James Gillespie's Schools Campus

Updated 18 January 2012

Planning approval granted for new High School today 

The Development Management Sub-Committee today considered the revised proposals for the new High School. The councillors heard representations from the Marchmont and Sciennes Community Council, the Cockburn Association, the Project Team and the school's recently appointed new head teacher.  

Participants were asked various questions about their views of the proposals before Elected Members agreed to grant approval for the designs, as presented.

Primary school planning application

A separate planning application was submitted for the primary school extension and this is expected to be considered at the next Development Management Sub-Committee on 1 February 2012.

Next Steps

This is a complex project that will involve a number of stages and the decant of half the pupils and disruption to learning and teaching must be minimised. While today's news marks a milestone it focuses attention on the crucial work that is ongoing with the school to develop the detail of the emerging decant strategy. This needs to be done in line with the phasing and staging of construction work. 

With this approval now in place we hope to be able to issue the next project update for staff and parents in early February that will focus on the questions about the next stages in more detail.

Thank you

We'd like to thank everyone who contributed to our consultation and the planning process. The feedback really did help us to develop the designs and understand how our proposals could improve.