Letter to new director of education from Students Defending Dundee Schools



Dear Mr Hood,

We are writing on behalf of Students Defending Dundee Schools, an organisation set up and democratically run by secondary school pupils who attend the nine Local Authority secondary schools.  Students Defending Dundee Schools (SDDS) is an anti-education cuts campaign which also opposes the City Campus proposal. 

We are calling for Dundee City Council to start a City wide consultation on the City Campus proposal which should include pupils, parents, trade unions, teachers and the wider community.  We also want the council to scrap the planned £4 million in cuts and to instead fully fund the provision of all classes in secondary schools and to protect schools and education from the cuts.

On Friday 1^st April, a protest of 180 secondary school students took place outside Tayside House.  A representative of SDDS went inside to submit a petition on behalf of the pupils who signed it.  The representative also requested an appointment with your predecessor, Mr Collins for a later date. We were asked by the receptionist at the time to come and make the appointment at a later date as Mr Collins was on holiday.

Representatives of SDDS again requested an appointment and we were told that Mr Collins would not speak to us.  It was also mentioned that your predecessor would be consulting with ‘selected representatives’ from each secondary school.

A representative of our campaign attended the meeting on 19/04/11 as a representative of 4^th Year at Morgan Academy. However, this is not the type of ‘consultation’ SDDS has been calling for. We believe that 18 representatives out of 7,000 plus Secondary Students aren’t nearly good enough for a consultation. All students who have strong feelings should have an input on the proposal, as well as teachers, school staff, parents, trade unions and the wider community.

Again, we would like to request an appointment with you, as newly appointed Director of Education.  It would be a good opportunity to discuss properly our issues with the City Campus proposal.  I hope you accept our request of an appointment with you.

Yours Sincerely

David Mundt

Wayne Scott

Basil Ibrahim

Representative of Morgan Academy

Students Defending Dundee Schools

School students march on May Day

A Students Defending Dundee Schools contingent took part in the May Day demonstration in Dundee on April 29.





“Pupils vote overwhelmingly against City Campus”

On Saturday, Students Defending Dundee Schools took to the streets of Dundee to highlight what they see as Dundee City Council’s lack of consultation on whether there should be a city campus.

Students Defending Dundee Schools held a “vote” by pupils, parents and teachers in the city centre, with votes being collected in their purpose made ballot box in the city square which gave school students an opportunity to vote on whether or not they want the city campus. They were also collecting more signatures on their petition to add to the ones already handed in to the education department.

Wayne Scott, a pupil from Harris Academy said, “We met students and parents who told us that they think that the city campus is a ridiculous idea and that if given a proper consultation on it involving pupils, teachers, parents and the wider community then they would reject the proposals. Only a tiny number of people voted “yes” in the ballot which reflects the minimal support that the plan has amongst students in Dundee. We also spoke to a teacher who was concerned about the effects that the city campus and other cuts would have on education. We also collected signatures of students from almost every secondary school and encouraged them to get involved in the campaign. It is important that this campaign is present in every school so that we can build the broadest possible movement of school students against education cuts.”

The city council proposal is for students studying Advanced Highers to have their classes merged, meaning students will have to travel across the city to other schools or the universities to be taught in classes with pupils from different schools. Students Defending Dundee Schools believe this is a cut to education and it is ”education being run on the cheap”.

Students Defending Dundee Schools is asking the council to conduct a full consultation over the city campus with well publicised public meetings open to pupils, parents and teachers. They are also campaigning against the other £4million of cuts made to education in Dundee by the council.

This saturday make your voice heard 1pm Overgate

Students Defending Dundee Schools is a campaign of schools students that is active in fighting education cuts in Dundee. Basically we need some funding so that we can print leaflets/ get a banner made etc. We will be having a fundraising stall outside Boots this Saturday. All school students who are interested in coming along would be a great help.

