Workbeginson £29.7mschool
News comes after £18.2m joint-faith campus announced
A SECOND multimillionpound new school build is under way in East Renfrewshire.
Construction work, which had been delayed, has begun on the new state-of-the-art £29.7 million Barrhead High School.
The update comes after the news that the new joint-faith campus for Newton Mearns is to begin this week.
As told in the Evening Times yesterday, a new £18.2m campus will replace the existing Jewish school, Calderwood Lodge, with an adjoining primary school for the Catholic community.
Both schools will have separate entrances, teaching wings and head teachers but will share a multi-purpose space where children of both faiths can meet.
The new Barrhead High School is being built at the Johnny Kelly Pavilion and blaes pitch site adjacent to the existing school, which will remain open throughout construction with no disruption to pupil education.
East Renfrewshire Council is paying £7.9m towards the cost, with the Scottish Futures Trust footing the rest of the bill. The new school, which is being delivered through the Scottish Government’s hub programme, is expected to be finished for the summer 2017 term.
The timetable for the build was most recently delayed following changes to European accounting rules.
This technical accounting issue delayed a number of public sector finance projects in Scotland, including Barrhead High.
Andy Sinclair, Barrhead High School head teacher, has welcomed the start of construction work.
He said: “I’m very pleased that work on the new Barrhead High School is now starting on site.
“We are fully committed to building a fantastic facility, as quickly as possible, that the young people of Barrhead deserve.
“The plans for the new school look fantastic – it will be an outstanding school for the pupils, staff, parents and community.
“The facilities on offer will transform the life and work of the whole school community and will give the town of Barrhead, as well as our school community, not just a building that they can be proud of, but a focal point for learning to continue to take place in a wide variety of forms.”