The Harris Academy Former Pupils’ Association is holding a summer dinner on Friday 7th June in the school – 7pm for 7.30pm.
Sheena Wellington will be guest speaker and Lesley Mackie will give the toast the school. Tickets are £25.
All FPs welcome – please contact Freida Soutar at freida.s67@gmail.com by this Friday – 17th May – if you wish to attend.
HERA will be back in May with a brand new term of evening classes.
Bookings for all classes will open up at HERA’s enrolment night event on Wednesday 17th April in Harris Academy from 6pm and 7pm.
Come along and chat to tutors and find out about the range of classes on offer.
Find our more at www.facebook.com/events/3704478183121274
HERA – Harris Education and Recreation Association – in addition to its spring programme of classes – is running free taster sessions in early 2024.
There’s a weekly Dundee Time and Place evening class that meets in the Corso sheltered complex lounge and each class covers a different topic in Dundee’s history.
Francis de Franco, the excellent course leader, will also be doing a free taster session on Saturday 27th January, looking at the history of shopping in Dundee.
Find out more by e-mailing HERA at enquiries@heradundee.org
Residents will recall our previous articles in August and October about insufficient capacity on one of the school buses (the 6s – the pupils concerned live in the Pentland area) to/from Harris Academy, we have again been in touch with the council’s transportation team in the run up to the Christmas school holidays.
The team has responded to us with this helpful update in advance of the schools returning after the New Year :
“As previously discussed, I wanted to update you about the route amendment we have agreed with McGill’s buses for the Service 10s to be introduced officially after the festive period.
From Monday 8th January 2024, the Service 10s will extend its route to cover the Pentland area of the City rerouting via Charleston Drive (not serving Elmwood Road), Ancrum Road, Tullideph Road, City Road, Pentland Avenue, Balgay Road, Blackness Avenue and Perth Road and we believe this will provide adequate support to the 6s to ensure that all the pupils are picked up in the Pentland Avenue / City Road area of the city.
Registration documents have been submitted to the Scottish Traffic Commissioner with Dundee City Council agreeing to an earlier start date to try and resolve this matter as soon as we could. Both McGill’s Buses and Harris Academy are endeavouring to distribute this information to pupils, however I would be grateful if you could pass this information on directly to any of your constituents who have contacted you recently regarding this matter.”
Residents will recall that, following concerns raised by parents and carers with us last term about insufficient capacity on one of the school buses to and from Harris Academy (the 6s – the pupils concerned live in the Pentland area), we raised the issue with the City Council.
We are pleased to have been updated by the transportation team at the council to say that at the north end of the route, from the start of the new term, pupils who who also have access to another of the school bus services will use service 10s instead of the 6s. This will hopefully ensure that when the 6s arrives at stops further south going towards the school, there will be sufficient space left to ensure all pupils can get on the bus.
The school makes good efforts at the end of the school day to ensure pupils get on the most appropriate bus home and it is hoped that bus availability will improve for all pupils during the new term.
The Harris Academy Former Pupils’ Association is holding a lunch on Monday 4th September at noon.
All FPs welcome – please contact Freida Soutar on Dundee 562788 or e-mail freida.s67@gmail.com by 5pm on Wednesday 30th August if you wish to attend.
Further to the vandalism of the footbridge over the rail line south of Harris Academy some time ago, we advised residents recently that the council’s City Development Committee had approved the tender to allow works to proceed to repair and re-open it.
We recently asked for an update in the hope it can re-open by the end of the school summer holidays and we also asked about the possibility of a cycle ramp to be added during the repairs, as requested by residents.
The City Engineer (Design & Property Services) at Dundee City Council has now responded as follows :
“The contract for the repairs has been let but are within the booking system for Network Rail overnight possessions. First availability of these is 8-9 weeks off so the bridge will not be open for the start of the new term. We are totally at the discretion of Network Rail so there is not much we can do to improve this unfortunately.
Regarding the second point about a cycle ramp, no this is not feasible on this structure as the stairs are timber and insufficiently robust for a steel channel to be affixed.”
We do hope that the necessary rail possession is agreed to ASAP so that the repairs can take place.
