Pupils set to move across river while school is upgraded

Children at an Aberdeen school could be forced out by the builders when a planned £17 million upgrade gets under way.

Victorian-built, “not fit for purpose” Ferryhill School has been on Aberdeen City Council’s to-do list for years.

“Critical suitability issues are negatively impacting school operations, reaching a point of necessitating immediate action,” said families and communities executive director Eleanor Sheppard.

Councillors set aside £17.1m this year to design and pay for a facelift, extension and the construction of a standalone nursery. But Ms Sheppard has revealed the revamp will leave no room for the primary’s around 400 pupils.

Plans are now being drawn up to uproot the whole school community across the River Dee to Torry, where the council is eyeing up its ‘spare’ school at Walker Road.

It’s around a mile from Ferryhill School in Caledonian Place and about 20 minutes on foot or a fiveminute drive.

Pupils and teachers left the Walker Road School over the October holidays, moving to the new-build Greyhope School.

In a report briefing the council’s finance committee, Ms Sheppard said: “Relocation will ensure that the work can be progressed safely and efficiently, while minimising the level of disruption to learning and teaching.”

Ferryhill School would decant to the mothballed Walker Road during next year’s summer holidays.

Building work would be expected to commence “shortly thereafter”.

Staff and the Ferryhill School parent council have already been briefed on the relocation plans and details on the move will be fleshed out alongside the business case for the school refurbishment.

The 1877 building has 15 classrooms, two nursery rooms, a library, a general purpose room and a gym hall. But the dinner hall is already too small for the growing roll and there have been predictions of “increased pressure” in the future. Space for PE is also lacking, as are the current nursery facilities and access to the outdoor areas.

Officials’ preferred way forward would include the creation of modern dining facilities, a double court PE hall and an improved nursery, which would have direct access to the outdoors to aid child development.

The multi-million-pound improvements would take Ferryhill School from a D grade, assessed as “not fit for purpose”, to grade A (“fully fit for purpose”), Ms Sheppard pledged in a report.

If the local authority’s outline plan is approved next week, 2024 will be spent drawing up detailed designs.

The work, expected to take between 12 and 15 months, is anticipated to begin in summer 2025.

Meanwhile, £8.6m upgrades at Harlaw Academy, designed in 1836 by Archibald Simpson, has been made a “top priority”.

Officials want to extend the school’s first floor to build a “fit for purpose” dining area, to rejig the indoor layout to create more classrooms and build a covered outdoor area.

And refurbishment of the pavilion at the Harlaw Road playing fields would allow PE classes to move back there, freeing up Groats Road fields, where they are currently bussed, for nearby Hazlehead Academy pupils.

That’s vital to the construction of the replacement Hazlehead Academy, which is hoped to be built on the current playing fields by 2027.

With the Harlaw Academy refurb expected to between nine and 12 months, work would be “carefully sequenced” to ensure safety and minimal disruption, Ms Sheppard said.