Parents hit by more school closures in Edinburgh

Edinburgh City Council's insisting the decision to temporarily shut more schools in the capital is only a "precautionary measure".

Published 17th Mar 2016

Edinburgh City Council's insisting the decision to temporarily shut more schools in the capital is only a "precautionary measure".

St Peter's RC Primary, Firrhill High and Braidburn Special Schools are all closed today with varying degrees of disruption.

It's because of concerns relating to walls in the building and comes after Oxgangs Primary shut earlier this week.

St Peter's will close until the end of the Easter Holidays and the council says alternate arrangements will be put in place for next week "if possible".

Only a small area at Firrhill is affected, so that will re-open next week.

Alternate arrangements have been put in place for Braidburn if that can't open on Monday.

The schools are expected to fully re-open after the Easter holidays.

Councillor Paul Godzik, Education Convener, said: “The health and safety of our pupils and staff is our top priority and therefore the Council has decided to temporarily close these schools as a purely precautionary measure.

“Whilst the survey results have indicated that these schools could continue to operate in normal weather conditions until the necessary works are carried out we are unwilling to take any risk.

“We fully recognise the inconvenience caused by these closures and we would like to apologise to parents for this, however I am sure everyone will understand why we have taken these steps.”