Timing is everything, and this isn't it

I get a fair amount of email dropping into my inbox every day at work. Some of it is from constituents, some from my colleagues, and some of it is unsolicited and gets deleted after I've had a quick swatch. Late yesterday afternoon, I received a mass email addressed to all Council staff that surprised me so much I had to read it again. Here it is:

I'm sure we all have our own special memories of life at school - some good, perhaps some not so good. But when was the last time you were actually in a school? How much has changed since you walked out of the school doors for the last time?

When you were at school, did you have Interactive Whiteboards, Media Suites, Social Streets? Or are you reading this and thinking "what are you talking about"? Well here is your chance to find out for yourself. A new exciting initiative is being offered to staff in 2009. Education Services are organising a number of 'Back To School' events, open to all Council staff and staff from the Councils' Arms Length External Organisations (ALEO's).

Glasgow's School Estate

The Council has radically improved the condition and quality of its education estate in the past 8 years. Since 2002 the Council has invested approximately £550m to ensure that children, young people and staff have high quality, vibrant learning and teaching environments that support the core objectives of raising attainment and achievement. A high number of schools in Glasgow have been transformed. Project 2002 resulted in Glasgow's secondary schools undertaking the biggest rebuilding and refurbishment programme ever seen in the United Kingdom. Project 2002 underlined the commitment of the City Council to investing in education. The end result of the project was 11 brand new secondary schools and 18 secondary schools totally refurbished, some with major extensions built.

The Council recognised that the reform could not be restricted to the secondary sector and therefore brought forward the Pre 12 Strategy. We are currently in Phase 4 of this project - full details are available at - http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/GoingtoSchool/Pre12Strategy/

Education Services want to increase awareness throughout the Council of the positive impact of the investment in 21st century schools. So we are 'opening the gates' to our schools to allow council colleagues the chance to visit and see for themselves classrooms of the 21st Century. These proposed visits will also allow colleagues to have an increased awareness of the educational opportunities now on offer to our children and young people.

How to Apply for a Tour

Full details of this exciting new project, along with an application form for anyone interested in visiting a school, are available on Connect.

Tours will commence at 10am in specific schools and will finish off just before midday with a complimentary meal in the 'Fuel Zone' - the catering service provided by Direct and Care Services that has revolutionised catering in all primary and secondary schools - www.fuelzone.co.uk This will allow you the chance to compare school meals today with yesteryears delights such as mince, semolina and lumpy custard!

Staff will also have the option of making their own way to the school or alternatively Land and Environmental Services will arrange for transport to and from the school - leaving from, and returning to, Wheatley House on the day of the visits.

This message has been authorised for all Council distribution by Margaret Doran, Executive Director of Children and Families.

For a significant number of Council staff, it's part of their job to know what's going on in our schools. Some Council staff may get access to schools as parents, and will have an idea of what they're like. As an elected member, I'm in the schools and nurseries in my ward on a regular basis and I try to keep a handle on what's going on.

For the rest, I wonder what value a trip round Glasgow's schools will bring. Will staff will get time off their work to go on this jolly outing? Why not wait for Doors Open Day? The campaigning parents of St Gregory's and Wyndford Primaries certainly didn't need an invitation!

I'm less than convinced that in these times of austerity what is needed is Education spending money on an open invitation to all Glasgow City Council employees to come and wander around school buildings. It sounds like there will also be cost implications to Land and Environmental Services for the minibuses and DACS/Cordia for meals.

The point of this exercise clearly isn't to give staff a true impression of the conditions children are taught in. It's not about nostalgia or letting staff go back to school. The schools that have been selected aren't among the five "Category D for Dangerous" school buildings, or even among the Cs and Ds. These tours won't show flaky paint, leaking roofs, pitted playgrounds, or point out the foliage sprouting from the gutters. Visitors won't get the chance to sit in drafty classrooms with their coats and mittens on to keep them warm.

