'Silent cheering' keeps the noise down at assemblies

CHILDREN have been forced to adopt "silent cheering" during their school assemblies because the noise in their overcrowded hall hurts their ears.

Parents of youngsters at Blackhall Primary have described the situation as a "health and safety risk" and have asked city chiefs to visit the school to assess the situation.

They have been campaigning for years for a new hall – which is used for assemblies, school dinners and PE lessons – because the current one was designed for a school with half the current roll.

The children are "squashed" into the hall for whole-school assemblies, with the noise caused by the volume of pupils in such a small space said to cause them "pain and angst".

The youngsters have now had to adopt a process of cheering silently – which is understood to involve them waving their hands around and quietly gesturing.

When the building was built around 30 years ago there were 200 pupils, but today there are more than 400.

Parents have been told by education chiefs that there is no money to fund a new hall because of the current financial difficulties faced by the council.

But parents are looking into alternative methods of funding in a bid to get the desperately-needed hall, and are planning to put together a feasibility study.

In a funding bid presented to the Craigleith and Blackhall Community Council, Pauline Lindsay, chair of the school's parent council, set out the reasons why a new hall is required – including the health and safety risk.

In it, she said: "The current hall is no longer capable of fitting all staff and children at the same time.

"Currently, the children have to squash up quite tightly and most of the school staff listen to assemblies from adjoining corridors.

"Loud cheering causes the younger children much pain and angst, so the children themselves have invented 'silent cheering' to get over the problem."

But the city council denied there was any risk to the children's health. A spokesman said: "The school inform us that this isn't a safety issue for them.

"Senior pupils had noticed that the P1s don't like loud cheering at assembly so they suggested the silent cheering idea.

"It seems to have caught on."

Lesley Hinds, Labour councillor for the Inverleith ward, which takes in Blackhall Primary, said: "I have got a lot of the sympathy with the concerns of the parents.

"It's health and safety but also health and wellbeing as we want to get children exercising and schools should have the facilities which can allow this."