Local councillors visited the new Boroughmuir High School earlier today to see for themselves the progress which is being made with building. Led by Councillor Andrew Burns who is a Ward Councillor, and the Deputy Council Leader Cllr Frank Ross, the group included Cllrs Key, Aitken and Howat.

This building is a real 21st century school with areas like an outdoor dining area, a recording studio next to the music room, a fabulous full height atrium which will house the entire school in one place for the first time, and art rooms with extra space for pupils of different ages to be working there at the same time.

David Dempster the headteacher of Boroughmuir High School is ecstatic that his pupils and staff will be moving to the bespoke school in the New Year.

He told The Edinburgh Reporter : “The atrium in the heart of the new school is a fantastic open plan space. It will be used day in day out for catering as we have our main dining hall at one end and a satellite cafe at the other.

“But the most exciting thing about this space is that for the first time ever we will be able to have whole school assemblies, that is all 1200 pupils, in the same place at the same time. We will really get the sense of the school and the community that we are. Hopefully I will be able to use this space to address all the youngsters here and really feel proud of our new space and our new school.”

There is also a rooftop games area meaning that the school is built on as small a footprint as possible and that every inch of space is being used. It was a little windy there today but there will be plant installed at one end which although it will obscure the view to the castle will perhaps provide some wind protection. The area will have netting over and around it to ensure that the basketballs or footballs are not constantly falling into the compact play area below.

Set to open in January next year the canal-side high school is being built by the council in partnership with funding from the Scottish Government through The Schools for the Future Programme which is managed by the Scottish Futures Trust.

Council Leader Andrew Burns explained: “The school is due to open in the new year. I am absolutely delighted with the progress that is being made. I am very excited about the prospects of the new High School opening. The construction cost of this school was £35 million and the wider site cost £15 million so this is a very big investment from the council and the Scottish Government.”

One of the key Capital Coalition pledges made at the beginning of the administration in 2012 under the umbrella of ensuring that every child in Edinburgh has the best start in life  is ‘to provide adequate investment in the fabric of all schools’. This is not the only new school where replacement or refurbishment is planned. The council confirmed that it would spend £126million, with additional funding from The Scottish Government, on the projects it had outlined. These include Boroughmuir and other schools in developments packaged as Wave 3 :

Portobello High School is being replaced and is on schedule to open its doors to pupils after the October break.

James Gillespie’s was extended with a new teaching block and sports block.

St John’s RC School which lies adjacent to the existing Portobello High School is to be demolished and will be sited alongside the new High School on Duddingston Road. The report just came to the planning committee this morning when it was approved along with several others on the recommendation of Head of Planning and Transport. The new school building will be two storeys high and will have a flat roof, and the area to the front of the building will be soft landscaping and trees with a hard playground space in front of the building. So building will presumably now proceed on this site alongside the new High School within the next three years.

There are also plans to replace St Crispin’s Special School in the south of the city, although permission has not yet been applied for.

 

 

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Phyllis Stephen
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Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.

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