Wick High Action Group Forum Now Online

[Sapphire2803]

The action group forum is now online, the website should follow soon.
If nothing else I need folk to register, give me ideas for the forum and website and tell me if anything isn't working as it should.
Don't forget, just logging in and contributing ideas is a great help, so for those who cannot attend meeting etc due to other commitments, it is a way of joining the action group.

You'll find the forum here (http://forum.wickhighschool.co.uk/phpbb3/index.php)

Thanks in advance

[Cattach]

The action group forum is now online, the website should follow soon.
If nothing else I need folk to register, give me ideas for the forum and website and tell me if anything isn't working as it should.
Don't forget, just logging in and contributing ideas is a great help, so for those who cannot attend meeting etc due to other commitments, it is a way of joining the action group.

You'll find the forum here (http://forum.wickhighschool.co.uk/phpbb3/index.php)

Thanks in advance

Why bother when only 25 parents bothered to turn up for the open night. Do Wick parents really care? If they do then they should have turnouted in numbers even if they already knew what the school looked like. It is about commitment and make astaement of intent - on both counts the parents of Wick failed.

[Sapphire2803]

Why bother when only 25 parents bothered to turn up for the open night. Do Wick parents really care? If they do then they should have turnouted in numbers even if they already knew what the school looked like. It is about commitment and make astaement of intent - on both counts the parents of Wick failed.

But those who did turn up expressed an interest in a website and after I volunteered for that I overheard a comment that a message board would be a good idea.
The thing about a message board is that it gives those people who are stuck at home or can only give 5 minutes a chance to contribute. They may not be able to attend meetings, but they could possibly print out a poster for their local shop or make up a collection tin.
I'm sure that most people do care, but a lot of people just don't have any free time or they may be carers who find it difficult to get out of the house, they could be ill themselves.
You get the idea.
Anyway, don't write the good folk of Wick off too quickly. They may surprise you yet. :D

[Cattach]

But those who did turn up expressed an interest in a website and after I volunteered for that I overheard a comment that a message board would be a good idea.
The thing about a message board is that it gives those people who are stuck at home or can only give 5 minutes a chance to contribute. They may not be able to attend meetings, but they could possibly print out a poster for their local shop or make up a collection tin.
I'm sure that most people do care, but a lot of people just don't have any free time or they may be carers who find it difficult to get out of the house, they could be ill themselves.
You get the idea.
Anyway, don't write the good folk of Wick off too quickly. They may surprise you yet. :D

Not writing them off but it is a big disappointment. And maybe a online petition is a good idea but it must be backed up by commitment and hard work which you obviouly do. Just a pity not more active support.
As for stuck at home and only five minutes time available I find that hard to swallow when you see where lots of them are able to find to frequent in the evenings and at weekends.
Remember 25 people may equate to about a dozen familes out of hundreds!

[rfr10]

I am in total support of your campaign and have signed the petition however, I do feel that little is going to change because of the campaigning and petition. Different schools in the Highlands are in line up to be rebuilt/ refurbished and the Highland Council/ Government have little control over the budgets they are allocated with. I know the campaign does make officials more aware of the state of the school but it may just be a case of waiting in line for something to be done. Although the school is in a terrible state of decoration and is in desperate need of improvement, I don't believe it has a negative effect on a pupils education/ ability to learn. Yes, we can see that the school is suffering from old fasioned decoration but the old part of the building only needs to be refurbished slightly, not rebuilt. The only section of the school which is badly designed is the extension block but it's still a teachable environment. Why exactly though, have the school wasted money, firstly by putting air conditioning in then.. taking the air conditioning fans out, putting new windows in and then replacing the fairly new air conditioning fans and now there's a big campaign to get the place knocked down. This is a total waste of money if it's just temporary. I don't think there is any sense looking for a huge number of responses for the petitions as it's already reached over 700 signatories and this is more than enough to make the council and government aware that people are worried about the state of the school. There is little they can do to speed up the process as, if another school/ schools were in the same position as Wick High School and all these schools campaigned, it would still not speed up the process as they can't all be rebuilt at once. There is only a limited supply of money in the government/ council and it's down to them to decide how the money is best spent and at the moment, I am still able to work comfortably in the school. As I've said before in another thread which attracted no attention whatsoever, the Highland Youth Voice- Schools Campaign Group have been set up specifically to campaign on issues arising from schools in the Highlands and they have direct contact with heads of services/ parliament through Highland Youth Voice and I'm sure it would be of great use to have them involved in your campaign.

