Pupils piped in as £32.5m school opens.

‘Wonderful start’ as first pupils arrive

Pupils were piped into Bertha Park High School yesterday morning as the new £32.5 million school was officially opened.

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

Head teacher Stuart Clyde, who spent the last five years leading the Community School of Auchterarder, said taking the helm at the new school 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 made their way into the school at 9am, along with pupils who spent last year in primary seven at Auchtergaven, Dunbarney, Forgandenny, Logiealmond, Methven, Pitcairn and Ruthvenfield primary schools.

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 US firm Microsoft to become a centre of excellence for digital technology.

The new premises and new ethos are a surprise to some pupils, according to Mr Clyde.

“I think some of the pupils expected things to be the same as their previous schools and got a bit of a shock,” he said.

“This is a unique opportunity to reset the clock. It lets us challenge what people think school should be.

“Our staff are from across Perth and Kinross and some from outwith the local authority, too. We had a phenomenal number of applications from all ages.

“We took a long time to see other newbuild schools across Scotland and their best practices.

“We’ve been able to take bits and pieces from each and learn from their mistakes. While there is very little which is brand new, we’re bringing it all together which hasn’t been done before.”

It lets us challenge what people think school should be. STUART CLYDE