The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: ukag0972 on February 27, 2011, 07:17:07 pm
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My wee village school is on the councils list for closure, Please can you help by joining the facebook page and signing our epetition. Your help would be much appreciated, if it closes then our children will have a 30 minute bus ride to school!
Save Clachan Primary School
www.clachan258.epetitions.net (http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net)
Thank you xx
Lee
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Best of luck, Lee. We used to live in Carradale until a couple of years ago. Do you know Eleanor Sloan?
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Soory, I think this is just the tip of the iceberg with the cuts now facing the public sector. I know it's hard for those directly affected and losing a rural school is a blow, but it may be less damaging overall than alternative cuts.
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We saved Old Rayne Primary a few years back by badgering the local Councillors and proving that with all the new housing in the area and the head count of children ready to come up to school age their percentages were rubbish. Only problem is we were underestimating a local Architect's ideas for expanding the village and now the School is bursting at the seams.
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I suspect that we're in a different ballpark now. Clackmanannshire should be closing a few schools but it's very hard for Councillors as there's always a lot of emotion around school rationalisation, and the SNP are signed up to oppose school closures no matter how daft it is to keep the school open.
I used to go to a national education forum (in a previous life) and Moray Council was forced to keep a rural school open that had two childern attending - and they were siblings. Apart from the genuine difficulty in providing a good educational experience for these kids, it cost a fortune to keep the school open. Sorry, as a council tax payer, schools aren't sacrosanct and sometimes closing schools is a lesser of two evils and sometimes positively beneficial, once the dust settles.
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Our school has been threatened with closure at least three times now, and each time we have fought and kept it open.
You need to carefully inspect all costings by the council, as they have a tendency to warp the truth.
There were several leading lights in our campaigns, all of whom have lots of experience. They have been to the Scottish Parliament and on the radio and tv over this. If you want to get in touch with any of them, PM me and I'll give you contact details.
Facebook may or may not help you in getting a petition together, but it's really down to those who are to be affected by the closure.
Personally, I didn't like the alternatives being proposed for the education of my two children. They are at a small rural school and the council proposals would have meant that they would have to travel several miles to a town school.
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been there and although a few year ago now it still brings up hard feelings.
I don't think you have much chance and a lot depends on the number of children which live in the school's catchment area and go to the school in question, not including those children from another catchment who choose to go to the school. This does not work the other way round, if catchment pupils leave to choose another school they are counted as lost! The plan of the Scottish parliament is to close all schools under 50 pupils within the next 15 years or so but the process might be speeded up in light of recent and coming cuts.
I represented the parents going to the Council meeting when the decision was taken and it was an utter farce. There actually were Council members who had no idea where the school actually was they were supposed to decide on. The whole process was very upsetting for teachers, parents and pupils alike. The council's school mercinary actually had barged into the school and said to the head teacher "I will have you closed by Christmas" ! To counteract protests later he dangled the carrot of a new school which was supposed to be built to cover the catchment area of the 3 village schools in the area - which years on of course never materialized - surprise. One of the schools next in line merged with another under the same head teacher, only on of the 3 schools is still open and safe, as they have over 50 children in the catchment are, which now is much larger, of course. Trouble is that once the rumours are out parents will take their kids elsewhere which will make it even harder to keep a school safe...
you have all my sympathies and I wish you success in your fight!
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What's a school mercinary spp.?
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I forgot what his official job title was...employed to kill off small schools without too much collateral damage :&>
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And everyone knows that you get a far better eduction at a small rural school. ::)
We were told it was a stated aim to relocate pupils from as many of the old granite built schools in Aberdeenshire as they could so they could sell the buildings. Our local press were very helpful too.
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I forgot what his official job title was...employed to kill off small schools without too much collateral damage :&>
Ah, that used to be part of my job in Clackmannanshire.
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And everyone knows that you get a far better eduction at a small rural school. ::)
Not so, I'm afraid. There is evidence to support both large schools and small schools in terms of educational outcomes. Parents tend to like small schools if they are used to them and they are often more convenient. So while there's a belief that they are necessarily better, but no definitive evidence to support that. Two of the best schools in Clackmannanshire had rolls of well in excess of 300, which was big in local terms but not national ones.