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

Was watchin the Liverpool v Chelsea game,good match.Ma kid says the shabby state aw the school isnae affecting his work.Oor rfr 10 spells the rest oot very well.The Highland Council knows the school needs cosmetic surgery and it will happen.

[Venture]

I am in total support of your campaign and have signed the petition however, I do feel that little is going to change because of the campaigning and petition. Different schools in the Highlands are in line up to be rebuilt/ refurbished and the Highland Council/ Government have little control over the budgets they are allocated with. I know the campaign does make officials more aware of the state of the school but it may just be a case of waiting in line for something to be done. Although the school is in a terrible state of decoration and is in desperate need of improvement, I don't believe it has a negative effect on a pupils education/ ability to learn. Yes, we can see that the school is suffering from old fasioned decoration but the old part of the building only needs to be refurbished slightly, not rebuilt. The only section of the school which is badly designed is the extension block but it's still a teachable environment. Why exactly though, have the school wasted money, firstly by putting air conditioning in then.. taking the air conditioning fans out, putting new windows in and then replacing the fairly new air conditioning fans and now there's a big campaign to get the place knocked down. This is a total waste of money if it's just temporary. I don't think there is any sense looking for a huge number of responses for the petitions as it's already reached over 700 signatories and this is more than enough to make the council and government aware that people are worried about the state of the school. There is little they can do to speed up the process as, if another school/ schools were in the same position as Wick High School and all these schools campaigned, it would still not speed up the process as they can't all be rebuilt at once. There is only a limited supply of money in the government/ council and it's down to them to decide how the money is best spent and at the moment, I am still able to work comfortably in the school. As I've said before in another thread which attracted no attention whatsoever, the Highland Youth Voice- Schools Campaign Group have been set up specifically to campaign on issues arising from schools in the Highlands and they have direct contact with heads of services/ parliament through Highland Youth Voice and I'm sure it would be of great use to have them involved in your campaign.

You should have come to our Open Night and we would have answered all your questions. Why are you being such a defeatist? Ofcourse there are other schools that need done up but youve got to remember Wick has now reached a stage where they're the worst school. A lot of the points you mention to do with the politics of the situation we already know. We have been working in the background with all of this since November and we have had meetings with offficials ourselves. We know full well that HRC dont have the money That dosent mean to say the government dont and that's who we are targeting. You'll know all about SFT which is being announced in May by the First Minister. Things can change and people can be persuaded. We've got to persuade them.

Within the next year the council will be spending £1 million pound on Wick High School doing essential repairs as part of the 21st century schools project. You wont be able to see much difference with that amount of money either. Remember it takes years to build a school so the building has to be attended to in the meantime. Just because this money is being spent on Wick dosent mean we cant still campaign for a new school' These repairs would be done whether we were campaigning or not.

You're saying that the state of the building dosen't affect how you work. How do you know that a new school won't make you work even better.

[rfr10]

You should have come to our Open Night and we would have answered all your questions. Why are you being such a defeatist? Ofcourse there are other schools that need done up but youve got to remember Wick has now reached a stage where they're the worst school. A lot of the points you mention to do with the politics of the situation we already know. We have been working in the background with all of this since November and we have had meetings with offficials ourselves. We know full well that HRC dont have the money That dosent mean to say the government dont and that's who we are targeting. You'll know all about SFT which is being announced in May by the First Minister. Things can change and people can be persuaded. We've got to persuade them.

