AGM Wednesday 5 March 2025

Join Us
Comann nam Pàrant Dùn Èideann is Lodainn (CnamPDE) 
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Wednesday 5 March 2025 19:30 – via Zoom

You can join the zoom meeting here
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85760975999?pwd=turuA0avUcUO3eKhwOhsnnY2F6MPIE.1

Meeting ID: 857 6097 5999
Passcode: 698170

All welcome to a very short AGM followed by an open meeting. 

Comann nam Pàrant Dùn Èideann is Lodainn (CnamPDE) is a local group that represents parents and children in GME across the Edinburgh and Lothians. We are one of a number of local groups who all feed into the national group – Comann nam Pàrant Nàiseanta. We aim to represent the interests of all parents whose children are educated through the medium of Gaelic. This includes croileagan (playgroup), sgoil-àraich (nursery), bun-sgoil (primary school) and àrd-sgoil (high school).

We are a small committee of parents. We haven’t had a very high profile recently, so we wanted to take this opportunity to briefly let you know what we’ve been up to and to invite you all to our next meeting, which will be online, on Wednesday 5th March at 19:30. That will be a very short AGM and then an open meeting for everyone who would like to attend, whether that is just to listen in, or to raise issues, get involved, or best of all, join our committee, in any capacity.  

We hope as many of you as possible can join us on Wednesday 5 March. 

You can get in touch by email cnpduneideann@gmail.com.

Government’s consultation on the Scottish Languages Bill

Comann nam Pàrant (Dùn Èideann is Lodainn) encourage all parents and carers of
children in Gaelic Medium Education (GME) to respond to the Government’s
consultation on the Scottish Languages Bill. It is important to have as many
responses from GME families as possible.


We welcome the Scottish Languages Bill and support steps which further the
development of Gaelic language and Gaelic Medium Education.

Our guidance on responding to the Bill is here. The recommendations and notes are based on the guidance shared by Comann nam Pàrant Nàiseanta with local groups.
We hope they are useful. If you do agree with them, please feel free to copy them over into your own response.
We encourage all parents and carers to take part in the process.
To submit comments on the bill go to Stage 1 | Scottish Parliament Website
The call for views closes at 11.59pm on 8 March 2024.

Annual General Meeting

We’d like to highlight the date of the forthcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM):

Thursday 8 December 2022, evening (exact time TBC) 

The AGM will include:

– Welcome
– Annual Report (Convenor’s Report, Treasurer’s Report and Comann nam Pàrant Nàiseanta Report)
– Election of the new committee
– AOB
– Date of the next meeting

We’ll circulate further details closer to the time but for now save the date: evening, Thursday 8 December. 

Gabh pàirt: Scottish Government Scottish Languages Bill consultation

Take part in the Scottish Government consultation on the Scottish Languages Bill. The deadline is 17 November 2022.

This is a huge opportunity to influence the future of Gaelic and an opportunity that will not come round again for some time. We strongly encourage you to respond to the survey. 

·       You can find an outline of the key points from Comann nam Pàrant (Nàiseanta) on our website. If you wish, you can copy and paste this, or use it as a guide for your response. 

·       You can find full information and respond via the Scottish Government’s website. 

·       You don’t need to respond to every question in the online survey – you can respond with just one answer

·       If you wish you can email a response to GaelicAndScotsConsultation@gov.scot attaching the respondent information form

Please note:

·       This will likely stand as the main base of legislation for all Gaelic-related policy for the next 20 years – so keep in mind where you would like Gaelic to be

·       Consensus on the bigger issues gives weight to legislation so including the points from Comann nam Pàrant (Nàiseanta) is really helpful

·       We need a lot of responses in order to bolster the points being made

Please take a couple of minutes out of your day to take part. Your voice is important. 

If you have any questions, contact Innes MacQueen at Comann nam Pàrant (Nàiseanta) innes@cnag.org

Le dùrachdan

Comann nam Pàrant

(Dùn Èideann is Lodainn) 

Latest activity

On 6 October we met with Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, to discuss how Scottish Government can support GME development, specifically the new high school. You can view the follow up letter (which details the discussion points of the meeting) here.

We have followed this up with a letter to Joan Griffiths, Convenor of the Education Children and Families Committee at City of Edinburgh Council. The letter was also circulated to Amanda Hatton, Head of Education at the Council, as well as all members of the ECF committee. You can view the letter here.

Deputation

Ahead of the meeting of the Education, Children and Families Committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 20 September), we have prepared and submitted a short written deputation regarding the agenda item update on GME. You can view the deputation here. 

The points raised in the deputation respond to the Council’s report and reflect the consensus position recorded in our previous reports and surveys with families.

In summary we: 

  • Welcome the commitment to future engagement with families.
  • Request a Short-life Working Group with the Council to progress engagement.
  • Note the updated information provided on potential sites.
  • Reassert the fundamental need for a protected, immersive Gaelic language setting.
  • Reassert the importance of location to serve a city-wide catchment.
  • Request certainty of educational pathway, and assert opposition to any suggestion of capping numbers for children in GME. 


 

Latest activity

On 1 March Comann nam Pàrant made a verbal deputation to the Education, Children and Families Committee meeting. You can view the webcast here. 

The meeting highlighted the urgent need for further discussion between the City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government. In response, we have written to Shirley-Anne Somerville, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. You can read the letter here.

We have also written to the Council, highlighting key aspects from Monday’s meeting and offering our assistance. You can read this here. 

Update

Yesterday (24 January 2022) the Education, Children and Families Committee meeting was asked to vote on whether to proceed to statutory consultation on 31 January 2022. After taking time to reflect on this, the Council instead put forward a motion to give parents and the Council further opportunity to discuss educational benefits and any potentially suitable sites, prior to the next Committee meeting scheduled to take place 1 March 2022.  The motion was passed.

Comann nam Pàrant very much welcomes this. We look forward to hearing from the Council on their plans for the in-depth meaningful engagement with GME parents which is crucial to moving forwards in the development of GME. 

We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to all parents who have taken the time this past week to write to their councillors and to support Comann nam Pàrant. We are aware of the complex decisions facing Councillors, and we appreciate the support of all of the political groups who have listened to us and agreed a way forward. We will continue to work in partnership with all parties to achieve the best possible outcome.

The webcast of the meeting is available here.

You can also read our written deputation and the accompanying Appendix document .

Papers on GME high school published

On 18 January, the Council published their papers for the Additional Meeting of the Education, Children and Families Committee. The meeting is scheduled for the morning of 24 January 2022. At the meeting, the Committee will be voting on whether to proceed to statutory consultation on 31 January. You can view the papers here. 
 
You can contact your councillor directly if you have concerns:
– You can find a guide to writing to your councillor here.
– And a list of all contacts for each council ward here. 
 
Comann nam Pàrant will also share a template letter for parents to use should they wish and we aim for this to be available as soon as possible.