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not on the subject of small rural schools but on schools in general
over the next 5 years however much people scream and shout schools will be streamlined even in built up areas if schools have surplus capacity they will be encouraged (forced) to merge to get costs down, its not just the costs of staff etc but also of maintaining a lot of unnecessary premises.
for bigger schools federation will also be a necessary option to look at this will cut senior management posts and more importantly increase the buying power of the federated schools enabeling them to operate more efficiently on effectively reduced budgets.
i have spent a great deal of time looking into this and talking with professionals involved and no school is going to have easy decisions to make in the next 5 years there will need to be changes made to the way schools are structured to meet the current and future needs of everyone.
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Rosemary, I'm sure you had better manners than the "gentleman" in Fife at the time - and you did not resort to telling lies like that to keep parents quiet. We all knew the Council would have not had any money whatsoever to build a new school "in exchange" for 3 village schools.
Experience here tells that most kids from our village school do very well at High School. And as a parent I can only say that it was the best start my kids could have had for their school life. They were known individually by the teachers, inside out, and were much better prepared for moving on and were on higher levels than most of their peers from the town's primary schools. Nothing to do with "being used to them", Rosemary! And forgive me for doubting the official line on "evidence" - I speak from indiviual experience and nobody asked my opinion on the benefits for my children. The school is many times the last thing that keeps a small community together, no shops, no post office, no pubs left. Only commuters. The village is a dead place now, but who cares... :&>
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forgot to say - we were always aware and grateful that our school was a luxury we could enjoy as long as possible- and that it all boils down to money...
keep fighting, Lee, you might hold them off for a year or 2 :&>
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And evidence or not, I KNOW that a number of my friends who came from small schools did very well in commerce. Maybe they didn't all do well but proportionally they did compared to the large town schools. Like Kerstin, this is only my personal experience, my kids have done well coming from a town school, but maybe they'd have done even better if they had been at a country one. Perhaps generalisation isn't a good thing though ;) ;D.
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generalization came too much at us from the other side so they could justify the decision. Apparently children need more peers, more facilities and newer buildings to thrive and do well - no, they don't. They need love and commitment first at that age and no teacher with a class of 30 to look after can provide that. I would have preferred if they just said that they can't afford schools like ours any longer than paying for studies so they could tell us (under the new name of evidence) that we were wrong wanting what we considered best for our children. :&>
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the copied article below gives the reason behind the closure of local country schools in the Uk , along with the closure of the 1400 country post offices , sadly it is only the beginning ;
The European Union is waging a third war against us
It plans complete control of Britain. Our nation and democracy are being dismantled. It is the same war for which 1.4 million British servicemen have given their lives twice before. But this time it is using a “fifth column:” subversion from within.
The EU regime is illegal
The EU attack has to be subversive because the entire EU regime is illegal in this country: our government and sovereign have no legal authority to abolish our common law, British Constitution, monarchy, or our nation. The EU is marching forward only because our government and legal profession are able to abuse their powers by breaking the law and committing the crime of Treason. To do this without spending a lifetime in jail they secretly repealed part of the Treason Acts, hidden in the Crime and Disorder Act, 1998.
(MP’s did not know they were repealing Treason Acts; that was slipped into clause 36.3 after they read it, to get Tony Blair off a treason charge for the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty.)
The subversive EU attack on the UK comes at three levels:
Overt: The EU Treaties, Constitution, laws, and its120,000 destructive regulations.
Covert: Subversion of our government, institutions, bureaucracies, press, media and identity.
Penetration of our political leadership to end representative democracy
Disinformation: Government has spent millions annually since 1970 to deceive us about the EU.
Let’s look at these in more detail:
Covert: The subversion of our people, schools, children and families: The Frankfurt School
The techniques are broadly based on the Frankfurt School, the University department bought by the Soviet Union in 1935. The Soviets asked it for the best methods of undermining other nations so it could bring them under its control. The EU has been implementing these techniques in Britain since the early 1960’s.
