Pupils piped in for official opening of £32.5m school

PUPILS were piped into Bertha Park High School as the £32.5 million school was officially opened.

First and second-year classes were piped in by a pupil as the first non-replacement new secondary school in Scotland for more than two decades opened its doors.

Head teacher Stuart Clyde, who spent five years leading the Community School of Auchterarder, said taking the helm is like being handed a clean slate.

He said: “We’ve had a wonderful start. The pupils showed up in full school uniform looking fabulous.

“Everything went to plan, all the buses arrived on time and the pupils were piped into the amphitheatre by one of the second years.

“That really set the scene before we had an assembly about our values and expectations.”

The 1,100 capacity school is bringing in several ideas which have not been applied before in other parts of Perthshire, including 80-minute classes, no school bells and no phones, but Apple iPads for every child.

Pupils who spent their first year at Perth Grammar and pupils who spent last year in P7 at Auchtergaven, Dunbarney, Forgandenny, Logiealmond, Methven, Pitcairn and Ruthvenfield primaries joined the school.

With only 16 teachers, one principal for each department, the rest of the school will fill up with a new year-group each year.

The school, built by Robertson Construction, has also teamed up with Microsoft to become a centre of excellence for digital technology.

Mr Clyde said: “I think some of the pupils expected things to be the same as their previous schools and got a bit of a shock. This is a unique opportunity to reset the clock. It lets us challenge what people think school should be.”