Further to our article yesterday about swimming provision for the wider community at Harris Academy, we received this update later yesterday from the Managing Director of Leisure & Culture Dundee :
Harris Swim & Sport Centre Update
Due to ongoing building work relating to the Harris Academy extension project, the Swim & Sports Centre will be unavailable from Monday 3rd July to Sunday 30th July 2023, inclusive. The power supply to the building is being upgraded, and there will be a four-week shutdown of all power.
The dry side activity areas (sports hall, gym hall, dance studio and fitness suite) are scheduled to reopen from Monday, 31st July. Due to additional health & safety pre-checks, it is anticipated that the swimming pool will reopen on Monday 7th August 2023.
We apologise for the inconvenience caused to our members and customers. You are welcome to use other Leisure & Culture Dundee facilities as an alternative.
Public Swimming sessions:
Monday – Friday: 8:30am – 8:30pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre *
Tuesday & Thursday – 6-9pm – St. Paul’s Swim & Sport
Wednesday & Friday – 6-9pm – Grove Swim & Sport
Saturday: 9:30 – 4:00pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre *
Sunday: 9:45 – 4:00pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre *
* no lane swimming on site only public swimming set up
Fitness Suite opening times:
Monday – Friday: 7:45am – 8:30pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre
Monday – Friday 6-9pm – Grove & St. Paul’s Swim & Sport
Saturday: 9:00am-4:15pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre
Sunday: 10:00am – 4:15pm – Lochee Swimming & Leisure Centre
Saturday & Sunday – 9am-12:30pm – Grove & St. Paul’s Swim & Sport
With the school summer holidays starting at the end of this week, we renewed our call for greater use of the facilities at Harris Academy to be made available to families over the holidays, particularly given the continuing non-availability of Olympia.
We took this up with the Managing Director of Leisure & Culture Dundee and have been updated as follows :
“Further to your email regarding access to the Harris facilities, Leisure & Culture Dundee has worked hard to increase access to swimming opportunities for public lane swimming, family swimming, clubs and the Learn to Swim programme. The majority of the additional programming has been based at St Paul’s and Grove Academy as these are PPP schools under Robertson’s management and can be opened for additional access without incurring additional Tayside Contract Facility staffing costs.
With the exception of 08:00-08:30, Leisure & Culture Dundee provide access to pools across the city to clubs, general public and learn to swim programmes between the hours of 06:00 – 21:00 Monday to Friday and 09:00 – 17:00 at weekends. This provision is 7 hours less than when Olympia was available.
In 2018/19 Leisure & Culture Dundee ceased the weekend operation at Harris Academy due to lack of public demand for access, with attendances on Saturday and Sunday afternoons for swimming averaging 8 participants over both sessions. At the time, Leisure & Culture Dundee were subsidising these weekend afternoon sessions by £6k per annum.
At present, we are still working towards attaining pre-Covid levels and are not in a position to increase this provision given the additional costs required, but are closely monitoring the situation.”
We have responded saying we have concerns that the good facilities at Harris Academy are simply under-used. We feel some further engagement with the local community should be made to ascertain current – as opposed to historical – demand.
Residents will recall that, some months ago, there was unfortunate recent vandalism of the footbridge over the rail line south of Harris Academy.
The repair has taken some time for the council to arrange as it requires a rail line possession agreement with Network Rail.
We are pleased, however, to advise that the council’s City Development Committee recently approved the tender to allow works to proceed.
Michael sought and obtained at committee an assurance that every effort would be made to ensure repairs are completed and the footbridge re-opened in advance of the school returning after the summer holidays.
The next term of HERA evening classes is due to run in May and June.
Enrolment for classes will open at an event in Harris Academy tomorrow – Wednesday 19th April.
If you are interested in joining a class next term, please come along between 6pm and 7pm – all welcome!
More information is available at www.tiny.cc/HERA-enrolment
Residents will recall that, back in September of last year, we highlighted the deteriorated state of the Elliot Road playing field’s tennis courts.
Having raised this with the City Council, Fraser took part in a very useful meeting at that time, including representatives from Dundee City Council, Harris Academy, sports clubs representatives and West End Community Sports Hub.
Yesterday, a follow-up meeting took place that Fraser took part in. The tennis courts have since seen work to the blaze surface to remove weeds and will be raked and rolled before the spring.
We discussed at some length funding options to create a proper, multi-functional facility. A collective bid to external organisations covering around five Dundee projects will be made in the coming months, including Elliot Road, which is really good news.
