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'Time is running out' at crumbling Portobello High School



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Published Date: 27 November 2008
By GEMMA FRASER
CAMPAIGNERS fighting for a new Portobello High today warned "time is running out" for the school after the latest in a string of problems saw its swimming pool closed and drinking fountains put out of action.
Parents are calling on the council to make urgent decisions on the future of the 1960s-built school, which is one of five in the city awaiting modernisation under the "wave three" programme.

Education leader Marilyne MacLaren today admitted Portobello needed a 21st century school, but could give no guarantees as to when this might happen. The pool is set to be closed for another week as the council waits for a replacement part to fix the pump, while fountains are currently being repaired.

Jackie Brock, chair of Portobello For A New School, said the problems highlighted the desperate need for action. She said: "My daughter has just started S1 and ever since she started we have had a catalogue of failures.

"One lift was fixed then the other broke down and the boiler has broken down. When are the council going to realise that this building can continue no longer?

"Time is running out for this building."

Although the council insists the faulty water fountains and the closure of the pool are not connected, parents have raised concerns about the water supply as it follows a recent condition survey of the building.

Parent council member Willie Wilson added: "We are not being told anything about the water supply.

"The swimming pool has been closed a couple of times before because of murky water."

Another parent who has two children at the school said the fountains had "big yellow warning signs" telling children not to drink from them.

Plans to rebuild Portobello High School have been continually delayed due to funding issues.

Pupils and teachers put together a DVD earlier this year to convince politicians about the desperate need to replace the ageing building.

Its head boy, Declan Slaven, described going to school there like "learning in a prison".

Councillor MacLaren said: "Over the last few years we have carried out improvement works to Portobello High to ensure that the building is safe to be used as a school.

"We recognise that significant refurbishment and ideally a new school is required to give the people of Portobello a 21st century school.

"An update report on the way forward for all five wave three schools is going to council on Thursday, December 18."


The full article contains 417 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 27 November 2008 10:08 AM
  • Source: Edinburgh Evening News
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Schools in Edinburgh
 
1

stu pot,

27/11/2008 11:57:58
Get it in the Park,its the only place !
2

fresian,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 12:07:46
I think head boy Declan Slaven will have left by now unless Portobell have 7th year.
3

alex paterson,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 12:09:56
Portobello High School is a first class school,get if fixed now,and also the pool,there was always great swimmers from Porty.
4

Amenemhat,

27/11/2008 12:23:59
Rip it down and bus them to castlebrae, that will shut them up
5

Evil McKeevil,

27/11/2008 12:24:40
Ach give it a lick of paint and get them an extra layer of clothes, Kids are too pampered these days !!!!!!!!!
6

Hibby,

Highlands 27/11/2008 12:41:17
How the hell does a school which was built in the 1960's end up needing replaced less than fifty years later? Either VERY badly built, or suffering from dreadful lack of maintenance! I attended the old Portobello School and though it had to be replaced in the 1960's that was more to do with it not being big enough. The old building still survives today albeit as flats.
7

Mist001,

Marseille 27/11/2008 12:52:52
"Education leader Marilyne MacLaren today admitted Portobello needed a 21st century school, but could give no guarantees as to when this might happen."

Surely she can give a guarantee that it'll happen within the 21st century?

Anyway, it's another done deal, same as Lismore. This story has been running for at least the past two years.

Porty is getting demolished as is Holyrood. The plan is to build a new school at the top of the golf course beside Milton Road into which pupils from both schools will be integrated.

The only way they can afford to finance building the new school is to pre-sell the land on which the present schools are situated which is why at the moment, 'no guarantees can be given', because they haven't found a buyer for the land yet, but I bet someone in Duddingston Golf Club would love to get their hands on the Holyrood ground, but that's just speculation on my part.

Michael.
8

seanie,

27/11/2008 13:07:09
The new Holyrood High school is currently being built adjacent to the existing. So no, there is no plan to integrate Holyrood and PHS on the site of the Portobello Park pitches.
9

subrosa,

27/11/2008 13:10:43
'One lift was fixed then the other broke down'

Unless a child is disabled, why would they need a lift? My old school has 3 floors and no lift, never has been, but nobody complains.