200+ Frankfurt School techniques
The Frankfurt school recommends political correctness, the teaching of sex and homosexuality to children, the creation of racialism offences, continual change to create confusion, the undermining of schools and teachers’ authority, the promotion of excessive drinking, emptying the churches, the corruption of the courts, the creation of trauma through injustice, dependency on the state or benefits, massive immigration to destroy our identity and create tension, control and dumbing down of media and TV, the attack on fathers and the breakdown of the family, and other methods; the results and violence fill our newspapers every day.
Political Correctness is a form of mind control to control free speech, to undermine public opinion, to weaken the defences of democracy and to “re-educate” schoolchildren; it is a well documented communist subversion procedure.
These techniques have been remarkably successful at undermining local and national government, the Police, NHS, schools and children. It has alienated British people from our nation and its politics; millions are now disinterested and apathetic. On 13th Feb. 2007 UNICEF reported British children now have the worst upbringing of the 21 top nations.
Trauma through injustice
The creation of trauma through injustice usually leads to financial ruin and often to suicide; our utterly corrupt British courts now practice it regularly, as do bodies as diverse as the General Osteopathic Council and Social Services with local councils, who together snatch 4,500 healthy children a year from good parents for forced adoption. They are not interested in abused or maladjusted children.
There are two objectives:
1. Trauma makes people live in fear of government; it controls them and makes them comply.
2. It trains local leaders, like social services and councils, to rule with the brutality a dictatorship like the EU will need to stay in power.
See: http://www.eutruth.org.uk/councilchildsnatch.html; and fi2garvey.pdf
Common Purpose.
Who directs this subversion? All of the six EU treaties have already been signed; and the handover of power to the EU is well underway, with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in charge. The ODPM ran the EU’s Common Purpose organization in Britain, which has already used these techniques to train 30,000 leaders for what they chillingly call “the post democratic era.”
Common Purpose assists the spread this subversion and EU style corruption throughout our government bureaucracies. If you see public land being sold, or some EU funded regeneration or redevelopment project suddenly blossoming, you can guarantee large sums of money will be sticking to the fingers of officials who are Common Purpose trained.
Common Purpose is entrenched in the NHS, the BBC, the Church, the legal profession, the Police, Schools and the Education sector, Social Services, City, County Councils, Local Councils, Government Offices of the Regions, Regional Development Agencies, Regional Assemblies, and in the 8,500 government quangos which spend £167 billion annually.
The leadership of Freemasonry
Is the largest 5th column, claiming 400,000 members; at the EU’s bidding, they have corrupted our courts, newspapers and other institutions.
Please invite Brian Gerrish (bjgerrish@tiscali.co.uk) to train you on how to expose and stop this subversion,
EU penetration of our Political Leadership
In 1958 Ted Heath, Geoffrey Rippon and Roy Jenkins were recruited by the German DVD for the EU; many others like Ken Clarke, Francis Maude, David Milliband and Peter Mandleson continue their work. A dozen current New Labour Ministers were communist activists. They switched allegiance from the Soviet Union to the European Union, and subversion exploded. Using the party list system pro EU MP’s were selected, resulting in the 138 majority on 21st January 2008 for the Libson Treaty (and the abolition of Westminster.)
The Conservative Party’s members and voters overwhelmingly want to be out of Europe, but the party stopped representing them decades ago. The leadership fell under the iron grip of European control in the 1960’s, when Macmillan first tried to take us into the EU; Ted Heath did. That grip was slightly relaxed under Margaret Thatcher, but she was still forced to sign the Single European Act in 1987, in which Britain consented to be part of a single European dictatorship.
The Conservative Party is the primary instrument of the Marxist EU in Britain.
The EU still has absolute control over the Conservative leadership today. Some make no real effort to disguise their allegiance to the EU, such as Hesletine, Ken Clarke, Maude and David Cameron. The Party is controlled by the EU’s policies and agenda, not that of the voters. This pattern now exists in the Labour Party under the communists exposed above, and in all areas of elected government. The principal of representative democracy has been subverted.
Conservative voters will be horrified when they find out, too late, that David Cameron is a committed Pro-European socialist. He uses the language of Common Purpose, and in his career as a Director of Carlton TV, its techniques.
