Maybury primary school hub will serve as model for future schemes
Edinburgh’s first school to share a campus with a medical centre will open later this year, setting what council bosses hope will be the model for future school developments in the city.
The new Maybury Community Hub will incorporate Maybury Primary School, with the capacity for 630 pupils as well as a 128-place nursery, along with an NHS health centre and GP surgery able to serve up to 10,000 patients.
They will share a public entrance, though pupils will go in through a separate entrance on the other side of the building.
It is also intended the school’s facilities, such as outdoor spaces, the sports hall and activity studios, will be shared with the community.
The school will launch with P1 pupils only, but the building won’t be ready in time for the new school year in August 2024, so they will be based for their first term, along with their teachers, at East Craigs Primary.
The new building is expected to be available by October this year.
The council says East Craigs has enough space to accommodate the Maybury P1 group, as well as a separate office and a separate entrance.
And it says starting off at East Craigs allows the creation of strong links between the schools, as well as cluster working and sharing of resources before the pupils transition to the new building.
Maybury will also be Edinburgh’s first school built to Passivhaus standards – where high-quality design and construction makes buildings super-energyefficient and also improves comfort levels in air quality and temperature.
The two-storey school is needed because of the large number of new homes being built in the West Edinburgh area.
Its catchment area will cover the new housing developments at Cammo and West Craigs.
The council says that in future, new school developments are likely to follow a similar model, serving as part of a community hub, not necessarily with a medical centre, but with other council services or partners such as Edinburgh Leisure or the police.
Education convener Joan Griffiths said: “Community hubs are the way to go. Schools shouldn’t be seen as stand-alone, somewhere you go into and come out at 3.30pm.
“They should be seen very much as part of the community and I’m really pleased there’s going to be a medical centre in this hub because it is encouraging people to go in to use the facilities.”
Cllr Griffiths continued: “It’s also a way of maximising resources, it’s about bringing things together and it’s making best use of resources instead of having smaller buildings all over the place, using up extra heating and extra lighting. I’m really excited about it.”
Community hubs are the way to go. Schools shouldn’t be seen as standalone. I’m really excited about it