Anger over ‘rushed’ primary school extensions proposals

Published on 08/01/2013 12:00

EDUCATION chiefs have been accused of trying to rush through extensions to four primary schools by building them against government guidelines.

New classrooms are due to be open at Trinity, Wardie, Granton and Victoria primaries by August, even though the £4 million project is still at the consultation stage.

One architect whose children attend Wardie Primary today hit out at the plans, saying the use of permanent prefabricated buildings was against advice handed out by the Scottish 
Government.

David Jamieson, 45, also a member of the school’s parent-teacher council, said: “The main problem with these plans is that they follow a standardised, one-size-fits-all model, when a document released by the Scottish Government in 2009 called Building Better Schools clearly states that this approach should not be used.

“It stipulates that the emphasis of new school building should be on innovation and personalisation rather than on standardisation. Too many schools these days are surrounded by these little odd boxes, and to repeat that mistake here seems like a major missed opportunity.

“There has also been no attempt to give the buildings any green credentials whatsoever and the emphasis appears to be on what is best suited to access for the contractors, as opposed to the circulation of pupils around the school or passive solar benefits.”

Mr Jamieson, who works for Zone Architects in Granton and has one son in primary three and another in primary four, also criticised the public consultation process, which is set to end next week.

He said: “The fact that all the consultations were launched at the same time – right before Christmas – is a bit too coincidental, if you ask me. I think this was done deliberately in order to reduce the number of objections received as they knew that school offices would be closed and parents busy.”

Green education spokesperson Councillor Melanie Main said Mr Jamieson’s criticisms were “hard to dispute”.

She said: “The school estate is clearly being compromised by these prefabricated quick fixes. Valuable playground space is being sacrificed because the city council has left itself with little choice other than a rush-job on new school accommodation before this August.

“But this is because it ignored all the warnings about rising school rolls when it closed several primary schools in north Edinburgh over the last five years. Children will be putting up with little more than modern-day Portakabins as a direct result of short-term thinking about the number and quality of schools that the Capital needs.”

Education convener Councillor Paul Godzik defended the city council’s approach.

He said: “The planning applications were submitted with the purpose of meeting the required timeline to get the extensions built by the start of the school term in August. I would encourage anyone with an opinion on this to contribute to the consultation, which is open until January 14.

“We have worked to be on the front foot with this issue and are taking an innovative approach to rising rolls in our schools by introducing high quality classrooms which fit with the needs of each of the schools. We have consulted with these schools and found wide general support for this and locations were chosen to best fit the operational requirements of each school.”

Related Articles

• Schools eye extension plan to tackle growing problem

  AN urgent review into ways of accommodating soaring rolls in the Capital’s primary schools is to look at adding extensions to five primary schools.

  4 Comments

• Fort school to reopen just two years after closure as pupil numbers soar

  A PRIMARY school closed just two years ago may be opened up again to cope with soaring pupil numbers.

  10 Comments

• Primaries to be extended

  FOUR city primary schools are set to receive permanent extensions to accommodate soaring rolls.

  0 Comments

• Electrifying designs for tram stops

  THEY are images which look more like the work of Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali than those of Scottish architecture firms. But the creations are a vision for the streets of the Capital rather than for the walls of a modern art gallery.

• That was the year that was

  JANUARY