One example is Cameron’s command to change. If you change you destroy the old; if you have nothing substantial to change to, you’ve simply destroyed, and the technique has succeeded. He may win an election, but it won’t be the Conservative Party that’s in power.
The Lib Dems are overwhelmingly in favour of their EU masters. Nick Clegg, like Mandleson, is an ex EU employee and pawn; his principle residence is in Brussels. Yes, they know we are now living in what is legally a police state, and make speeches strongly opposing it. But they conceal the fact, that after 34 years inside, it is their EU police state we are living in.
UKIP is pro-EU
UKIP was founded in 1993 as a honey trap to neutralize anti–EU activists by the Conservative party, with Nigel Farage in on day one as spoiler in chief. If as a party member you run a serious anti-EU campaign, you are ruthlessly shut down by its internal freemasonry Regional Organisers; they rig internal elections to keep effective activists out, and Common Purpose members create infighting to ensure no progress is made.
Nigel Farage has controlled the party for most of its life. He appointed Roger Knapman as leader in 2002, without an election, coercing the other candidates to stand down. On 12th September 2006 Nigel Farage became UKIP’s leader formally. He makes good, Conservative Party level speeches, insults EU commissioners. but always misses the telling facts when attacking the EU, to avoid doing it real damage. He and others also create disputes to destroy the parties effectiveness.
His printed election address, and speeches since he became leader, make it clear his main aim is to get UKIP’s MEP’s re-elected (thus ensuring their £440,000 pa salary/expenses; he gets a lot more.) As for his pretended method for leaving the EU, he says electing a majority of UKIP MEP’s would make our position in the EU untenable.
He knows that’s not true: the sham EU parliament has no power, and we can only leave if Westminster repeals the 1972 European Treaty of Accession (before it is abolished by the EU.)
So even UKIP is a pro EU party, with its top ten leaders, all European MEP’s, paid vast EU salaries which they are very keen to protect, and all the parties’ employees paid by the EU. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
Nick Griffin MEP / The BNP
The BNP is controlled by the Edgar (Dad) and Nick Griffin Freemasonry family. Edgar Griffin, a very senior Freemason, controls the party’s finances. Between them, they ensure it is never a threat to the EU.
A number of regional organisers have left because the leader, Nick Griffin, like Nigel Farage, will not genuinely fight the EU.
It has been explained to Griffin why the EU is a dictatorship, with documentation; he’s been shown how to defeat the EU with 8,000 members. He paid lip service and made promises in front of his own people, then did nothing, and makes speeches like: “....the EU isn’t the threat; forget the EU, the threat is “peak oil”, and the BNP should plant vegetables.”
There is no better way to neutralise a political party. Andrew Bronz, BNP MEP, filibusters in speeches and does not attack the EU effectively. On the bright side, it seems it is just these who are the EU’s placemen, and the rest of the party, 99 percent of them, are 50+ year old ex Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem members disgusted their old parties are doing nothing. Unfortunately, neither will the BNP.
Disinformation
Government documents released under the 30 year secrecy rule prove that from Ted Heath onwards, the government has spent huge sums deceiving us about the EU. See FCO 26/1215; £461,400 spent on disinformation in 1972. FCO 30/1065 snooping on and sabotaging anti-EU MPs and speakers. FCO 26/1213 controlling TV presenters, journalists. FC0 26/1212, and FCO 30/1048, are covered on the eutruth website.
Stop repression and poverty by the EU police state
http://eutruth.org.uk (http://eutruth.org.uk) Please call 07974 437 097 if you would like to help.
This web site is © Copyright David Noakes 2003-2009, All Rights Reserved,
Permission to copy and distribute is granted.
The truth is there for all to see , but few will until !! they have no local schools , only huge academies run by ...oh hang on ... Nick Cleggs mate and advisor . Nick Clegg is totally EU to the core , he isn't even bloody English ;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1266826/The-United-Nations-Nick-Clegg.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1266826/The-United-Nations-Nick-Clegg.html)
and he forgot to mention on his CV that he worked for GJW , the lobbying company that ,
" attracted criticism for signing a £3.5million deal with Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi to lobby for a ‘fairer’ trial for the terrorists responsible for the Lockerbie disaster."
above clip from ;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278716/Nick-Cleggs-boss-wife-strange-coalition-Scottish-ghillie.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278716/Nick-Cleggs-boss-wife-strange-coalition-Scottish-ghillie.html)
Yes these are the people to trust when the chips are down . They will look after their (ooops), your interests have no fear . Transparency in government is what Clegg and Cameron spout ... but don't actually follow through with it ... corruption , corruption , corruption !!! His ( Clegg ) mothers father was President of Dutch Banking giant ABN , and his father is Chairman of the United Trust Bank , but hey , we all have to make a living eh ?