We will also be doing a ballot box on the stall in which pupils can vote "yes" or "no" on whether or not they want the city campus. This will show the council how easy it is ask school students their opinion on the matter which has not been done so far.

The aim of this stall is to widen awareness of our campaign and to try and get people from different schools involved. We will also have more petitions and sign up sheets on the day.

You don't have to be there for the whole time but even if you can give a little support on the day it would be appreciated.

Response to Liberal Democrats call for consultation on city campus

 

 

 

 

 

On April 1 hundreds of Dundee school students took part in a protest and walkout against the SNP councils city campus proposals and £4 million education cuts. This was organised by the Students Defend Dundee Schools campaign who tried to present the education convenor with a petition. However no council officials were present at Tayside House on friday afternoon to meet the protesting school students. Liberal Democrat Councillor Fraser Mcpherson has called in the local press and on his blog for the council to meet school students see  http://www.dundeewestend.com/2011/04/dundee-pupils-should-be-listened-to-and.html.

 

While Students Defending Dundee Schools are pleased that at least one of the councillors believes we have the right to be heard we are concerned that he is using our campaign for political point scoring.  

Wayne Scott Harris Academy representative said " Student’s Defending Dundee Schools were glad to see that at least one councillor believes that our concerns regarding education cuts and the city campus should be listened to by the council. Student’s Defending Dundee Schools is a campaign consisting of school students who are fighting education cuts in this city. All secondary school pupils who oppose cuts and the city campus can get involved in the campaign. Students Defending Dundee Schools organised the 180 strong protest and walkout from Harris against education cuts and the city campus on the 1st of April.
Therefore we find it disappointing that Cllr Macpherson before going to the press did not contact anyone from Students Defending Dundee Schools with regards to writing a letter to the education department about a meeting with pupil representatives.
We do intend on having a meeting with council officials and the SNP administration as soon as we can, however we want a full public consultation with all pupils, teachers and teaching unions in all schools and not just a backroom discussion.
If there were to be a meeting between the council and school student representatives, we would also not wish for an opposition spokesperson to be present at such a meeting unless they fully supported the demand of Student’s Defending Dundee Schools for no cuts to education whatsoever in Dundee and complete opposition to the city campus.

Cllr Macpherson has publicly expressed concerns about the city campus, and we are glad that he has done this. However, he voted at the council’s budget setting meeting for a motion (as did Labour) that still proposed £3.5 million of cuts to education in Dundee. This would devastate education in the city. Many school students also feel that they can place no trust in Liberal Democrat politicians. The Lib Dems since entering the coalition government in Westminster have consistently attacked education. Their government ministers have supported raising tuition fees to £9000 a year, abolishing Education Maintenance Allowance and making massive education cuts in England. They have been no friend of students. We hope that Cllr Macpherson’s concerns are genuine and that he is not doing this to score points against opposition parties. With the Scottish Parliamentary Elections looming and Lib Dem support falling, students would be unhappy if they were to find out that politicians are jumping on our campaign to try and win votes when the reality is that they would still make draconian cuts to our education."

 

Wayne Scott Harris representative Students Defending Dundee Schools
Contact number 07505595235
defenddundeeschools@gmail.com

http://defenddundeeschools.blogspot.com/ 

School students stage anti cuts strike in Dundee

Wayne Scott and Eoin Lesslie on behalf of Students Defending Dundee Schools

150 school students walked out of Harris Academy in Dundee on April 1 and marched on Dundee City Council. The walkout was organised and co-ordinated by Students Defending Dundee Schools (SDDS), a citywide school student led campaign group set up to oppose the councils £4 million cuts to school budgets and proposals to merge Advanced Higher classes into a “City Campus”.

SDDS has grown out of petitioning across Dundee schools against the “city campus” plans. School students see the merging of Advanced Highers as a cut and education being run on the cheap. Pupils will face the inconveniance of having to travel across the city to attend classes previously availiable at their own schools. Despite being presented with a petition with several hundred signatures opposing the plans the SNP council has dismissed the concerns of pupils , parents and staff and begun implementing the plans.

