The SG have announced today that Wick High School will definitely be part of the 1.25bn school building programme.
Great news! Although it might take a few years - at least the commitment is there now! :D
Printable View
The SG have announced today that Wick High School will definitely be part of the 1.25bn school building programme.
Great news! Although it might take a few years - at least the commitment is there now! :D
Absolutely brilliant news for the pupils and staff at the school and for the parent Council who have campaigned so long and hard for this. Wick is in the first programme of schools.Quote:
Originally Posted by AfternoonDelight
The secondary schools selected for the initial round of
investment are:
* Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire
* Mearns Academy in Aberdeenshire
* Brechin High in Angus
* Dalbeattie High in Dumfries and Galloway
* Harris Academy in Dundee
* Eastwood High in East Renfrewshire
* James Gillespie's in Edinburgh
* Auchmuty High in Fife
* Wick High in Highland
* Lasswade High in Midlothian
* Garnock Academy in North Ayrshire
* Clyde Valley High in North Lanarkshire
* Ayr Academy in South Ayrshire
* Dumbarton Academy in West Dunbartonshire.
I will start cheering when I see the first spade going into the ground.
A cautious welcome from Alice :D
However the £1 million pound spend didnt come off according to how it should have. The work hasnt started and the council are still stalling so I will wait and see.
The money however much is to be allocated will need to be ring fenced for Wick High.
my brain goes too sleep reading official docs, so they are saying that wick will definitely be included for a new build, (or is it more patch up!!! tht the money is allocated for)
what happens to the options appraisal that was going to be carried out on whether we needed! a new school or whether patch up would be sufficient is this still going to be carried out and if it is - isn't it just a waste of the council's already meagre supply of money!
however if i am being overly suspicious, and we are getting a new school then HURRAH!
and well done to the parent council for bringing it to the scottish governments attention!
It's not that the council are stalling - I believe the consultations have been taking place as to what will be replaced/repaired and there has been difficulties with asbestos. The work should begin in October and will continue until Easter when it will stop for exams and is due to (hopefully) be completed in the summer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alice in Blunderland
Watch this space though - I am as sceptical as you are about timescales...
As far as the Parent Council are concerned it is a new school that will be required. There is no doubt that HRC would like to cream off some of the money allocated to Wick, to fund other projects in the Inverness area. I can assure you they will have a fight on their hands. It has been made quite clear by Fiona Hyslop that the money is for Wick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alice in Blunderland
In her announcement she states;
"In June I announced the new #1.25bn school building programme which
will, with #800m of Scottish Government capital investment, deliver 55
new schools for Scotland.
"Today's announcement is the latest step towards turning that investment
into better buildings. Pupils, teachers and communities across Scotland,
from Wick to Dalbeattie, will benefit from these new schools.
People are right to be wary of any announcement. The fact that Fiona Hyslop states Wick will have a new school, is good enough for me.
There will be no patching or refurbishing. There is plenty of ground to the back of the school to accommodate a new building. The only part of the school which the campaign has specified that should be left standing is the front of the school.
It will be interesting now to see how many councillors will come forward and show interest. Pity they hadn't been more involved from the start. Without the campaign run by the Parent Council, Wick wouldn't even have had a mention.
There is still a lot of ground work to be done before we can achieve what we have all been campaigning for.
Unfortunately the good news this morning followed an announcement by the rector that he will be retiring at Christmas. Mr Traill has been instrumental in turning the school around and he will be hard to replace.
Thats really good news but unfortunatly like Alice feel its too soon to get excited.......
Bitter experience has taught us over here "timescales" are "limitless" when it comes to a new build in Education.
Keep up the good fight Parent Council,you've done a good job so far.:D
Well done the PC up there.
Whatever you do, don't let these rascals in Inverness palm you off with some kind of patch-up job. Even if it means that the planned refurb of bits of the school get put on hold!
Stick out for a new school.
Unfortunately Fiona is not on the Highland Council and unless this money is specific as to how much to be allocated to Wick and when it starts then its in the hands of the gods sorry councillors.Quote:
Originally Posted by Venture
I await further announcements with exact figures of how much and a decent timescale.
It will be a loss for the school when Alistair retires I hope they get a replacement in quickly.
sitting here with fingers crossed! cant wait for more info!! i know its early days but with sam and ben in p1 and p2 im really excited! it will be the younger primarys that will benifit the most from a new school! will it be the whole 4 years before it will be built do you think?
Probably longer...
Where should the new school be sited? Although I'm behind Ian Baikie in that a new school should be built, isn't it a shame to pull down such a lovely old building? there's not much heritage left now. Even if they left the frontage and pulled down the rest, or built the new school somewhere entirely different and used the old school as a museum or something. Just seems sad to see all that architecture destroyed - as was the case of the Henderson's home by the general hospital.
WELL DONE PRO IAIN BAIKIE & CO
Highland Council should have done more
There is a big enough area to the rear of the school to accommodate the new building. The original old front building of the school will remain and be used for another purpose.
For what its worth I'd like to tell you about the chaos our kids had to endure when they built our new school on the excisting foot print of the old one.
the new school was built on the schools playing fields and a large fence was placed round it while it was under constuction.
You can just imagine the noise and distrubtion those kids had to endure.:(
Go for a new site if you have that option.:)
This is good news - the school has been long overdue a renovation.
saying that, about going to school during construction, i have went thru it as well as not having a school at all to go to.
when i was is p5 our junior high building which was beside our building exploded. (it was also where the lunch rooms were) years 7th grade to 9th grade were in the junior high building.
once we were allowed back to school, it was to a construction area from where they were clearing away the debris and repairing the damage to the surrounding buildings.
on the other hand, the year when i was to go into the junior high, my class did not have a school to go into!
they had shipped the kids already into jr. high to the deaf school for the remainder of the year and then the next year to the old morganton Jr. High school which was basically derelict.
its amazing what can happen when needs must. in just under two years they had built a new School. and it was lovely! my class was the first class in Liberty Junior High School. We went in as 7th graders and thought we were the best thing since sliced bread. after going to a school that should have been closed down years earlier, where you had 3 separate buildings that you had to walk at least 5 min to get between just to get to class, in the middle of town with cars whizzing pass, it was a MAJOR improvement!
i can remember running up and down 3 flights of stairs just to get to my locker and back to home room, before trying to get to the other buildings for class!
ahhh the memories! would not survive doing that again*G*