Law Primary Parent Council  

Template letter from parents to ELC re Haddington Rd

For those concerned about road safety please see the attached letter we would encourage you to send.  Please note this is NOT a Parent Council document, it was created by a group of concerned parents so should be signed personally not as part of the Parent Council.

Thanks to all of you for attending the meetings this week and for your conversation and thoughts – we’ve appreciated every email we have received in response to the campus plans and other issues raised.  If you have a particular passion, skill or idea please do get in touch – we are a big school and there is so much we can contribute.  You can pop in and get involved on a specific project or longer term support the school with ideas and issues they approach us about.  We are a friendly and enthusiastic group of parents and really welcome you to get involved.  It benefits all our kids!

Just to update:

• Attached are the minutes from the last meeting in March.  Minutes 8 March 2021
• The PowerPoint presentation from Monday is here
• Attached are the wider plan for safer routes.  The drone footage of Friday pickups will be uploaded to the website soon.
• Attached is the Parent Council mock up – how to make the ‘campus’ safer and more accessible.  We have now shared this with East Lothian Council and Stantec.  The school staff have been very supportive of us as we have put together these proposals as they share our hope for a more sustainable and a safer campus.  However please note the proposals are draft and have not been formally agreed with staff, ELC or Stantec.  There are many challenges ahead however we hope that parents will support the vision for the campus.
• If you would like to share your thoughts (comments / caveats / objections) about our response to the nursery application please fill in this form before the end of today (Friday) https://forms.gle/2Df3iFoFPKgMYs5X9
• Nursery parents (now or future) – Rebecca Rennie is now leading a sub-group so the nursery is represented at the Parent Council.  Please email the Parent Council if you would like to join and she will be in touch.  We realised through the new nursery application that the nursery parents were not represented within the Parent Council so this group aims to do that from now on.
• Finally we have a few keen parents who would like to get stuck into the playground – it’s such a great opportunity to contribute and get involved.  Anyone who is creative, practical or just motivated to improve the playground for the kids please email the Parent Council and we will put you all in touch.  As we said we have been offered a boat for the kids, but need parents to take responsibility to spruce it up and work with the school to make sure it is safe for the kids.  The staff have always encouraged Project Playground teams and the Parent Council and PTA will support with ideas and funds.  Please get involved!

Best wishes

The Parent Council Team

Dear Parents / Carers,

Welcome back to school and hope the kids had a great break.  The Parent Council Team have been busy over the holidays and have some news to share.

We wanted to flag up that the plans for the new nursery school (moving to the main school campus) are online and can be viewed here https://bit.ly/2P2jYOg.  Planning ref: 21/00229/PCL.  We believe that the new facility will be a much needed and exciting resource for the children of North Berwick. However, it will have travel and access implications FOR ALL PARENTS / PUPILS who use the primary or NBHS as there will be no parking facilities at the nursery for parents. We have therefore set up a further meeting on Wednesday 28 April to outline these issues and try to find resolutions.  We really need you at this meeting to speak up for safer routes to get our kids to school so PLEASE come along:

Wednesday 28 April, 19.00 This will be a meeting to discuss accessibility to the main school campus. Our Active Travel Group has concerns about the lack of safe access routes for pedestrians. This meeting will provide an opportunity to hear directly from ELC planning, roads and climate change departments. We will also present our concerns, and proposed improvements for making the area safer.  Register here to join us – 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/law-parent-council-meeting-monday-26-april-tickets-151450605839

After you have looked at the plans and/or attended the meetings, if you have any concerns or thoughts about them then the Parent Council are collating parents input and will submit these as one to East Lothian Council.  We will issue a survey to capture your thoughts.

Please note that if we do decide to submit an objection, it will be based on travel issues NOT the internal plans for the nursery as a parental consultation has already been carried out to look at these plans.  You are entitled to submit your own concerns to East Lothian Council directly – but please note this deadline is Friday 23 April. We have been granted an extension to this date for a collated response through the Parent Council of the 4^th of May.

Any queries / comments please email the Parent Council.

Best wishes

Parent Council Team

lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com

Zoe Lovell who coordinates the Law PC Safe Routes to School group for the Parent Council has been working hard with the local community groups but now needs someone else to help.  It’s a  fantastic opportunity to really contribute to our town – not just for the kids!

“Do you have experience of stakeholder management?

Do you live in the East of the town?
Would you like your children to be able to cycle safely to school?

We have an exciting opportunity to work with the local council, Area Partnership and other interested parties to investigate the possibility of improving the surface of the path that runs along the bottom of the law.

This would greatly improve the safety of children, because it would allow cyclists and pedestrians to use the route to go from Aldi along to the school without having to go along the increasingly busy Lochbridge Road.

The current proposal being discussed would involve an upgrade to a surface similar to that of The Glen, there is no suggestion of using tarmac, or lights, which could disturb wildlife.

To move the project forward though, we need someone to gather views of all interested parties, including local residents, and to facilitate relevant discussions. We don’t anticipate this being a particularly lengthy, or time consuming role.”

If you can help, please contact lawprimaryparentcouncil@gmail.com.

Thank you!

The Law Primary Parent Council Team