Students from Harris and Morgan academies along with the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign organised a hundred strong protest outside the councils education committee on February 28 linking opposition to the city campus to wider education cuts in the city. The SNP administration continued to ignore the concerns of school students and so plans for a walkout and mass demonstration were made.
Anger has increased as on March 28 SNP councillor Liz Fordyce (now termed by school students as the “Iron Lady of Dundee”) refused to rule out school closures in the councils review of education ending in December 2011.

Hundreds of school students have joined the SDDS facebook group and taken part in organsing the walkout. The local newspapers and the STV website covered the walkout plans and SDDS activist Eoin Lesslie was interviewed on local radio. In response the SNP council rushed out a statement calling on pupils to stay in classes. One SNP councillor told of the plans by a family member even used facebook to privately message SDDS to try and defend their cuts policies and discourage action.

This just made us more determined to organise. Pupils massed at the school entrance and were met by lines of police and teachers. They boldly walked out despite some teachers warning them to stay in classes. Unfortunatley teachers tried to prevent pupils under sixteen from leaving and were successful in forcing a number to stay. We understand that many teachers felt under pressure not to be seen to be supporting the protest and that the cuts will mean threats to their jobs. But we appeal to them to allow all school students to have their democratic rights.

However a large number of fifth and sixth year pupils made it out and began marching.

Despite our concerns at possible trouble with the police once they realised we were determined and organised with our own stewarding , they were very co-operative giving an escort for the march into the city centre.

As the march passed through residential areas into the city centre people of all ages came out onto tenement front steps to applaud, shout encourgement and join in the chanting of “councillors here us say city campus, no way” and “no if’s no buts, no education cuts”.

Once the Harris pupils crowded into the city square they were joined by students from other Dundee secondary schools such as Morgan Academy and St Johns swelling the number of protesters to near two hundred. School students made speeches explaining the need for SDDS and calling for a mass campaign involving all students in Dundee to fight the cuts and oppose the city campus plan.

We then marched to Tayside House and were met with applause by council workers coming out of offices. A delegation was sent in to demand that the education convenor or a representative from the SNP administration meet with us and receive our petition. Disgracefully it was left to admin staff to explain to us that all the councillors had gone home early and not one manager of any department was in the building. Low paid council workers will be angry to find out that council leaders making cuts cant be bothered to work a full day.

SDDS made an appointment with the Education Convenor and handed over our petition. The council can be warned that this will not be the last protest and opposition to the cuts will only increase. Over the easter holidays we plan to build SDDS in every school in Dundee. We are having meetings to organise a steering committee for the campaign with representatives from every school and plan to hold a press conference to get the real story out about the city campus and the education cuts. In the new term we will organise mass lobbies of councillors, further walkouts and demonstrations with the support of Youth Fight for Jobs and the wider anti cuts movement.

SDDS will be a voice for school students as the pro cuts politicians try to silence us. The campaign has contacted the EIS and other teachers unions asking for a discussion about how we can work together and to express support for their campaigning against attacks on pensions, pay and conditions.

Manifesto

Students Defending Dundee Schools is a campaign set up and democratically run by secondary school students. We want to involve all secondary school students in all Dundee secondary schools. We demand:

>>The SNP led council drop the "City Campus" proposal and fully fund the provision of Advanced Highers in every school in Dundee.

>>The Council must agree to a public consultation and meetings involving pupils, parents, teachers, trade unions and the wider community.

 >>A Secondary School Student Union is set up to support and represent secondary school students. –

>>That secondary school students have the right to exercise their Democratic Rights

>>That the voting age be reduced to 16.

Join your fellow students and together fight the cuts! http://defenddundeeschools.blogspot.com, Join the facebook group Students Defending Dundee Schools, email defenddundeeschools@gmail.com