Dunfermline school is best in Scotland says First Minister

Gary Fitzpatrick • Published 17 Aug 2011 14:30 31 Comments

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FIRST Minister Alex Salmond visited the new Carnegie Primary in Dunfermline and told pupils, "It's the best school in Scotland".

Mr Salmond said he was very impressed by facilities at the eco-friendly school and also the knowledge of the youngsters during his visit yesterday (Wednesday).

After visiting the classrooms, the First Minister took a lesson with all pupils in the assembly hall at which he asked if they knew who Andrew Carnegie was.

The answers ranged from "he was named after our school" to "he was a philanthropist".

Mr Salmond said afterwards, "The girl who said that is in Primary 3 and I thought that was incredible and good credit to Mrs Marnoch (headteacher) and her staff. I don't know if I knew what a philanthropist was when I was in Primary 3.

"It was a good sign because I wanted to see what they knew about the person the school's named after and the answer was a very great deal.

"This is a Fife Council-funded capital borrowing project and they deserve every congratulations for doing this.

"We've managed overall between ourselves and the councils, especially the ones like Fife who are building, to open 330 schools in the last four years which is a record.

"Scotland's never managed that number and if we can only ensure they are all built to this standard it would be fantastic."

The new school, situated near Carnegie College, opened its doors for the first time on Tuesday. It has 210 pupils and 95 youngsters at nursery. There are four Primary 1 classes.

This article appeared in Dunfermline Press 17 Aug 11

Have your say. Post a comment on this article.

Bob the Builder
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Aug 17, 15:43
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dunfermline schools are terrible, I ended up cleaning toilets for 20 years,before my accident

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BobTheBuilder
111 posts
Aug 17, 18:04
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Clearly there are some imbeciles here, so I have registered as 'BobTheBuilder', just so that my opinions are not confused some of the spoutings of others who lack the imagination to commmit to a username of their own.

Uncle Joe, you must be a real diddy if you think that posting such nonsense under my old username was a sensible move, considering I was at work at the time.

You may want to visit the infant classes at Carnegie Primary yourself. You'll learn to start sentences with capitals and end them with a full stop and not make spurious use of commas. Have a nice day.

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hazelkaye
316 posts
Aug 17, 18:19
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"During his visit yesterday (Wednesday)"? TODAY (17.08.2011) IS WEDNESDAY IS IT NOT?

Just goes to show how 'backward' Mr Salmond actually is!

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bored Gus
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Aug 17, 19:44
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Hazel, the piece was written for the paper which is published on a Thursday. Meaning that it would indeed be "yesterday"

Salmond is backward, though. If you think keep refusing to censure members of your own party over their backward, victorian, unpleasant and unacceptable statements.

It is a travesty that Bill Walker can say that he represents anyone in his constituency

Recommend? Yes 7 No 5
happyparent
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Aug 17, 20:20
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In comment to the actual article!! I am a parent of a pupil who has been at Carnegie Primary since it was set up two years ago. As parents we have endured many various battles with the council and sleepless nights but I can now say that I too believe we have the best school in Scotland!

The facilities are fantastic. This is coupled with a great teaching staff who have given our children a wonderful start to their school years and I hope will continue to do so.

I never thought I would say this, but well done Fife Council!!

Recommend? Yes 13 No 3
kidsrock
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Aug 17, 20:48
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shame the First Minister didnt put as much time and resource into resolving the other education issues in dunfermline - parents who are faced to send their kids to schools out of catchment because of ridiculous "catchment rules" and over subscription of sibilings who dont live within the catchment areas. Given that Carnegie has followed the same lead as Masterton and Duloch in that kids who live out of catchment have been accepted, fast forward a few years and the sibilings of these kids will be given priority spaces over those kids that actually live within the catchment area !!

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Human Rights
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Aug 17, 20:49
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And where does the 1st Minister stand on human rights in Scotland. Maybe I need to send him a letter or two about the appalling breaches being committed right here in Dunfermline. Do you think he really cares?

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Syd Carrott
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Aug 17, 21:49
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kidsrock you are bang on, I can't see how it will sort itself out until after all the parents living out of the catchment area who had kids accepted stop having more children. As far as I understand it this years P1 intake at Masterton was 50 pupils, 30 of these were allocated to siblings of pupils already there, meaning only 20 places were up for grabs to people living in the catchment area. I have also heard, and please someone correct me if I'm wrong, that taking on 50 new pupils each year is unsustainable because of the size of this school. So it's possible that next year there could only be 1 class of Primary 1's, which if the numbers were the same as this year would be made up entirely of siblings. It's possible you could live next door to the school and not get in, which would turn an already wholly unsatisfactory situation into the realms of farce.

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Al Fresco
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Aug 17, 21:58
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Unfortunately, I believe we may be looking at a conspiracy theory here.

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meme
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Aug 18, 01:14
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well boo hoo to all of the people who bought houses in oeder to be in the catchment area .our STATE school isnt exclusive to you because you can afford to move house for a better school .social needs come first /this school is not a feeder for dollar academy

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Bob the Builder
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Aug 18, 13:32
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if kids are outside catchment area,and pupils parents do not work,do kids have to pay for bus travel----much obliged if youse could help

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******
Aug 18, 18:22
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BobTheBuilder
111 posts
Aug 18, 18:33
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Meme, come off your high horse about 'social positioning'. The problem with the DEX schools always has been, and always will be, that the schools that have been built are woefully inadequate for the number of houses that already exist, far less the ones on plans that await planning consent. Quite bizzare that there are still plans for several thousand more houses in DEX, but no schools. Why shouldn't children be able to attend the school on their doorstep? Makes more sense than sending them off on a bus to Dollar Academy every day surely?

