I had planned to develop on the theme of last week by speaking about meetings our pupils had with Angela Scott, Chief Executive of Aberdeen City Council, this week.  I was then going to speak a little about how much we had enjoyed welcoming S2 parents to meet their teachers during the week.  I was going to close by mentioning a few pupils achievements – including a group of S5s who have been trained by the Careers Service to be Ambassadors for ‘My World of Work’.

Sadly events over the weekend have resulted in me writing a rather different blog.  On Friday evening/Saturday morning the fire and police were called to a fire in the school.  Their response was prompt and effective and thankfully damage is limited to a small area.  I cannot say too much as the incident is part of an on-going criminal investigation.  We also have to await advice from H&S and building services on the integrity of our electrical and alarm systems and on any interim plans for opening the school to pupils.  People will be on site to advise us on Monday and I can update parents, pupils and staff more after we have made a full assessment.  We also need time to clear up (particularly the sooty deposits in some areas of he building) and brief staff on any interim arrangements.  What I can reassure people about is that pupil work has not been damaged and I am hopeful we can work around any short term inconvenience.

Schools all have business continuity plans which are intended to help us cope with such situations.  In addition, colleagues in fire, police and Aberdeen City Council have all offered prompt and valuable support.  The priority is to get the school up and running as soon as possible – we all know pupils and staff have important deadlines to meet and we will do all we can to help.

Alongside the efforts to get the school up and running there is also the criminal investigation.  We are working with the police in this regard and I would urge anyone with information which might help identify the person/persons responsible to let the police know.  They say Aberdeen is a village and I am sure there is information out there which will help the police with their investigations.