Thank you to all those parents who emailed local Councillors to urge the Council to make investment in Trinity Academy a top priority for 2018/2019. The response was fantastic and we’re grateful for your support.
Last week the City of Edinburgh Council voted to accept the 2018-2013 budget proposed by the Labour/SNP coalition. Following our campaign to emphasise the need for investment in Trinity Academy, this post is to update parents on what this budget means for our school.
The Council’s budget includes £25m for investment in ‘Unallocated Match Funding for Replacement High Schools (Wave 4)’ starting in 2020/2021. What this means is that Trinity Academy is one of the six schools now included in the so-called ‘Wave 4’ programme, along with Balerno, Currie, Liberton High Schools plus Wester Hailes Education Centre and the new West Edinburgh High School. This amount is intended to match future funding from the Scottish Government’s capital funding programme such as ‘Schools for the Future‘ programme and therefore it is dependent upon a national budget being put in place for investment in schools.
The coalition’s depute leader (Cammy Day) has committed to delivering the new Trinity Academy and to ensuring that work can start as soon as possible in developing the Bangholm sports facility. Development of a new sports campus (one that meets the school’s and community’s needs) is an important first step to improve the school and make it easier to develop the main site.
Our campaign has succeeded in raising the profile of the school with our elected representatives. We have the support of all our local Councillors plus our MSP (Ben Macpherson) and MP (Deidre Brock). Our local Councillors are committed to providing the resources needed to maintain the school to the required standard until Wave 4 funding is in place. We have also been successful in highlighting Trinity’s needs to Councillors across the city who may not have been aware of the school’s position.
At this time though, there is no budget agreed to start redeveloping Bangholm or preparing to refurbish or rebuild the school. We will continue to push the Council to deliver on those commitments to delivering a ‘new’ Trinity, developing Bangholm plus preparing a business case and proposals for a new school. All of this work will demonstrate to the Scottish Government that the Council is serious about investment in our school. We will continue to support our MSP in making the case that Trinity needs investment as an urgent priority, driven by the condition of the school but also the pressure from rising rolls in this area.