Yes they close your local post offices and local schools , because they are losing so much money !!! yet they can GIVE BILLIONS of £'s in handouts er sorry bailouts to the banks , who still continue to give millions in bonuses to each other , and then have the bare faced bloody cheek to tax you and me to do so . Yes cut backs are needed ... desperately ... the first ones should be Cameron and Cleggs heads !!!!
cheers
Russ
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all I can say to comment, Russ, is >:(
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Thanks for the comments folks!
As the parent of a child with special needs, my selfish attitude tells me to save my school for my sons sake!
We may or may not win, but we will try!!
Please sign the epetition
Http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net (http://Http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net)
Ambriel, I do know the Sloan family x
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if in scotland you can get the goverment to call in the plan for school closings. our council is trying to shut 5 schools with rubbish costings. watch how they hide transport costs as it comes from other departments. in some case they claim nearly 200.000 savings but in reality its more like 20000. don't trust the education department if your fighting closier. question everything. and don't be quite or polite. get the kids involved they really showed our council up.
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Ukag I am in the same position as you, my youngest has special needs (ASD) and has already moved school once and now they want to close the school he's now attending. Here's a copy of the letter I sent to the head of 'Modernising Schools' ( :-\) at the local council:
I am writing to express my deep concern, and indeed disbelief at the proposal to close Ysgol Betws Gwerfil Goch. It is not my intention to concentrate solely here on details regarding the destructive effect this will have on the community of the village and its surrounding catchment area, as I'm sure this has already been done by other parents and representatives. My main intention here is to provide you with a few observations from a personal and a long term basis.
Firstly, from a personal point of view, my child is classed as 'special needs'. He has ASD. As is a common trait with this condition, he dislikes, and finds difficulty coping with change. He has already been moved from another school to Ysgol Betws, and now you are proposing to force him to move again. My son has an excellent relationship with his teachers and is progressing extremely well since he moved to this school. It should be pointed out that his earlier move was due to alleged disruptive behaviour, which has now, largely been solved thanks to the professionalism and efficiency of the staff at Ysgol Betws. The repercussions of any move will be felt not only by myself and other members of his family at home, in the way of difficult behavior, but by those given the task of teaching him at the new school. I wonder how both he and the staff will cope as I am sure he will not receive the attention he receives now which has been so important for him. Furthermore, my son is not the only ASD child at this school.
The Council should also be aware that a number of pupils have already been transferred to Ysgol Betws as a result of an earlier closure. It is simply not acceptable to shunt the children around like this. It is highly disruptive and quite often disturbing for them.
On a long term basis, how can Denbighshire Council justify closing a local school, drafting all its pupils by bus to outlying areas when the fuel prices are astronomical? Globally, we have reached a stage when fuel shortages and possibly rationing, are just around the corner, and the fact of the matter is fuel prices are not going to go down! Quite the opposite. The weather conditions of the past two winters are likely to become quite normal given recent scientific research (I am happy to provide references as I appreciate this is somewhat beyond your remit), in fact winter conditions are more likely to become much worse. How many parents would want their children so far away in such circumstances? It will be the Council's responsibility to get them home if their parents are unable to get to the school. How do you propose to manage such situations?
Are Local Authorities not supportive of David Cameron's 'Big Society' policy? The basis of this is, as stated by David Cameron, to improve communities and build a bigger and stronger society. It is as much a social as a financial issue. How, then, can the closure of a local school, the very backbone of the local community, be seen as complying with this policy? I must also question the validity of this proposed closure featuring under the heading of ' Modernising Schools'. Given what I have said in the above paragraph how can closing Ysgol Betws be seen as 'modernising' schools when, if we are to plan adequately for the future and comply with the Government's 'Big Society' policy, localisation is the direction we need to take. Removing local facilities is complete folly in this age of uncertain economic conditions and climatic variability. To justify closure as a means of saving money is, quite frankly laughable. Most of it will be spent on transport and additional teaching facilities at the receiving school. It appears that the decision to close Ysgol Betws and indeed other village schools, could well be one which the Council could seriously regret in ten years time.
