Five Aberdeen schools close their doors
Emotional farewell to primaries
Published:
THERE was a mixture of happiness and tears as five Aberdeen schools closed their doors for the last time.
As the primaries prepared to shut, teachers and parents tried to give children a day to remember.
Parties, bouncy castles, face painting and sing-song sessions were held at the schools being shut.
They were closed or merged because the council gets funding for its 22,000 pupils, not its 30,000 places.
An agreement between the local authority group Cosla and the Scottish Government has committed councils to work towards reducing class sizes by 2011.
Aberdeen City Council has been slammed for making £27 million of cuts to services.
Children at Causewayend School even wrote songs and poems for a special assembly.
The verse of one of the poems at Causewayend read “Our school was built in Victorian times and is a special place with a playground full of games.”
Jenny Martin, a teacher at the school, said: “Everyone here is very sad, but we tried to make it a happy day with poems and music.”
Other schools shutting included Victoria Road and Tillydrone’s St Machar School. Byron Park Nursery and Infant School is also being merged with Westerton school.
St Machar pupils are being sent to a newly merged school in Donbank primary’s ground, with children from Victoria Road being moved to Torry’s Walker Road School.
Mum, Lisa Harrison, 42, whose daughter, Ellie, six, was a pupil at Victoria Road, said: “It’s sad for Torry to be losing a good school like this and a lot of children and even some teachers were in tears.
“The teachers tried to keep a smile on the children’s faces during assembly and everyone was given a souvenir mug and DVD.
“Every child also had the chance to ring the school bell, which was a bit emotional too.”
Victoria Road Primary School head teacher David Wallace said: “This is the school’s 130th year and this afternoon we have been celebrating the end of a piece of history.”
Hilton Nursery – Aberdeen’s only free-standing council nursery – had a bouncy castle and bucking bronco machine.
But the closure of Tillydrone’s St Machar School was controversial, with city education bosses being accused of turning children into “makeshift removal staff” by getting them to pack up equipment.
But a city council spokesman denied youngsters were acting as removal men.
Parent Lynn Cunningham said her daughter Shana-Michelle, 6, was told to make sure a puzzle had all the pieces in it.
Lynn, 35, said: “The children are being treated as free labour by the council.
“But I was led to believe the council would get professional packers in.”
A city council spokesman said: “The children at St Machar School are packing up their personal work to take home.
“They are also packing up games and stationery items so that they can be transferred.”
Aberdeen Central Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said: “The council’s closure programme has been a sorry tale from start to finish and it’s very sad all these good schools have been shut.”
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