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Save our Subjects and a Huge Thank you

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As many of you will know the last year and a half has seen an incredibly busy time for the Parent Council due to the Estates Review which culminated in our “Save our Subjects” campaign.
We are pleased to say that Breadalbane Academy were not only listened to but acknowledged by Councillors and the Minister for Education himself as a strong example of a well performing school with a diverse and varied curriculum.
  • No detriment can be caused to our school, complimentary courses will be considered to be offered at PHS by Perth College and UHI (benefitting both us and PHS students).
  • Full expansion to S5 and S6 at Pitlochry High School has been ruled out based on detailed educational analysis.
  • Both school Heads, Mr Devine and Mrs Liney (PHS) worked incredibly hard to improve the transition for PHS students into Breadalbane Academy at S5,  a transition that works well for some but was acknowledged could be better for others.
  • We now look eagerly for the Council to deliver on their commitment to focus on the digital offering and capability of BA…..

AND we feel its incredibly important to say THANK YOU>>>
Our community 

We would like to thank all those who rallied together to show support and have a strong voice to stand up for our school.

Our educators

We would also like to acknowlegde the teaching staff at Breadalbane Academy. Unable to speak publicly on the matter, as directed by the council, they remained engaged and showed their support and they understood that when the parents stood up to defend our school, that included the great educators that Breadalbane Academy holds.

Our Head

And we say a huge thanks to our Head, Mr Devine for his help and support.  When the estates review began no education analysis had been done on any of the options the council presented. All parents were in the dark as to the impact and Mr Devines support of the Parent Council was invaluable.

Our expert consultant 

Retired Director of Education, Bruce Robertson, with his unfaltering support and guidance we were able to have a strong and factual argument which lead to our strong representation of what is right under Scottish law and in education.

The school office

Those that sit in the school office must be especially thanked for all their support, keeping us organised and going that extra mile to help us run our campaign.
thank you, stay tuned and do join us on the 12th of March at the Chraggs for the fundraiser pub quiz and raffle (8pm)
Thank you
Eleanor and Lyndsey – co-chairs

Fundraising, Meetings, Parent council

Hello 2020….

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Welcome one and all back to school.. 2020 is looking like a great year.

22nd January members of the Parent council will attend the Lifelong learning
committee meeting to hear the councillors response to the Actions that the two subcommittees (that both PHS and BA were members of)… we will report back on this

NEXT Parent council MEETING Thursday 30th January – 6.30pm at Breadalbane Academy (including update on “save our subjects” campaign). – (next meeting then is 27th February – poss senior school focused TBC)

Still time to buy your fundraising 2020 Calendar – on sale in town and at the school reception… perfect last minute late gift and all funds go to the pupils projects and trips…

The wonderful people at the zero Waste shop on the square “HANDEM” continue to sell 2nd hand school uniform for Breadalbane Academy (until April) … all donations please do pop to the shop or leave at reception… THANK YOU

If you do have lovely things to donate and/or time to give too – we have the THRIFT SHOP Sunday 10th May to Saturday 16th May 2020.

LOOKING also for a new Treasurer to take over in August… please do get in touch if this might be you..

If you have ideas for fundraising, topics for discussion at the meeting or any other school related matters that you would like to speak to the parent council about .. please email us at chairperson@breadalbaneparents.com 

 

thank you from Lyndsey and Eleanor (co-chairs of BA Parent council)

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Estates Review Update – meeting notes

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Hello, Please find here the first steering group meeting notes from the meeting in Perth on 23rd October (notes are prepared by the council)

Minute – HPLP Steering Group 1 (23 Oct 2019)

  • Please pay particular attention to what is stated in section 4 and 5 and as ever we are happy to answer your questions.
  • email us at chairperson@breadalbaneparents.com

Lyndsey and Eleanor (co-chairs) have 2 Learning sub committee meetings -(13th and 18th of November)- before we report back (to all attendees of the steering group) for the first time on the 25th of November in Perth.

BA head teacher and a depute will attend both the Learning sub committee (focused on education) meetings and the Property Sub committee (focused on the use of PHS property)

With BAPC only attending the Learning sub committee

 

The following dates & times were agreed for the next 2 meetings of the Steering Group:

  • 25th November 2019 – 1pm – 3pm – at Pitlochry High School
  • 17th December 2019 – 1pm – 3pm – at Breadalbane Academy

 

BAPC continue to ask for support for our campaign, we are now involved in the committee meetings but remain concerned over the flawed process that we find ourselves involved in.

https://www.change.org/p/save-our-subjects-tell-perth-kinross-council-pkc-to-halt-plans-which-threaten-breadalbane-academy-curriculum 

 

NEXT PARENT COUNCIL MEETING

6.30pm Wednesday 20th of NOVEMBER at Breadalbane Academy 

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latest update – statement in todays Courier

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Councillor John Duff has confirmed (in todays Courier)

“The steering group will consider if there is a way in which some S5/S6 pupils could take some lessons on some occasions from Pitlochry High School, provided this is not detrimental to education at Breadalbane.

“This may or may not be a possibility.”

 

BAPC have requested written confirmation of this interpretation of the amendment by the two local councillors who proposed the amendment , Councillor Xander McDade and Councillor Mike Williamson.

