Community joy as pupils welcomed to new school
For months when he walked to his school nursery, young Fionn Togher watched as Strontian’s new community primary school took shape, writes Mark Entwistle.
As he waited to move up from nursery to becoming the solitary primary one pupil once the new school opened, Fionn, aged five, decided the new school was being built just for him.
And so it was on Tuesday morning that as the youngest pupil and representative of the first primary one class to take a seat in the new community built and owned school, Fionn was given the honour of cutting the ribbon to mark the occasion.
‘Fionn had seen the new school being built and did think it was especially for him, which was really sweet,’ said head teacher, Pamela Hill after the official ceremony to open the school.
‘And so it was fitting that as the youngest pupil in the school – and the only pupil representing primary one – that he was asked to cut the ribbon today.’
It was in 2016 that the local community had proposed building its own school after parents rejected Highland Council’s solution to sorting out problems at the existing and ageing 1970s-era primary.
The result was the setting up of the Strontian Community School Building Ltd project, a first for Scotland, with a unique model created whereby the cost of the school – more than £900,000 – was funded through a community shares issue and grants.
Land owned by the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust adjacent to Ardnamurchan High School at Strontian was purchased for the new school, which has now been leased to Highland Council.
The four school buildings were designed by Fort William-based architects, Kearney Donald Partnership, and built by S+K MacDonald of Acharacle, and if in the futures the buildings are no longer required as a school, they have been designed in such a way as to allow them to be converted into affordable homes.
Acting chairman of the Strontian Community School Building Ltd board, Jamie McIntyre, said everyone involved with the project had been thrilled to see the youngsters finally making their way into the new premises.
‘The head teacher had made it a really nice occasion, locking up the old school as a way of the children getting to say goodbye to it, before making their way with staff and a piper to their new school,’ he said.
Although the Highland Small Communities Housing Trust had been unable to send a representative to Tuesday’s opening, parents and other members of the community were joined by a representative of architectural firm Kearney Donald Partnership.
There has been widespread praise for the community and its achievement – a first in Scotland – with the creation of the new school.
However, Mr McIntyre explained: ‘The school project didn’t come out of nowhere. When the community company was first set up, it was determined to be ambitious in what it wanted to do and that’s how the new community hydro power scheme came about.
‘That cost around £1million and the experience gained from that project gave the wider community the confidence to think about something even bigger.’
Mr McIntyre says the model created which allowed the community to build its own school had the potential to be recreated elsewhere in the Highlands and Scotland.
‘Hopefully, it means the next community which looks to do anything similar will perhaps find it a bit easier for them as a result of the lessons learned on this project.’