“Speak to us,” Castlebay pupils urge education director 16/3/10
Pupils at troubled Castlebay School on Barra want a meeting with the Western
Isles' director of education.
They are upset that director Joan Mackinnon apparently spurned them and refused to discuss the teaching problems at the school with them.
Parents have already demanded a meeting with education bosses and will discuss the school's problems with council's senior schools' manager Bernard Chisholm on Barra tomorrow.
The Parent Council is due to meet tonight over worries at "the lack of consultation and the lack of improvement."
But the pupils' own latest attempt to contact the island’s top education boss
was sparked by the apparent failure to provide proper lessons in a number of
Higher subjects in Castlebay School on Friday.
It was compounded when the council effectively banned students from using school computers to access an internet blog site where they had submitted their views on the problems.
The council blocked access to Angus Nicolson’s site saying he was not properly moderating criticism of school staff.
Students say they are now struggling with subjects and fear they will fail their
imminent exams because of insufficient teaching time.
They maintain that four out of six Higher classes were covered by a retired
primary supply teacher resulting in no proper lessons.
An attempt to raise the issue with the Director of Education was unsuccessful.
The pupil was offered a meeting with Bernard Chisholm, who is the council’s head
of schools’ senior manager and is in Barra this week dealing with issues with the
pre-
Mr Chishom also faces a showdown with the parents’ council tomorrow.
A council spokesman pointed out the council was aware of the problems at Castlebay School. He said tackling the problems was an ongoing process.
He said: “People need to work together on this rather than create divisions.
“This is not a crisis. The HMI report said that attainment levels are meeting national standards. They are even higher than the Scottish standard.
He added: “People need to understand the education director runs the department and all the schools in the Western Isles.
“The director takes decisions over which of her staff she allocates.
He said: “Mr Chisholm is a professional dealing with theses issues and is working actively on an action plan. He is a senior officer and is familiar with the issues.”
One concerned student said the director “did not take the call. Apparently she is busy all week.
“This is the third HMI report criticising the school -
A worried islander highlighted a “lack of teaching for secondary pupils preparing for their final exams and the type of response that is provided by the council, CnES. “
“Regularly the council can be found to be 'ducking and diving' valid issues” adding that lack of teaching this week is an alleged “regular occurrence amongst concerns in the school that adversely affect pupils and the lack of support from the council.”
There is a lack of teachers for Art and English at the school.
In the third critical report HM Inspector Elisabeth Ritchie warns pupils are being let down by teachers stressing: “Standards of reading, writing and mathematics by the end of S2 have fallen.”