Takes a tour aroundnew city school campus
GLASGOW’S most state-of-the-art primary has opened its doors to pupils who are thriving in their new environment.
The Evening Times took a tour of Clyde Campus as head teachers showed off the facility to education convenor Chris Cunningham.
It was a far cry from our last visit with then-Council Leader Frank McAveety in January when the campus was a building site.
Clyde Campus has brought together Kelso Nursery and Thirlestane Day Nursery to form Yokerburn Nursery.
The new build, in Yoker, is also home to Garscadden and Yoker primaries, which have merged to become Clyde Primary.
St Brendan’s Primary makes up the rest of the site, which opened to pupils earlier this year.
Chris Cunningham, City Convener for Education, Skills & Early Years, said: “It is a wonderful facility.
“One of the things that always gets me about the older schools is that they tend to be very closed-off whereas this is very open.
“Wherever you are standing you can see what’s happening and you can see the spaces are being shared by all pupils.
“Older pupils can also be quite intimidating whereas the pupils here are very settled and enjoying their new space.
“It is much more welcoming for young people, their families and communities and that is what we want for all schools across Glasgow.
“Everyone is still trying to find their feet but I look forward to seeing the school go from strength to strength.”
The new building, set over three floors, has 26 classrooms, while each school has its own media library and nurture room with separate staff facilities.
Both schools share a fourcourt multi-purpose gym hall, a drama room and dance studio, a general purpose room, a meeting room and office spaces.
Yokerburn Nursery has two three-to-five rooms, one two-to-three room and a baby room.
Each nursery classroom opens on to an outdoor play space that head teacher Mary Gallagher says is well-used by pupils who love to be outdoors.
St Brendan’s Primary has brought with it some very special additions from the previous school.
One is a stained glass window of St Brendan, which now sits outside the head teacher’s office.
The other is a memorial bench for pupil Jack Lang, who died of cancer.
St Brendan’s head teacher Maureen Nugent said: “Of course we are delighted with our new school but there is still a sadness at leaving behind our old school where we have many memories.
“It was important to us to bring these items along and bridge the gap between the old and the new.
“I know that Jack’s family are especially pleased to know his bench is still with us and he is still being remembered.”
Clyde Primary has 336 pupils and St Brendan’s 220 pupils while the nursery has 117.
Clyde Primary’s head teacher Anne Taylor said the two schools were getting used to working together with teachers sharing best practice.
She said: “We have a com-