James Gillespie's Schools Campus

Context

In 2006 James Gillespie's High School was identified as one of five schools that the Council intended to rebuild in the Wave 3 programme. The project has since been allocated £20 million (Feb 2010) in the Capital Investment Programme 2010-14 and has secured part funding from the Scottish Government's Schools Building Programme, which is managed by the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT).

Project programme

The current project programme envisages an on-site start in academic year 2012/13 and it is estimated that the school would be completed during the academic year 2014/15. This timescale depends on the construction programme relating to final school designs. It is anticipated that between a two and three year build period would be required depending on the decant solution and design of the school. The actual availability of Scottish Government finance through the SFT will also influence the timing of the project. 

Where will students learn while building work is going on

A six week consultation took place from 20 May 2010 to 1 July 2010.  Decisions were needed about 'how' students could be taught during the construction phase to inform the design work for the new school building. Having reported the outcome of the consultation to Council, we now expect that from January 2013

• S4-S6 pupils will attend Darroch annexe for the majority of subject while building work is done
• S1-S3 pupils will stay in a limited part of the old school with some temporary units added whcich will allow the major part of the old school to be cleared.

Worries about disruption during construction and decant works

We appreciate that a project on this scale will have an impact for a lot of people, including neighbours and anyone who used the school buildings out of hours. We do intend to keep as many people involved as we can and to consult anyone that could be affected by the works to help us to keep any problems to a minimum. However it is still difficult to do a lot of this work until designs are finalised and the contractors are appointed as we need to have a much clearer idea of the construction and decant programmes. However, if you do have worries, concerns or issues you want us to consider at the right time, please let us know now.