Very lucky pupils to have their own swimming pool. Again my old school has to travel 4 miles to get to the nearest pool.

Schools in Scotland have not been maintained in the past 30 years and that's the reason some are in this state.

Why do parents and pupils bleat on about their surroundings so much? Do surroundings affect the standard of the learning process?

10

seanie,

27/11/2008 13:14:51
"We recognise that significant refurbishment and ideally a new school is required to give the people of Portobello a 21st century school."

If Councillor MacLaren took some time out from filing her taxi receipts and actually acquainted herself with some of the problems with PHS, then she'd discover that the design of the existing school is fundamentally unfit for purpose, a flaw that no amount of refurbishment will alter.
11

I love to eat Sellotape,

27/11/2008 13:15:35
"...head boy, Declan Slaven, described going to school there like 'learning in a prison'."

Well, what's wrong with that? Prison is a good place to learn stuff. You would hardly expect head boy Declan Slaven to say it was "like learning in a zero-gravity environment" or "like learning in a sylvan glen".
12

seanie,

27/11/2008 13:18:53
PHS has 9 storeys and it has a swimming pool because of the lack of pitch provision. The school is on a site less than half the statutory minimum, hence the high rise design that's so inappropriate for a school, and need to bus pupils off site for sports.
13

fresian,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 13:21:56
Firrhill was also an 8 storey building, with NO lifts at all.
14

The Baker,

27/11/2008 13:29:09
There is nothing wrong with the water fountains, a school memo says they are turned off due to a low level bacteria problem!!! Teachers and staff have been told to boil water first before drinking or rinsing things!
15

Gonnae no dae that,

27/11/2008 13:47:50
#13 fresian,

firrhill is (not was) a 4 story building (the tallest structure anyway)
16

Bill MacD,

27/11/2008 13:52:52
Blimey! Their pool has been closed for a few days while waiting for a part to arrive. Well, THAT's a convincing argument for spending millions.
17

Johnny Yen,

27/11/2008 14:06:52
this womens competence really does know no beginning. Head in the sand and just keep claiming the inflated expenses.
18

seanie,

27/11/2008 14:10:13
Millions will have to be spent on PHS. The question is when. The building's pretty much at the end of its life. That could be extend through a major refurbishment buit that itself would cost millions and would also require a decant, again costing millions. Just to prolong the use of a building that's fundamentally flawed on a site that's far too small.

A new school on a new site won't incur the huge decant costs and the sooner the better for pupils and staff.

19

Uncle Piehead,

27/11/2008 14:12:53
"Plans to rebuild Portobello High School have been continually delayed due to funding issues."

Is it not time schools were taken out of local authority control? Imagine being a head teacher and having to take direction from thick people like M Mclaren.
20

fresian,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 14:13:18
15, 8 storeys, distinctly remember hanging someone out the window by their legs from the maths class many years ago.
21

Gonnae no dae that,

27/11/2008 14:20:28
http://www.firrhill.edin.sch.uk/images/firr%20view%202.jpg

There you go fresian, count the stories for yourself. I can distinctly remember it not having 8 stories, being an ex pupil
22

fresian,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 14:57:15
You're right enough gonnae no, 4 storeys + the bit at the janitors office, I remember it being higher, my memory must be fading after 26 years
23

Mist001,

Marseille 27/11/2008 15:07:24
I left PHS almost 20 years ago, in 1978. I still remember to this day thinking that my maths teacher, Danny Furmage wasn't really all that great at maths.

His defining moment came one day when he was taking a mad rant at us and the top set of his falsers came flying out, but with one deft, swoop of his hand, caught them in mid-air and got them back in. Very impressive!!

Nothing to do with this thread of course, for which I apologise for going off topic.

Michael.
24

Uncle Piehead,

27/11/2008 15:09:34
Let's be honest here: who can honestly say that school was any good?