Within the next year the council will be spending £1 million pound on Wick High School doing essential repairs as part of the 21st century schools project. You wont be able to see much difference with that amount of money either. Remember it takes years to build a school so the building has to be attended to in the meantime. Just because this money is being spent on Wick dosent mean we cant still campaign for a new school' These repairs would be done whether we were campaigning or not.

You're saying that the state of the building dosen't affect how you work. How do you know that a new school won't make you work even better.

The Government have already been allocated their budget for this year. I'm not against your campaign, however, I am saying that I think there is very little that can influence the decision makers at the present time. I do have to say though that I don't walk around the school and think about the state of the school at any time and to be honest, don't pay much attention to the building apart from occasionally noticing some cracked paint or holes in the roof which can easily be fixed. I don't think any major construction work needs to be carried out on the older part of the school- only the extension block and possibly the maths and art block which seem to have scaffolding around them the whole time. Looking from Dingwall academy from the outside, I'd say it looks a lot worse than Wick High School and they are also suffering from overcrowding and that's why they have built a new school there but there is pleanty of room for pupils in Wick High. By all means, make a great effort to try and get a new school but I can't see it speeding up the process- not by much anyway. I don't think a new school would have a significant effect on our work as I'm not sitting in class paying attention to the state of the classroom apart from maybe some rooms where the windows are broken. Not very pleasant when it's raining and the rain comes in. If you want to improve the work of pupils, it more effective teaching methods you should be campaigning for rather than campaigning for a new school. Only at first are pupils going to take notice of the difference of a new school and then they will soon adjust to the new environment and work in the same way as they did before. Briefly going on about the uniform again- it's a similarity, it was thought that by bringing in a uniform, it would make pupils work harder and make them have a more positive attitude to the school but in actual fact, it made a small difference to the attitude of pupils. Also, new schools are not always that much better. Last year, when I shadowed Hugh Fraser, the Director of Education, we visited two new schools on the Black Isle and I have to say that, although it looked very modern, it was like a technology heaven. Every single class room had a card which needed to entered to get into all the classrooms and as soon as the door was shut, it locked both inside and out which meant having to use the card to get out the classroom. It was like a prision in a way with all the security features and I think having a school like this will make pupils focus on all the gadgets rather than their work. I do wish you good luck in your campaign and I will try to support it as much as I can but I honestly can still see the same school being there in 2018 at least.

[Venture]

Ill hopefully prove you wrong;) Thanks for your support anyway;)

[rfr10]

Ill hopefully prove you wrong Thanks for your support anyway

I really hope you do to! :D If you do want any help then, I'm always here :Razz and PLEASE consider the involvment of the schools campaign group at Highland Youth Voice. Improving school buildings is going to go on the groups manifesto so you never know, they might help too. Then again, I'm not part of that group so can't really comment on what the group are doing/ campaigning on at the moment but if you wanted at anytime, I'd give you the contact details of the groups convener.

Good luck again with the campaign and like I said, I really do hope you proove me wrong. Anyway, that's me for the night.

[TBH]

I really hope you do to! :D If you do want any help then, I'm always here :Razz and PLEASE consider the involvment of the schools campaign group at Highland Youth Voice. Improving school buildings is going to go on the groups manifesto so you never know, they might help too. Then again, I'm not part of that group so can't really comment on what the group are doing/ campaigning on at the moment but if you wanted at anytime, I'd give you the contact details of the groups convener.

Good luck again with the campaign and like I said, I really do hope you proove me wrong. Anyway, that's me for the night.You will have a wonderful Career in politics rf10, that's for sure.

[lynne duncan]

cedric
cosmetic repairs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
structural faults more like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cedric Farthsbottom III]

cedric
cosmetic repairs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
structural faults more like !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Structural faults and not cosmetic repairs.So why did ma kid come home with a list of teachers to meet on parents night,with a timetable when to meet his teachers and not a hard hat.Surely I would have been told in October,please wear this yellow helmet on yer heid.The school needs a makeover,its auld but its not done and dusted yet.Too many guid folk have came oot aw its hinges to be called that.The auld lady needs a boob job.So the cosmetic surgery will come.