Iain Gray at the Festival Cafe, Haddington
PRESS RELEASE
Little did Iain Gray expect that he would have to help out when he accepted an invitation to lunch last Monday in the Haddington Corn Exchange. Kings Meadow Primary School were hosting the Festival Café and on arrival Mr Gray rolled up his sleeves and helped with the lunches. Mr Gray was interviewed by P6 school pupil, Lauren Mackenzie who asked him ‘ “What’s it like being an MSP?”. Afterwards Lauren said, “It was really interesting to meet Mr Gray at our Festival Café and I was surprised to see our local MSP helping out”.
Mr Gray had been invited to lunch as part of the concerns raised by parents in the area over school budget cuts. All local schools are facing cuts this year that can partly be absorbed through the non-replacement of retiring teachers but the reduction in funding also means that all the schools in East Lothian are facing further staff reductions.
Mr Gray met parents, pupils and teachers as he sat having lunch. One local parent, Mr Ian Smith who is a member of the Knox Academy Parent School Partnership said , “It was encouraging to meet Mr Gray at the School Café which shows parents that he is engaging this issue. We are all concerned and actually quite worried about what the Council are doing. Its bad enough this year with classes for the p1-p3’s being well in excess of the Council’s agreement to reduce class sizes. I don’t know what we are going to do next year when further and larger cuts will be made. We have set up a meeting on Monday 16th June with the five local Parent School Partnerships to which we will invite Mr Gray and the local councilors to attend. It is an important meeting and the Parent School Partnerships will report back to the parents they represent with the outcome. I would encourage all parents in the area to communicate their concerns to their school partnership before this meeting on the 16th. ”
After lunch Mr Gray said, “”I have been contacted by a growing number of Haddington parents concerned by the introduction of composite classes and by increases in class sizes next year. It was certainly worrying those I met at the Kings Meadow Festival cafe. Many of them have heard government claims that class sizes in P1,2 and 3 are being reduced, but their experience is the opposite. I do not think East Lothian Council have been given the resources from government they would need to make those class size reductions, and that situation could be worse next year and the year after. I have argued this repeatedly in Parliament and will continue to do so. Parents also have concerns about the impact of the separate matter of “efficiency” savings required in our local schools.”
Ends.