School was rubbish.
25

I love to eat Sellotape,

27/11/2008 15:32:51
Best thing about school was all that snogging. Particularly with that one hot teacher. I'll never forget her.
26

Mist001,

Marseille 27/11/2008 15:33:33
I didn't even know that I'd left the school until I turned up after the school holidays!! I was sitting at my desk ironically enough with Danny Furmage teaching us maths and then it suddenly dawned on me that I was in fifth year!!

So I just got up and walked out, nobody stopped me, no letters from the school, nothing.

Michael.
27

NORMANMCKENZIE@tiscali.co.uk,

newcastle 27/11/2008 15:38:00
no' 23you were spot on about being rubbish at maths, 1978 would make it 30 years and no'20, me thinks you is telling porkys, are we ment to beleive you hung people out windows. bottom flat aye, ya big bully yi. noza.......
28

Stotty,

27/11/2008 15:40:13
I'm guessing Duncan Slaven has never been in prison in his life, so what a stupid comment to make.
29

fresian,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 15:40:56
My favourite teacher was Miss Turtle. She was a strange looking creature, but she tortoise well.

Then there was Miss Wales.....If she was Miss Wales, then the rest of the women in Wales must have been really ugly...Ugh!
30

Uncle Piehead,

27/11/2008 15:50:20
School was rubbish. At least in prison you get a bucket to do a jobby in.

Let's be honest here - nobody in the world ever does a jobby at school.
31

NORMANMCKENZIE@tiscali.co.uk,

newcastle 27/11/2008 15:58:29
miss smith was the best looking teacher,EVER. anybody who was at porty in the 80s must remember miss smith?
32

I love to eat Sellotape,

27/11/2008 16:20:08
Reader, I married her.
33

Mist001,

Marseille 27/11/2008 16:24:30
#27, yes, the maths bit was a joke but the bit about the falsers isn't. It's true.

#31, The English teacher Ms Nelson, I think, was the hot totty when I was there. She'd went through the windscreen in a car crash, so she had some pock marks on her face but she still had a bit of Ms Jean Brodie about her.

My personal desire was Ms McKenzie, my biology teacher. She probably taught me more about biology than either she or myself realised!!

In my defence of course, I was only about 14 at the time or (stretching the joke a bit) only 4 according to Danny Furmage!

Michael.
34

NORMANMCKENZIE@tiscali.co.uk,

N,CASTLE 27/11/2008 16:31:09
HA HA HA, You wish mate! she was beautiful. just what a 13 yrar old boy needed, Beautiful!
35

Park Supporter,

portobello 27/11/2008 16:56:30
The school needs fixed but the park is irreplaceable.
A rebuild on site with PPP2 was abandoned by the council as they wanted to sell Portobello Park for housing and used the new school as a sweetener to get the community on side (didn't work though).
A rebuild on site is a good solution and preserved irreplaceable common good facilities for our children and theirs.
Don't let short term gain spoil Portobello and set bad presidents for all other green space.
36

AlexofEdinburgh,

Edinburgh 27/11/2008 16:57:02
Well, I don't think they have the right arguments up front. It's fairly important to note that there are no lifts working quite frequently and we do have people that for various reasons cannot/would struggle to use the stairs. It seems to be thought that we're a bunch of spoiled kids with three fully functioning luxury lifts and that we cry if one goes out of order for five minutes per decade or that we need an interior designer to stop us from feeling blue. What we're not begging for is some kind of fictional uber-school from space where we are pampered to no end; we want a safe and practical place to learn fitting of the age we live in.

Pipes and boilers and electrical facilities and water supplies and God knows what else has gone wrong in that place. If a fire were to begin, we'd all be fairly doomed. Last week I clocked a notice saying the water was now "safe to drink". I can only wonder how the parents feel about their tykes here.

Needless to say that this place is a deathtrap waiting to claim a life. Maybe that's what it would take to convince the council to give us a new building, but I imagine they still wouldn't care and would give out a tired old line that gives us no information whatsoever. The school needed replacing when my father was a pupil in the early 80s, it need replacing now when I am a pupil and if I have kids and stay in this are, I imagine they'd be in that same crappy building that needs replacing.
37

seanie,

27/11/2008 17:24:54
Rebuilding on site would be a very poor option.

