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!

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.

There was good news today.  Firstly, at its meeting this morning the Moray Council agreed to delegate authority to allow decisions to be taken over the capacity of the new build.  A recalculation of the potential future roll of EHS had led to higher figures than originally forecast – this was due to the high intake of pupils into the younger years at Greenwards and New Elgin Primaries.  This agreement will allow decisions to be taken quickly when we get into detailed discussions with Scottish Futures Trust and Hubco.  The second good news came at a meeting late in the afternoon when it became clear that the draft New Project Request forms are ready to be submitted to Hubco tomorrow.  This meets the deadline and will form the basis for the start of detailed discussions with Hubco on the design of the new build.  Added to arrangements being made to meet a senior representative of Hubco on the 11th April, we can go into the holidays in a positive mood!  A lot of work has been done by a number of Moray Council officials to get us to this stage, and we are grateful to them!

NPR, RDA, SOA and KSR1 – these are just some of the initials that have become the focus of the last few days.  After the great experience of visiting a new school building that is near competition, the reality of what has to be done to get there is hitting home.  A core group of Moray Council staff are busy completing lengthy forms and calculating the proposed number of room required, the technical aspirations for the building, the costings and many other issues.  The target is to get this finished and submitted to Hubco and Scottish Futures Trust by next Thursday.  This information will allow detailed negotiations to start with the central bodies that will be overseeing the development.  Engagement with the architects will follow which will lead to the consultations with pupils, staff, parents and others on what the building will be like.  One very encouraging feature of the process is the collaboration between authorities that is already allowing us to learn from the experiences of others – and save us time!  We are on target to be ready for the 28th and therefore for construction to start in March /April 2014!

Eastwood High School: March 2013 – Click here to download a powerpoint presentation

Martine Scott (Senior Project Officer) and I enjoyed a fascinating day visiting Eastwood High School in East Renfrewshire.  Eastwood and Lasswade are being built by the Scottish Futures Trust as models for what can be achieved.  They have been designed drawing on the experience of a number of new school builds throughout Scotland – and lessons learnt from the experiences of pupils and teachers using them.  It was also good to meet representatives of the architects and construction companies that will be involved in building the new EHS and start to get to know them.  There were a lot of very exciting and positive features which will certainly be welcomed by EHS pupils, parents and staff.  To see some pictures of Eastwood and what we might expect in EHS, click on the title above for a short powerpoint presentation.

Over the last two days there have been two long but productive meetings which have moved the planning forward.  Today we were delighted to welcome a representative from Hubco to EHS.  Hubco is the body that will co-ordinate the design, finance and construction of the new build.  We were also joined on a telephone conference by 2 other members of the team.  The meeting covered a wide range of issues.  Many of these were technical and I am having to learn a completely new set of acronyms and jargon!  Along with representatives of Moray Council legal and accounting departments we mapped out the planning work that is required.  It was encouraging to hear about the level of support available to see the project through.  There is also a clear commitment to meet the target dates of March/April 2014 for the cutting of the first turf with the new building open in summer 2015.

The completion of the “New Project Request” forms will now get under way.  This will set out the details of the agreement between The Moray Council, Hubco and Scottish Futures Trust.  However, next Friday will be an interesting day.  Sadly I will miss the extravaganza planned in EHS for Comic Relief, but Martine Scott and I will be travelling to Eastwood Academy in Glasgow to see one of the first schools build under the SFT process.  It is likely that many of the features from this design will be incorporated into the new EHS building.  Hopefully, next weekend I will post pictures of the visit on this blog.