Gairloch High School Parent Council

September 2009

• 2 years ago HMI praised the wide-ranging curriculum offered at GHS yet now, it is being cut for short term savings with no regard to the impact this will have on our children’s future or the future of our community.  What is the Council’s ‘bottom line’ for the curriculum here?  How does that equate to an equal and fair provision across the Highland area when we are being forced to make non-strategic cuts?

• The Highland Council’s funding formula for schools, while banded for different sizes of school, is flawed by the lack of recognition of the impact of being in a remote rural location.  When we lose a teacher we lose a whole department.  We are not able to partner other High Schools to maintain a full curriculum for our children, nor can we create links with colleges or business partners.  We’ve had no Home Economics department for more than a year, we’ve lost our specialist History teacher and Business Studies under threat.  We believe this crisis requires a strategic solution.  We argue that our geographical isolation should be compensated for by the allocation of an additional resource.

• GHS is preparing for Curriculum for Excellence and the new S1-S3 curriculum where staff will work across subject areas. Pupils will then move into studying specialist subjects in S4-S6, and the General Teaching Council’s professional legislation is very clear that it is not acceptable to use non-specialist teachers.  How can the necessary spread of expertise for core and specialist teaching be achieved so that the required Highers are available for Uni and future employment, when departments are being cut?

• We are not starting with a blank sheet and we want to make the best use of the valuable skills and expertise already here.  Senior school should also include vocational aspects but how is that expected to be achieved?

• GHS has a high rate of children going on to higher education (50%) which is very different from other rural schools.  However, there has now been a big reduction in options for our senior pupils.  Along with reduced access to courses at School, open learning courses are being slashed and many of those that remain, are already full, leaving our seniors without places.  Obtaining contributions to travel costs getting more difficult and is not without a fight, making access to part-time college courses which are running, out of reach for most pupils.  How will our senior pupils achieve the qualifications they need to achieve their goals?

• Given the number of pupils in the School, it was traditionally allowed to maintain a full curriculum but this is now under threat for short term savings yet evidence from the Council shows that the current roll of pupils at the High School will be maintained, and with some fluctuation over the next 10 years, will increase overall. This projection does not take account of any families moving into new housing nearby. How can such short-sighted thinking be allowed to disrupt lives for such little gain?

• The original rationale for the school was to increase the pupil population, avoiding the need for pupils to travel to Dingwall and the subsequent loss to the community as many moved away for good.  This was successful and although the number of senor school leavers staying in Highland is low because of the lack of prospects, a significant number choose to return with their families to raise their children here however, a School with a diminishing curriculum will mean diminishing pupil numbers and diminishing results.  How does the Council intend to avoid creating this potentially irreversible and self-defeating downward spiral?

• The new GHS was set up as a Community School, offering a wider provision to support the local community, yet the only additional funding is for a 0.6 FTE (Full Time Equivalent) Gaelic teacher.  What should a Community School be delivering?  Specifically?  The School would be able to deliver far more classes in Gaelic medium but teaching staff resources do not allow for that either.

• Although the School’s original resourcing achieved the aim of reversing the depopulation trend, and there were good economic reasons, it has not been funded to sustain this.  Net savings of £66,000 from hostel accommodation were to be allocated back to the School annually thereafter – where has this gone?

• There is a lack of understanding of what change on this scale means in a remote rural location, when reallocation of teachers at short notice is not about driving half an hour in another direction to a different job but forcibly uprooting the whole family, involving partner’s jobs, children’s school, the impact of being forced to leave friends and relatives etc. This is why time for making strategic change is so essential.  What provision is being made for this?

• Actually achieving the savings at short notice is a non-starter.  We are now in a position where despite ‘appearing’ to accept the School’s plan for cuts, Highland Council has left budgetary responsibility for these posts with the School.  If the Highland Council does not follow through with the original plan, are we to be expected to make more non-strategic cuts next year??  Will we be refused permission to fill the next teacher vacancy that occurs, whatever subject that happens to be?  What assurance will we be given that this will not be the case?

• On top of this we struggle to get help for the community in areas such as mental health, youth workers and social work.  Neither is there any provision made for ‘key worker housing’.  All of these have an impact on the school.  Support from the community far outweighs the number of people involved, where is the recognition of this by the council in hard cash?