Parents light to save Belhaven nursery posts

ANGRY parents are fighting to save the jobs of two qualified teachers at their children's nursery school.


The parents are angry that two teachers from Belhaven Nursery in North Kelvinside are to be re-deployed and replaced at the school by less qualified nursery assistants.
The re-deployment is part of a cost-cutting exer-cise.The council plans to get rid of a total of 37 nursery teachers across the city, in order to cut two per cent from the education budget.
Belhaven cares for 50 children full-time and many more part-time.
At present there are two teachers and a head teacher employed at the nursery. Head teacher Gillian Kulwicki, has been joined by parents in her fight to save her two colleagues.
Under the proposals Shena McDonald - a nursery and early years specialist and Anne O'Grady, who has a qualification in special education, will be replaced by less qualified nursery assistants.
The teachers have around 60 years' experi-
ence between them.
Kevin McLaughlin, whose five-year-old son Joseph attends the nursery is furious.
He said: "my son's autistic, these teachers and their early intervention helped immensely to diagnose and help him.
"You simply can't put a price on their experience; it's been invaluable I can't praise them enough."
Purveen Rasul, from North Kelvinside whose four-year-old son Abdullah-Ali attends the nursery, said her family had been coming to the school for generations.
"Our first languages are
Punjabi and Urdu and the nursery is the first place our kids come across English." She said.
"The teachers here order in specialist material for them, the nursery has been invaluable to our family over the years, I think that moving two teachers on and replacing them with less experienced staff is terrible."
A council spokesman has said: "As part of the budget process a number of proposals are being considered. However, no decision will be taken until the proposals have gone out to public consultation." Source: West End News