Surely if it is the need to save money which is the primary driver here, then I am quite sure there are other, less essential and less sensitive areas to target. I do not know whether Denbighshire Council employs consultants in any of their departments, but given that Flintshire County Council recently employed a consultant to (unsuccessfully) cut spending in their social housing department at the cost to the taxpayer of £2000 per week for 12 months, then this type of spending might be a more appropriate target.
In the circumstances I trust you will take the time to reconsider your proposal.
Needless to say, I have only received the standard response - no actual 'reply' and explanation!!
I wish you luck - keep us posted.
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I think Mr Scameron's idea is that the "Big Society" does it themselves, so parents can run their own schools - then you won't have to worry about local Councils shutting them. Hmm, sounds like an idea Mrs Thatcher thought up (May she rot in Hell) - one school in Scotland opted out then came back.
I'm sure there are other less sensitive areas that the Council could look at. Actually, what surprises me about England is the amount of government - parish councils, district councils, county councils. Going to one tier of local government in Scotland - with the abolition of both district and regional councils and replacement with unitary authorities (although painful for staff) - was a "good thing" IMHO. It's simpler for residents, for one thing, and I'm sure, overall, costs less than two tiers. But it wasn't voluntary here as it is in England. And generally, the more obvious Tory gerrymandering was prevented, at least in our area.
Running a local council is hard - a commercial business only has one aim - to make a profit. Local councils have lots of, often competing and conflicting, priorities and objectives and every one has its pressure groups. Making savings across services is comparing apples and pears - is social care for the elderly more important than road repairs? Well, depends who you ask but the cake is only so big. (Sorry to mix metaphors :))
I know how hard it is in the one where we both used to work and it's getting harder. We both knew there were areas where savings could be made and where it didn't always happen - an added dimension for officers is, of course, the political dimension. But that just goes with the territory.
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Thank you every one!
It seems to have taken over our life!
Please please sign my epetition! Afterall if I get 100000 signatures then it has to be debated in the parliament so please sign and send the link for others to sign!
Http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net (http://Http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net)
Again, thank you x
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sadly even if you get the whole community to sign and even the mp/smp and you don't live in a snp area your school will close. our save scalloway school group have just been let down by the scottish education minister. strangly he opposes closier of schools in his area.
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Thank you every one!
It seems to have taken over our life!
Please please sign my epetition! Afterall if I get 100000 signatures then it has to be debated in the parliament so please sign and send the link for others to sign!
http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net (http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net)
Again, thank you x
I only had 140 signatures on my Stop the night trains one and the Petitions Committee is still running with it and have just handed it over on a Legacy Paper to the incoming Parliament in May. Are you sure you need that many? Is it on the Petitions Committee list? What is it's PE number if so?
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There are a lot of valid arguments both pro and anti small schools but I think one thing most parents are agreed on is that no kids benefit from a 20-30 mile bus journey each way to/from school, from 5 yrs old and especially in the winter.
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Thank you every one!
It seems to have taken over our life!
Please please sign my epetition! Afterall if I get 100000 signatures then it has to be debated in the parliament so please sign and send the link for others to sign!
http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net (http://www.clachan258.epetitions.net)
Again, thank you x
I only had 140 signatures on my Stop the night trains one and the Petitions Committee is still running with it and have just handed it over on a Legacy Paper to the incoming Parliament in May. Are you sure you need that many? Is it on the Petitions Committee list? What is it's PE number if so?
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/furtherInfo.htm (http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/petitions/furtherInfo.htm)
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Thanks
I'm going to print that out and re-read!
Lee
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Quote Rosemary Hmm, sounds like an idea Mrs Thatcher thought up (May she rot in Hell) -
Oh you have cheered me up, made me laugh after a rotten morning.