They'll be visiting these selected schools:

Primary - 22nd April

• Ashpark Primary
• Avenue End Primary
• Castleton Primary
• Merrylee Primary
• St Maria Goretti Primary

Secondary - 23rd April

• All Saints Secondary
• Drumchapel High
• Knightswood Secondary
• St Andrew's Secondary
• St Thomas Aquinas Secondary

• 
  

I don't seek to do Glasgow schools down by this post. The effort and high standards of the vast majority of teaching staff in sometimes difficult circumstances is admirable. The new schools Glasgow has invested in are impressive. For older schools, however, basic maintenance has been skimped over years. In some cases, we don't need new schools; we just need to look after what we have.

For me, the timing is pretty tactless. In a matter of weeks, Councillors in Glasgow will decide whether to close dozens of schools and nurseries across the city. This a diversionary PR exercise, nothing less.

Some voters still don't get STV

I've been meaning to blog on this since the night of the Baillieston count, but found myself with far too many other important things to catch up on! Anyway, what better way to spend my first Saturday off in months that musing on electoral processes...

Glasgow City Council seems keen to pursue e-counting, partly as Glasgow didn't have the massive problems experienced at other counts in Scotland on the 3rd and 4th of May 2007. E-counting is actually quite an interesting process, and gives incredibly detailed results showing transfers and stages of election (follow the link at the bottom of the page). As interesting as some of us find these details, the basics of Single Transferable Vote are still lost on a significant number of people.

The voters of Baillieston are the most experienced STV voters in Scotland, having now been through the 2007 election and two by elections. Despite this, my experience at the count at the most recent by election demonstrated to me that electors appear to remain unsure of how to cast their vote in an STV election.

The process at e-count works something like this. Votes arrive in their boxes from the polling station, and are first fed through scanners and checked to ensure the number of ballots in the box matches what ought to be there.

Questionable marks on the ballot paper are then examined on a screen like this (Key Correction). At all stages, computer monitors are positioned back to back so counting agents are able to see exactly what the clerk sees and chip in with their thoughts (a 1? a 4? a squiggle? an arrow? too faint to see?). Numbers are either confirmed or sent through to the next stage where the mark can be seen in context.

At this next stage (Standard Queue), ballot papers are shown in their entirety so questionable marks can be better understood. As you can see from this picture, what would have looked like a faint line on the previous screen is quite clearly a 1.

It's also at this stage where voters' uncertainty about the STV vote becomes obvious.

Lots of voters are still marking their preference with a cross, instead of ranking. This still counts, but means that their vote is only good for one candidate and one stage of the STV count process.

A good number of voters appear to have put crosses next to more than one candidate. This makes it impossible to tell which candidate or party they prefer, so their vote has to be discarded.

Some people also do things like put a 5 next to the fifth candidate; I think the guidelines could be revised to include this vote, as it's the only preference shown.

Any ballot papers still in question (particularly ones with faint marks) are then sent to the Returning Officer's queue, where representatives from all the parties haggle over what exactly the voter meant when they put that smudgy squiggle near a candidate's name.

I am concerned that there is still a lot of confusion and a lack of understanding in the electorate. The Electoral Commission's report highlighted the problems of 2007 - strikingly, most of the 38,351 local government votes rejected last year were due to over-voting or uncertainty. Less than two hundred were rejected due to the lack of an official mark or being able to identify the voter.

In Baillieston 290 votes were rejected in 2007 out of a total of 10,666. Confusion persists. 65 ballot papers were rejected out of a total of 5261 cast in the first Bailieston by election, and 57 out of 4876 in the most recent by election. What if these votes were some of the same people making the same mistake? You could argue that it's natural selection, electoral style but I don't believe that it's acceptable that any vote gets cast aside. All parties work very hard to get voters out to the polls; it's not easy to pursuade people to come out on a cold dark night to take part in the democratic process. Authorities and parties must do more to make sure that every vote cast in good faith counts.