Brunstane Primary school closure letter to parents

Brunstane Primary School
106 Magdalene Drive
EDINBURGH
EH15 3BE
Chris McMillan, Head Teacher
Friday 4 August 2023

Dear Parents/Carers,

I hope this finds you well. 

I am writing to update you on the arrangements that are now in place for our pupils and staff for the new term. 

As you will know from my last letter, a small hole was discovered in our school playground next to the main school building. This means our school building is currently closed and our children will be hosted at other schools until we can return to Brunstane.

I am delighted to let you know that, having carried our very positive site visits to a number of potential host schools, I am now in a position to let you know where our classes will be hosted over the coming months whilst the necessary works are completed at Brunstane. 

These are as follows

  • Primary 1, Primary 1/2, Primary 3a and Primary 3b will be at Towerbank Primary.
  • Primary 5, Primary 6, Primary 7a and Primary 7b will be Castleview Primary
  • Primary 2, Primary 4 and Primary 4/5 will be at Prestonfield Primary
  • Our Enhanced Support Base classes will be at Oaklands Special School 
  • Our returning Nursery children will be hosted at Moffat Early Years centre.

I am extremely grateful to the headteachers of these schools who have extended the warmest of welcomes and have gone above and beyond to provide appropriate learning spaces for our pupils and support the logistics of moving our staff team and resources into place and integrating us within their schools. The learning spaces that have been identified will be an excellent fit for our children and young people and I am very grateful for the support of Council colleagues who are arranging for our classroom furniture and materials to be transported and set up in these spaces to make them feel like home for our pupils.

I hope the above information is reassuring to all of our Brunstane families and removes one of the key areas of uncertainty before the start of the new term. 

I am very aware that the duration of our time away from Brunstane will be another key concern for our families. Whilst we will not have an exact answer to this until investigatory works are completed, I have been told to prepare for the possibility of being out of the building until at least the Christmas holidays. This news makes me all the more grateful for all of the hard work our staff team, our council colleagues and our colleagues at our host schools have put in to ensure that we have the most appropriate and welcoming environments for our pupils over the coming months.

Another concern I know many families may have will be around transport to host schools whilst we are away from Brunstane. Whilst I am very grateful to the School Estates team for helping to identify schools in neighbouring areas, I know that the increased distances may still be difficult for some of our families. I am currently working with the Council transport department to ensure that all who require transport to their host school will receive it. I would also like to reassure parents (particularly our new P1 parents and carers) that they will also be able to drop off and collect their children themselves should they wish to. I will give further details on the specifics of the transport arrangements in my update next week.
 
I know that parents and carers will also be keen to know about Breakfast Club, After School Club and Active Schools provisions for the new term. I have had very positive initial discussions with the providers of these services and will be in a position to give more details  on how these will work in my update next week.
 
Once again, I hope all of the information above is reassuring to our Brunstane families and shows the huge amount of work going on behind the scenes to ensure the best possible start to the new term for all of our children and families. This is not the start of term that any of us expected, but due to the incredible efforts of the colleagues involved, we can be confident that our children will be learning within a warm, supportive and reassuring environment, surrounded by familiar resources and key adults – conditions which will allow our pupils to thrive.
 
I will be holding further meetings with the headteachers of our host schools next week, which will allow me to provide further details of daily routines and dining and PE arrangements in my next update.
 
In the meantime, I hope all of our pupils and families enjoy the last full week of the holidays (fingers crossed for some dry weather) and we look forward to seeing you all soon.
 
I will be back in touch with more information next week.

Yours sincerely

Chris McMillan
Head Teacher

Email admin@brunstane.edin.sch.uk 
Telephone 0131 669 4498
Twitter @BrunstanePS |
www.brunstaneps.com