Parents at Perthshire school urge council to save subjects as more than 200 attend meeting

estates review

Lyndsey and Eleanor (co-chairs BAPC) went to Perth to meet at PKC… here is what was said…

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On the Wednesday 23 October, the steering group responsible for making recommendations on the future of secondary education in Highland Perthshire met for the first time. Representatives of Breadalbane Academy Parent Council (BAPC) were part of the group. This is BAPC’s summary of the meeting:

Who was there?
The following people are members of the steering group:

• The head teachers of both Pitlochry and Breadalbane
• The PKC education specialists who wrote the September 2019 report on education in Highland Perthshire
• Representatives of Breadalbane and Pitlochry parent councils, in equal numbers.
• Representative from UHI
• PKC Interim Director of Education
• PKC Estates Review team
• Chair
• Interim Service Manager

👉What was said?
(NB we have requested from PKC a copy of the minutes that were taken yesterday and are more than happy to share these when we receive them)

The following things emerged at the meeting:

• The interim director of education said that delivering S5 and S6 in full in Pitlochry is off the table.
• The steering group consider other options for delivering parts of S5 & S6 in Pitlochry.
• Everyone must feel able to agree to whatever proposals are put forward to the January 2020 meeting of the PKC lifelong learning committee.
• All participants agreed that there must be no detriment to either school. 👈

👉Has PKC defined ‘detriment’ yet?
No. Officials said that “detriment” is challenging to define as it is broad and multi-faceted.

This is a point of great importance for BAPC, because how ‘detriment’ is defined will heavily influence what councillors decide to do to our kids’ education in January.

👉BAPC’s view, which we will continue to represent, is that any definition of ‘detriment’ must:

• Rule out any loss of teachers, pupils, funding, subjects or courses.
• Rule out replacing in-classroom teaching with substitutes such as e-learning.
• Rule out bussing children around the area during the school day.
• Rule out paying more unless this can be shown to sustainably provide extra resources and teachers
• Take as its base the educational status quo, to which only enhancements can be contemplated

👉We hope that this will become apparent as the meetings continue. BAPC will continue, as it has always done, to ask questions and to ask for transparency, justification and explanation.

👉What budget would be available for any new arrangements?
This is still unknown and will be determined later in the process.

However, council officials made it clear that their budget for school buildings, for the next 10 years, is already set.

👉BAPC was delighted to hear our fellow parents from Pitlochry reaffirm that this process is about “compliment not competition”. This has been our view all along and we are happy to hear it is also the view of Pitlochry parent council.

🙏BAPC is committed to communicating everything said by the experts in full, transparently and honestly. If there are any queries about this meeting, please feel free to contact us. We will update you as soon as we know when the next meeting will be. PKC hopes to arrange two sub-committee meetings before we meet again in Perth towards the end of November.

🤝Going forward we ask that in addition to the voices of the Parent councils and the communities we represent , that it is those that know their schools best, the Head teachers partnered by the councils own education specialist and digital strategy specialist that are listened to.🤝

🙏Thank you again for your engagement and welcome any questions🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

chairperson@breadalbaneparents.com

estates review

THANK YOU….

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Thank you again to all those who came on Tuesday night, Aberfeldy Town hall was filled with over 200 people from Breadalbane and all our feeder school reps and MSPs John Swinney and Murdo Fraser and local councillors.. …

🙏Thank you to the so many people who have sent messages and approached us with your positive messages of support for our hard work and for our unfaltering commitment for BA to be recognised for the high performing and welcoming school it is for so many children and young people.

🙏Thank you to you for caring about our School, our community and most importantly about the future of our childrens education…

As our wonderful community has been doing please remain engaged and do continue to email us directly

👉chairperson@breadalbaneparents.com
or speak to us in person … 😊

Achievement, estates review

Parent Council incredibly proud of Our Head boy and Head girl

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Breadalbane Academy Parent Council are incredibly proud of our head boy and head girl (pictured here with MSP and Minister for Education and Skills at Tuesday nights meeting).

They represented the pupil body so eloquently and brilliantly and filled the room with pride for the young people who attend Breadalbane Academy.

A credit to their families and to our school

Meetings

As requested – Amendment passed by Life long learning committee on 4th September 2019

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The amendment that was proposed by Councillor Xander McDade and seconded by Councillor Mike Williamson and passed by Councillor John Duff and the administration.

Last night all councillors confirmed expansion of S5 and S6 at PHS is now “off the table”

 

Agreed Amendment that was passed on the 4th of September at the life long learning committee meeting.

(BELOW was provided to BAPC by Councillor John Duff on the 9th of September

PHS PC were informed of the amendment by councillors BEFORE it was announced)

 

Requests the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) progress with developing a detailed plan for the Highland Perthshire Learning Partnership as appropriate, with both school Senior Leadership Teams, Perth College UHI, young people, parents/carers and the wider community through a working group. Engagement should take place with local elected members throughout the process where appropriate.

Requests the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) explore proposals to identify wider community use of Pitlochry High School and to look at property and community facilities in conjunction with other services and partners;

Requests the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) consider as part of the development of the HPLP different models for the delivery of education across the two sites, which should include a delivery of S5 and S6 from Pitlochry High School and would not be detrimental to the educational offer at Breadalbane Academy.

Requests the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) undertake a scoping exercise on the possibility of making the Kirkmichael Primary School catchment area a dual secondary school catchment for both Pitlochry High School and Blairgowrie High School; and

Requests the Executive Director (Education and Children’s Services) to report back to the Lifelong Learning Committee at its January 2020 meeting with an update on the work undertaken by the working group, and to report back on the scoping exercise at the earliest opportunity.