If you were actually knowledgeable about the parental choice situation you'd know that there are many more 'out of catchment' requests for places at other schools throughout Dunfermline than there are at the DEX schools. These many be for a number of reasons, for example, near to a parental workplace, not out of snobbery.

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Syd Parrott
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Aug 18, 22:29
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Meme, did you pick your screen name as a nod to the me me culture that you seem to think exists in the Eastern Expansion? No you never, did you, that would credit you with far more intelligence than your nonsensical ramblings would indicate. The reason we bought our house had absolutely nothing to do with schools or catchment areas, in fact at the time we moved in Masterton Primary wasn't even planned for construction. Even more laughable is your point that "social needs come first", do you not think this situation effects all the people that live in shared equity or social housing too? If you really were so concerned about social needs, would you not prefer that all the local children go to the local school anyway. But hey It would seem your problem is more to do with your perception of class and wealth, why else bring Dollar Academy into the equation, than the real issues of the situation.

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lwclarke
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Aug 19, 11:06
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wish my primary school was as fantastic as this, i work for morgan sindall (main contractor for the school) so ive been around the whole school for the past 7month, the efffort and money thats went into the school was paid off well, plenty of happy kids and parents

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Ikea shopper
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Aug 19, 11:27
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School catchment area's can now be avoided. For example, a teenager is living in Pitcorthie; this teenager SHOULD be going to Dunfermline HS, but the teenager wants to go to Woodmill/Inverkeithing etc

In this case the parent/guardian, only has to write a letter to the Headteacher of the desired school, and 9 times out of ten the headteacher says yes.

I COULD be wrong, but I would imagine it is exactly the same for primary schools.

But I'd also like to state that this school IS NOT a feeder for Dollar Academy! (The rightful catchment High schools are Inverkeithing, Woodmill & St Columbus.)

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Bob the Builder
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Aug 19, 13:11
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being an unemployed mother of 2, I do not even get help with my kids bus fares- ok I live outside catchment area,but my small amount of money does not go far

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******
Aug 19, 13:21
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xxxx
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Aug 19, 13:34
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wake up jan the asleep man

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Matron
97 posts
Aug 19, 14:38
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Just UJ role playing again tut tut :-O

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Bob the Builder
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Aug 19, 16:28
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dear matron,being out of work does get you down,but ignore joe, it will only make things worse,god bless.

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jobcentre
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Aug 19, 17:31
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Better to be an out of work Matron than an employed cesspit heed.

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BobTheBuilder
111 posts
Aug 19, 17:39
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Oh FFS, I'll repeat it again for the dopey ones - 'Bob the Builder' was hijacked by someone else, therefore I registered with this name, which means no-one else can post as BobTheBuilder. Now, do I need to restate it again in words of one syallable, or have we got the message??

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Fundraiser
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Aug 19, 17:42
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Maybe Alex would like to come and see some of his "not so superb" schools around Fife that plenty of other children attend. Those with leaking roofs, toilets that were installed when Noah was a lad, equipment paid for by fundraising because the cooncil can't or won't fund it. I notice that we all have nice new cages for the wheelie bins 'cos we REALLY needed those. Or is it a case of, for example, Sky" promotions. For new customers only.

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******
Aug 19, 17:45
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Faresfair
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Aug 19, 18:04
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Hey Bob, just to say those with a modicum intelligence on here know that you are male and what you do for a living, because they can do what uj can't, follow a pattern. He thinks by referring to people whom he knows full well are male as female, that he somehow is forming an insult. But Bob you, I and 99%, of others on here know that uj can't string spaghetti round his fork, let alone string together a relevant post.

Take comfort that in the morning you will still be you, and uj, well.... he'll still be pointless.

Recommend? Yes 11 No 0
Matron
97 posts
Aug 19, 23:30
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Oh and by the way Iam a female Nurse of 20+ years.Iam not a cleaner nor unemployed.Thank you x

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******
Aug 20, 12:25
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******
Aug 20, 19:08
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******
Aug 21, 10:24
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******
Aug 21, 18:36
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******
Aug 21, 18:53
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Matron
97 posts
Aug 23, 13:23
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20+ years in the job UJ.But hey I will expect some vile comment against me so on you go if that is how you get your kicks.

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******
Aug 23, 13:45
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Faresfair
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Aug 23, 14:36
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Matron, see my post above (Aug 19) to Bob. This applies to you too. You have a purpose, uj has none.

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Matron
97 posts
Aug 23, 15:37
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Thank you Faresfair it is nice to have positive comments as I only get vile ones usually from our ignorant one ! :-( .But seems moderators are stopping his vileness pretty quick today so should be nicer banter. Appreciated your comment :-)

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******
Aug 23, 15:52
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******
Aug 23, 20:19
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MrsJBarrowman
10 posts
Aug 24, 01:16
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Is there nothing anyone can do to rid this forum (of mainly intelligent people) of this rather tiresome and very tedious idiot? Much as I hate to "feed the troll" I just feel that every thread is hijacked by this idiotic being. It's getting boring now. Should we all perhaps just ignore him/it and not post in retaliation to him/it. Maybe he'll get bored and retire to the great alehouse in the sky? Leave the normal people to debate the topics of the day without turning it into the freakshow it's become?

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TheBruce
34 posts
Aug 24, 13:23
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Could not agree more Mrs J, lets all get registered and tidy the forum up, muppets have no place here.

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Matron
97 posts
Aug 24, 14:31
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DP should make Unwanted Jerk register so he can't hide behind his numerous names although they're not difficult to spot eh suzy q ? dashes and no capital letters give it away.

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Matron
97 posts
Aug 24, 15:33
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He will make his appearance once Moderators have gone home. Perhaps they should block him after these hours as must waste so much time deleting him the next day,and save us from abusive comments all night spoiling it for all.

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******
Aug 25, 21:14
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