people are proud of.

Early Years & Childcare

Edinburgh Labour wants to give every child the best start in life.  We have invested in more early years and childcare provision across the city. In December this year, the Labour led administration committed to delivering a universal Breakfast Club for every child in our schools. We will continue to support extra resources for children requiring additional support

We want to make early years’ provision more flexible to fit in with family needs and provide extra resources to ensure that no children fall behind classmates when they start school.  We will expand early years and childcare to deliver the increased hours required.

Working with the Voluntary Sector and wider childcare sector we will deliver a new partnership to deliver the best start for our children and young people.

Investing in our Schools – fit for the future

Our capital city continues to expand, with 300-400 new families coming to the city every month, adding additional pressure to our school estate. In the last five years the Labour led administration in Edinburgh have delivered a new award winning secondary school at James Gillespie’s, a state of the art new build at Portobello and a new young people’s service at Heathervale.

In addition more classroom space has been delivered at Victoria Primary, Wardie Primary and Granton Primary and new gym halls and dining facilities in the primary schools detailed below.

Over the last five years, this is what we have delivered ---

Capital Investment:

·         Broughton PS (4 class)

·         Clermiston PS (4 class)

·         Craigour Park PS (6 class)

·         East Craigs PS (3 class)

·         Flora Stevenson PS (3 class)

·         Fox Covert PS and St Andrew’s Fox Covert RC Primary School (4 class)

·         Gilmerton PS (4 class)

·         Granton PS (2 class)

·         James Gillespie’s PS (4 class)

·         Liberton PS (4 class) [under construction]

·         Pentland PS (3 class)

·         Ratho PS (4 class)

·         St David’s RC PS (4 class)

·         St Mary’s RC PS (Leith) (2 class)

·         Trinity PS (4 class)

·         Victoria PS (4 class)

·         Wardie PS (5 classes in 2 phases)

In addition we have built classrooms extensions at:

·         Corstorphine PS

·         Towerbank PS

·         Kirkliston PS

New halls have been built or existing halls extended at:

·         Blackhall PS

·         East Craigs PS

·         Sciennes PS

·         Trinity PS

·         Towerbank PS

·         Cramond PS

·         St Margaret’s RC [under construction]

We will continue to invest in more schools in our city to provide the best education we can to the next generation of young people.

We will build new schools at St John’s Portobello, St Crispin’s, Broomhills, Gilmerton Station Road, Leith Waterfront, Granton Waterfront, Maybury, Brunstane and Queensferry – and deliver new Secondary Schools for Castlebrae and West Edinburgh.

We want to provide the best learning environment for our young people and The Scottish Government need to provide support and resources to help deliver these schools and continue the upward travel of attainment that we have delivered year on year.

Cammy Day

Education Children & Families Convenor

cammy.day@edinburgh.gov.uk