Turn to page 18 of today’s Northern Scot!  There you will find the formal notice from The Moray Council of the consultation “to inform the public about the proposal to erect a new/replacement High School in Elgin…”  On Saturday 8th June everyone is welcome to New Elgin Primary School (10.30-12.30) or Greenwards Primary School (11.00-14.00), on Saturday 22nd June at Mosstowie Primary School (12.00-14.00) or on Monday 24th and Tuesday 25th at Moray College.  There will be a display of plans for the proposed site and other  details of the new build.  Local Authority staff will be present along with representatives from the architects.  Members of the public will be invited to comment on the proposals and identify issues that will need to be considered.  We look forward to seeing you at any of these events.  If you come to any of the displays at the primary schools you will also be able to enjoy their summer fetes/fairs with plenty of bargains to buy and fun activities to sample.  All are strongly recommended!

With the submission of the preplanning application we are entering the first stage of consultation.  The Steering Group has been briefed and Moray Council reps attended the recent meetings of the Elgin Community Council and Elgin South Area Forum.  Next week’s Parents Council will receive a presentation.  After that we hope to have a display at the Greenwards and New Elgin Primary School Fetes/Fairs on the morning of Saturday 8 June.  Do go along to either or both events!  They are very well worth supporting regardless of displays relating to the new EHS building!  We will also do something similar for parents at Mosstowie – the date will be widely publicised.  In addition, it is hoped that there will be a 2 day display at Moray College on 24th and 25th June.  Further details to follow, but we look forward to sharing with everyone some of the initial details of the proposals.  Looking further ahead we hope to have a presentation at the annual EHS Parent Forum scheduled for Tuesday 24th September – when we expect to issue invitations to the parents of all the local schools.

On Friday morning, the representative from JMArchitects gave a presentation to staff as part of the inservice day.  For the first time staff were able to see the initial draft of a possible design for the school.  From this point onwards, we enter into more detailed discussions to see how we can face the challenge of meeting aspirations within the constraints of the tight budget formula.  To the credit of Moray Council, as school staff we are getting an input into the design process, something that happens to a much more limited extent in other Authorities.  The consultation process starts to roll out with a meeting of the Steering Group on Monday, followed on Tuesday evening with a presentation to the South Elgin Forum.  A programme for public consultation should be available in the next few days as well as arrangements for involving EHS and local primary school pupils.

There was good coverage in today’s Press and Journal, and hopefully in tomorrow’s Norther Scot, of the next stage of the project.  The formal planning process has begun.  The timescale allows for everything to be completed in order that the contractors can be on site spring 2014.  We have also started looking at dates before the summer holidays for the public consultation.  More details will be available soon.  Meanwhile, there was another very useful meeting with the architects as we continue to develop the plan of the building itself.

The holiday weekend has provided time for reflection and gathering new ideas.  However, I suspect the Scottish Futures Trust and Moray Council budgets will not stretch to an all weather pitch of the quality enjoyed at Allianz Park in North London.  Even if I could get the support of Moray Rugby Club the idea of having an artificial pitch on which to play rugby must remain a dream!  Still the Saracens had a good win over Bath and who knows, if London Scottish gain promotion to the English Rugby Premiership we might at least see a former Elgin High School pupil playing on such a surface in the not too distant future!  Meanwhile, a 3G surface will be a tremendous asset for the school and community.

One of the next target dates is Friday 17th May.  On that day the architects hope to present to staff a possible design for the new build.  This has been a week of meetings with departments which has provided a wealth of ideas and possibilities.  At a meeting with the architects this afternoon we were able to try and incorporate these into the working plans – not an easy task!  The 17th May will provide the opportunity to get further feedback before moving to wider consultation.  Meanwhile Martine continues to be very busy preparing documents for the planning applications process – a range of target dates that need to be met if construction is to start in the spring of 2014.

Meanwhile, the current sixth years pupils have reached the end of their school education with the start of exam leave.  We wish them well for their futures and look forward to being able to invite them back in 2015 and showing them round the new building!