Threat to Broughton music school

Dear parents,

Urgent action needed – TODAY!

We learned yesterday that an apparently benign line in the proposed City of Edinburgh Council budget for next year, seeking to create a city-wide music service, is actually based on a proposal to close the Music School at Broughton and at Flora Stevenson’s as we know it, and – in the case of Flora’s – not to replace it at all. As you can imagine, this will have a profound impact on our community, and we are asking for your help to write to your councillor TODAY, ahead of a budget meeting tomorrow, to ask them to ensure that the Music School continues in its current form.

The Music School is a national and international Centre of Excellence and impacts on our lives in the following ways:

• Personal – for the children who attend, they have their needs met in a way that no other school or service in Edinburgh can provide. Families have uprooted in order to come to this school. Entry to the Music School is based on musical potential, not on financial need; the Music School makes a specialist music education available to all.
• Community and Educational – we all benefit from the diversity of our community which results from the integration of the Music School. Results at Broughton have risen steadily over the past few years, and the centres of excellence at Broughton High are an important part of a school culture that helps all students to achieve their potential.
• Financial – we understand that the funding received by Edinburgh City Council from the Scottish Government contains an expectation, detailed in various documents and responses over the years, that a specific significant element is intended to support the national centre of excellence. The Council’s budget proposal does not take account of the fact that this funding will disappear if the Music School is disbanded. We are seeking to verify the figures, but we estimate that the Council will lose more funding by disbanding the Music School than it will in continuing to support it.

We would like to seek your support in contacting your councillor TODAY, as there is a Council budget meeting tomorrow, and we need them to know how strong the community feeling is about the potential loss of this front line service.

Please help!

The email addresses of the Inverleith City of Edinburgh councillors are as follows:

gavin.barrie@edinburgh.gov.uk (SNP)

hal.osler@edinburgh.gov.uk (Lib Dem)

iain.whyte@edinburgh.gov.uk (Conservative)

max.mitchell@edinburgh.gov.uk (Conservative)