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