FUNDING to replace a secondary school gutted by a huge blaze has been announced by the Education Secretary.
John Swinney confirmed the Scottish Government would provide some of the cash to relocate Woodmill High in Dunfermline to a new site after it was destroyed by fire.
A joint campus, costing up to £180 million, has been proposed to replace the school and also house St Columba’s High School and Fife College.
The Scottish Government has pledged to provide a maximum of £90m in capital funding for the college section of the site and up to half of the cost of the school part.
Even before the fire in August, the Scottish Government was in discussions with replacing the two schools and college with a joint site.
Now Swinney has revealed the plans have been “accelerated”.
The cost of the new school and college is estimated to be between £150m and £180m, and is expected to be completed by 2024.
Swinney met Woodmill High head teacher Sandy McIntosh, pupils being accommodated at Fife College, and representatives of Fife College and Fife Council yesterday morning.
Following the meeting, Swinney said: “Woodmill High School was devastated by the fire and it is clear that Fife Council, Fife College and surrounding schools have made a tremendous effort to find alternative accommodation and minimise disruption to pupils’ learning.
“Since the fire 10 days ago, I accelerated discussions with Fife Council and Fife College and I am now very pleased to confirm we support the development of a brand new joint learning campus.
“Locating the two schools and Fife College on the same site would give pupils easy access to a greater variety of subjects and qualifications.
“Schools, colleges and universities are the cornerstones of our communities and a joint campus model will give Dunfermline a hub of high quality, low carbon and digitally-enabled facilities.”
Fife Council Education and Children’s Services Committee convener Fay Sinclair said: “This is a really exciting opportunity.
“We have been looking at ways to expand, replace and improve our school buildings for some time and a shared campus will open up so many different learning options and routes for our young people to access the careers they want.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here