On Tuesday morning the winners of the S.3 Youth Philanthropy Initiative project (sponsored by the Wood Foundation) were sitting in the HT office waiting for the arrival of the Northern Scot reporter.  One of the girls turned to the local councillor, who had been a judge for the competition, and innocently asked “When will the building work be starting?”  Neither the councillor nor I could give a straight answer.  However, it was good to see the excitement and sense of anticipation as the pupils started talking about their hopes.

On Thursday there was a meeting between school and Balfour Beatty staff.  The topic was again educational projects that can take place during the construction period.  This is not the first time we have talked about this.  However, there was a sense that these issues needed to be discussed with greater urgency since they might soon be real.  Lying on the table were some designs by Art students that might be included on the hoardings around the site.  These certainly added to the reality.  Hopefully, it will not be long before I can go back to the pupils, parents and staff with a definite answer to the innocent question.

The school has now been back for a week.  Although there continue to be numerous activities going on in the background, there is little new to report.  Some of the meetings have focussed on issues such as the number of data points in each teaching area.  Moray ICT have also installed four different makes of touch screen boards in the current school.  These will allow us to trial them and choose the best for the new build.  This is an exciting development as it will do away with the need for digital projectors.

We are still working towards financial close in May and construction work beginning in June with December 2016/January 2017 as the target entry date.  On Thursday I had the pleasure of spending time with the Greenwards P7 pupils during their residential at Dalguise.  It was great to see their enthusiasm about the new build and to be able to answer their numerous questions.  On the original timescale when funding was announced, the plan was for the new building to be complete this month.  They were scheduled to be the first S.1 group whose only experience would be the new build.  Hopefully we will have good news for them soon and get them involved with the turf cutting!