Consultation due on huge schools plan

The public are soon to have a say on plans to create two Dunfermline secondaries on a super campus with Fife College.

Consultations will start after the Easter holidays on replacing Woodmill High School and St Columba’s RC High School.

The campus at the old Shepherd Offshore site will be the first of its kind in Scotland, and people can have their say in a series of online public meetings and drop-in sessions.

Pupils are already helping to design the schools on the site south of Calaiswood Crescent, working with an Edinburgh University team.

Even before a fire partly destroyed Woodmill High in August 2019, both schools’ buildings were rated as in poor condition and Fife Council planned to replace them.

Siting them alongside the college will, according to the council, help young people access a wider range of courses, experiences and opportunities.

The education and children’s services subc o m m i tt e e agreed the consultation process on Tuesday.

The estimated cost of the two new secondaries and college campus is between £180-200 million, with the Scottish Government funding the entire college, up to £90m, and up to half of the school in revenue funding.

The schools will retain their own identities, with a shared department of additional support, currently Woodmill.

Each will have its own classrooms but some accommodation will be shared, like assembly halls, dining space and some senior phase curricular areas.

They will also have access to learning plazas, Skills Academy facilities and more outdoor learning located at spaces, in distancing future.

Construction is due to take about three years, and it is hoped the schools will be ready by August 2024.

The consultation will run from April 13 to May 28 but due to the pandemic presentations and events will be online, using Microsoft Teams. case social is needed in

Three public meetings, with presentations by council officers, are on April 26, May 5 and May 17, all 6pm to 7.30pm.

Results of the consultation will be presented in August or September, when a final decision is to be made.

A planning application for the campus was submitted last December.

AERIAL VIEW: The old Shepherd Offshore site at Halbeath was chosen for the scheme.