On Thursday evening, Martine joined me at the Parent Council meeting.  Over the last six years the Parent Council members were crucial in keeping alive the hope of significant investment in Elgin High School and in lobbying to achieve better facilities for the pupils.  We were able to give them a positive update on developments.  Martine has been very busy getting the planning applications ready for submission so that deadlines can be met.  Meanwhile, the Senior Leadership Team have spent time looking over the initial plans.  I have also started holding meetings with department staff. It has been very encouraging to hear the ideas of teachers as to how spaces can be used imaginatively to make the most of the proposed facilities.  There have also been some creative discussions about the use of the schools grounds to encourage outdoor learning.  The next key point in the process will be Thursday afternoon when there will be another meeting with the architects.  We are on schedule for the programme of consultation starting in May.

This afternoon the Senior Leadership Team of EHS had their first formal meeting with Brian Thomson of JMArchitects.  Brian and his team have taken the initial ideas from draft New Project Request forms completed by Moray Council and started thinking about what this might look like and where on the site the construction will take place.  He also shared the designs for Inverness Royal Academy so that we could learn from their experiences.  These are very early days and the plans will change many times before they are agreed.  However, it was good to start visualising what is possible.  This in itself will stimulate more questions and ideas.  The next target is to have firmer plans ready to go out to consultation with staff, pupils, parents and the community by the middle of May.

Yesterday afternoon’s meeting was one of those key moments when the reality of what is happening became even more evident.  Although it lasted nearly three hours, sitting down with representatives of Hubco, JM Architects as well as the Moray Council team, the meeting marked a significant landmark in the process to date.  Not only was there reassurance that what we had done so far means we are on schedule, but also when we began to discuss details of what will be happening over the next 30 months there was a sense of anticipation about the potential opportunities for the school and local community.  These included educational projects for departments that can be incorporated into the design and construction processes as well as even thinking about planning how to avoid difficulties other schools have encountered when physically transferring from one building to another!  It is not often a Head Teacher will admit to this, but it was good to be able to start filling in the diary.   We have started to plan a series of meetings that will look at options and requirements for the new building as well as arrangements for consultation with many people.  A busy term lies ahead and more details to follow…

At the end of the term we conducted a quick pupil feedback exercise to help inform the NPR.  Everyone was asked 2 questions.  Firstly, what 5 features of the current school building would you rate as good?  The pupil responses were not surprising and centred around the range of faciltities and different department specialist areas.  Others picked out specific rooms that they thought were of a good size.  The canteen food was given a number of mentions – but I am not sure how that directly relates to the building rather than just the skills of the kitchen staff, but I do agree with them!  However, a lot of pupils found it difficult to identify 5 answers. 

The second part of the survey asked  “List the 5 priorities you would like to see included in our new school building.”  The answers could have been predicted.  Sorting out the heating and ventilation were the top of the list.  Toilets were also frequently mentioned as areas that needed improvement.  The narrowness of the corridors also got many mentions.  A fitness room was a popular request.  We should manage to achieve this – although sadly a swimming pool will be out of the question despite being mentioned by several pupils!  Others spoke about the need for all classrooms to be a good size and having “decent” furniture such as “chairs that fit under desks”  The sixth years are looking for a common room.  There are plenty of ideas to think about and to give us a challenge as we move into more detailed planning.