Not only would it be considerably more expensive, given decant costs of several million, but you'd end up with a school still fundamentally compromised by a site that's too small; less than half the statutory minimum.

Building on part of Portobello Park would allow a school with a full size all-weather pitch alongside remaining public space accomodating at least two full-size grass pitches still.

In terms of sports facilities the development would be an improvement on what's there at the moment.
38

ecky,

was mountcastle now newcastle 27/11/2008 17:29:34
i went to phs left there 1977 never had any probs with lifts, pool,and we had nice teachers then only ones i hated was yogi and olive if any one remembers they teachers they used to let u choose which strap u wanted when u were cheeky
39

gus1940,

Edinburgh 27/11/2008 18:08:25
1. Old PHS closed and converted to flats.

2. Current PHS built on playing Fields.

3. Current PHS to be demolished , land sold off no doubt for flats.

4. 3rd. PHS to be built on Portobello Park.

5. No doubt in 40 years time 3rd. school will be 'not fit for purpose', land will be sold off for flats and a 4th school built on another bit of green space.

There seems to be a pattern somewhere.

40

Tom Conway,

tamarac Florida 27/11/2008 18:11:14
I attended St John's school near the original Portobello high. I thought the PHS it was a FINE school, (called the higher grade). The original building is still standing, God know's who got the bright idea to sell it, but it was a mistake, it really was
I'm an architect, let me tell you right now, the 'new' Portobello High is something less than the old PHS. It makes me shudder every time I see it.
41

nozza, born n bred bingham now living in newcastle,

cramlington 27/11/2008 18:26:41
the powers that be need to get the finger out and get it sorted before people start sending their kids to other schools and porty ends up like my other auld school,lismore no more!
42

seanie,

27/11/2008 18:39:00
I'd expect modern building to last better than those typically up in the 60's and early 70's, but if the school were relocated to part of Portobello Park you'd at least have a decent prospect of rebuilding on site when the need arose. It's not unusual to build new schools on their playing fields and turn the existing school site into new pitches. The size of the site up by the golf-course at least gives you that option. The current site doesn't.
43

For a good cause.,

edinburgh 27/11/2008 19:17:00
#31 oh yes i was taught by miss smith she was just the yummiest teacher, she taught me at the annexe.
44

Jwil,

27/11/2008 19:22:21
Why has the school been allowed to run down to the state it's in. This doesn't just happen overnight. It must have been obvious for several years that a new school was needed.
45

seanie,

27/11/2008 19:27:44
PHS originally to be replaced under the PPP2 programme, but just missed out after the scope was scaled back. That was three or four years ago and the same basic problems with the school remain.
46

is it me?,

Edinburgh 27/11/2008 20:54:49
#40 Tom Conway, Florida
So, how often do you see it then?
47

Mr Fuzzy,

Edinburgh 28/11/2008 02:21:14
#9
Many three floor buildings have lifts. he first use is for moving heavy items around (computers, discount bulk purchases, furniture). With modern electric motors, it is not that difficult to install an elevator.
48

Tom Conway,

28/11/2008 11:02:35
Hello 46. I left St Jonn's in 1947. I knew some of the higher grade students. One was named Pim, who I met once again in Canada, he was from Newcraighall. Me? I lived in Niddrie, on Hay Avenue
The one girl I loved was named Pearl. It was a love unrequieted, a puppy love and totally ignored. . . but to this day I remember her fondly.
I do go back frequently and pass by the old school that was the 'Higher Grade' as it was called
49

The Barred O' Leith,

28/11/2008 11:52:28
The girl you loved grew up to be asinger. She even stood up when she played the piano.
50

Tom Conway,

28/11/2008 14:11:06
Nah, Pearl married a chap named Dryden and visits with her children who live abroad,I think. I do know she still lives in Edinburgh and went to visit them in the Canary Islands
51

Decimus,

Edinburgh 11/12/2008 23:45:19
Does anyone know how much of Portobello Park this school will use?
52

Spathiphyllum,

12/12/2008 15:00:47
Passing the school recently, I had a look at it and thought it looked perfectly robust and fine.

 

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