19 Edinburgh schools close.

[HirplesWithHaggis]

www.scotsman.com/news/education/safety-fears-to-shut-19-edinburgh-schools-1-4095097

My dc aren't in school (or, indeed, Edinburgh) any more, but this is dreadful. 19 schools, all built under PPPI, will not reopen on Monday due to safety fears.

I wonder if this means compensation is due from the builders to the council? Where are all these dc to go? With exams looming too!

I can understand how it slips through building regs - the bits they inspected may have been fine but they only get to see the designs and a sample of the work and the assumption is that they build it all the same. I have seen speculation that its a construction fault rather than a design fault, I suspect they used a similar but substandard or inadequate part or omitted something in sections and it was missed in the checks. Miller construction were a pretty big firm and their new parent company GT is a big player in the industry, so the ramifications are larger than you would have found in the past when a local firm built the local school.

I have seen lots of problems with quality in PFI contracts (mainly in health) but they don't often make the mainstream news. I think is awful for those it affects but it's good to highlight that these buildings aren't always the good think we were promised and sometimes corners are cut because the bottom line is profit.

*thing

I suspect that after the death of a girl by a falling wall, Edinburgh Council are being very very cautious of not allowing this to happen again and ensuring that we do not have another tragic death which may have been prevented. It could be why it's being so publicised.

Eek reports in STV that 2 high schools have major faults. One of them is an out of catchment local school. Half of my dd's primary class went there for S1. Such a worry prior to exams.

Evening News has confirmed that the same fault has been found at both Gracemount and Craigmount as was at Oxgangs and St Peters...

Any news about the rest of the week?

News reports were saying Tursday before any announcements.

I work in one of the schools and I haven't heard anything yet about tomorrow.

My friend has a child at Oxgangs and they had been told that it was likely that they would be back to the plan from before the holidays but so far she's heard nothing.

Latest update on BBC website says all 17 schools need work

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-36017531

3 of the high schools were partial rebuilds so back Wednesday. But no news for anyone else.

Oh and the council said all schools back by next Monday. But that's a local holiday.

Oh and the council said all schools back by next Monday. But that's a local holiday.

If they are wall ties then they can knock the walls down and build or they can drill in and tie them then. It is unlikely they are supporting walls.

I'm a cynic - their wording is "The Council has drawn up contingency plans to ensure all primary and special school pupils will be back in schools by Tuesday of next week" (they've changed it, I saw it say Monday too )

I don't think that means they will necessarily be back in their own schools...I think they're going to be in a range of temporary accommodation. They're letting s4-s6 back in to Firrhill, Royal High and Drummond but presumably that's only using the older parts of the buildings?

Yeah because they were just partial builds.

Rumour has it that one of the heads has been sent back to his previous school!

So could seniors be in one school, and juniors in another building? I wouldn't like to be responsible for the timetabling for that!

when do s4-6 go on exam leave?

Even with seniors only it will be difficult depending on what parts of the building are available - whilst I'm sure teachers will do their utmost it won't be much fun teaching chemistry in an English lab or similar.

29th of April is the last day before exam leave. s4's only get leave if they are doing 3 or 4 or more Nat5's. Quite a few could be due to remain in school for the exam leave.

The 2 completely closed schools are moving to other schools for the time being.

Dundee are inspecting their schools built under the same scheme one being my dds in the last 10 years, I don't think they were built by the same contractor but the buildings look similar to the Edinburgh schools.

The second phase in Edinburgh are very similar buildings too. Expect they will be inspected too.

Wow, just said on the news that the same problem, same builder closed a school temporarily in 2012 in Glasgow - that sounds to me like institutionalised incompetence!