We will, of course, keep residents updated on further developments.
All are welcome along to Harris Education and Recreation Association’s free Christmas celebration event at The Vine, Magdalen Yard Road tonight – Friday 2nd December – from 7pm to 9pm.
Pop in to enjoy some seasonal refreshments and learn about adult learning opportunities through HERA who run evening classes in Harris Academy and other West End venues.
Classes include Pilates, Needle Felting, Drawing and Painting and various languages, and will start again in early 2023.
No need to book for this free event, please just come along and bring a friend!
See more at www.facebook.com/events/811294286877667
For some time, residents have raised concerns about the deteriorated state of the Elliot Road playing field’s tennis courts.
We had raised this with the City Council and, yesterday, Fraser took part in a very useful meeting including representatives from Dundee City Council, Harris Academy, sports clubs representatives and WECSH, the West End Community Sports Hub.
As an immediate step, Neighbourhood Services at the City Council will undertake some work to get rid of the weeds and roll the surface.
However, the main purpose of the meeting was to have some initial discussions about possible long-term improvements to hopefully create a multi-use games area to provide a multi-sport all weather facility. This would, should it prove possible, benefit Harris Academy and its curriculum delivery but also have very positive West End community benefit.
We have agreed to take initial steps to look at possible partnership funding and delivery models but meantime Fraser would welcome feedback from residents on this by either Facebook message or by e-mailing him at fraser.macpherson@dundeecity.gov.uk – many thanks!
Harris Education and Recreation Association’s next block of evening courses will start on the week commencing 12th September.
Enrolment is next Wednesday – 24th August – in Harris Academy from 6pm to 7pm.
Classes are mostly on Wednesdays from 6.30pm-8.30pm, but there are some on Mondays and Tuesdays at the moment too. Minimum age is 16.
Full class details are available at www.heradundee.org/hera-classes
It was a pleasure last night for us both to attend the last Harris Academy Parent Council meeting of the current school term.
This was the first parent council meeting that Fraser had been able to attend in-person since 2020 as all meetings have been on-line only during the COVID pandemic and this was Michael’s first opportunity to attend a Harris Academy Parent Council meeting since his recent election to represent the West End on the City Council.
The meeting was a ‘hybrid’ one, allowing the choice of attending on-line or in person and this worked extremely well.
Very positive updates from Mr Millar and members of the senior leadership team including new school initiatives and the current SQA examinations diet has been running well.
We also discussed the possible future for the tennis courts at the Elliot Road playing fields that constituents have raised with us as these are badly in need of an upgrade or repurposing for perhaps an all-weather playing facility.
Details of Harris Education and Recreation Association’s Spring 2022 courses are now available at :
www.facebook.com/HERAdundee/posts/4763070563776661
There are eight new online evening classes available :
* Italian
* Spanish
* American History
* Drawing & Painting
* Crochet
* Art and Literature Inspired by The Bible
* French
* How Genetic Engineering and Immunology affect your life
The HERA website is at https://heradundee.org.
HERA is a superb West End local organisation with a great group of volunteers. The classes are excellent so please give HERA your support!
The path that runs down the side of Harris Academy off Perth Road towards Riverside is badly overgrown – see photo.
I am grateful to the residents who highlighted this to me and I have asked the City Council’s Neighbourhood Services who have maintenance responsibility here to have it tidied.
he Dundee City Archives blog has a great article about the very first pupils who attended Harris Academy after it was first established in 1885.
This can be read here.
From Harris Education and Recreation Association :
“Why not make some time for yourself this January and fill the long days with one of our evening classes -all done from the comfort of your living room. We have various topics including Pilates, Crochet, songwriting, Climate Change, Spanish and American History.
You can enrol online from 13th January, and classes start at the end of the month.”
Online registration from the 13th will take place here.
The next HERA – Harris Education & Recreation Association block of Zoom classes will run in November, with most classes on Wednesday evenings and a couple on Mondays.
Online enrolment for the range of classes will be available on www.heradundee.org from 21st October to 28th October.
Don’t miss out – full detils here!
Here’s the details of the upcoming evening classes from Harris Education and Recreation Association – together with information about enrolment night. You can click on the images below to enlarge and can also find more details are available here :
Cllrs Fraser Macpherson and Michael Crichton 