Today is the first day of the school holidays in Moray.  It is also the day when we managed to get agreement on the outline plan for the building and the interior areas – on schedule.  A conference call this morning saw the final details added to the plan.   Now we move on to completing the Room Data Sheets while the architect starts on the more detailed planning…

This week, eleven years ago, I was offered the post of Head Teacher at Elgin High School.  Shortly afterwards, the Director of Education told me “Don’t do anything to the building, you will be getting a new one!”  Despite his sincerity, events conspired against us.  The active support of the Parent Council and local councillors kept the hope alive.  By the end of this next week there will be agreement on the basic design and number of rooms and we can now believe it really will happen.

Meanwhile, several generations of pupils have come and gone.  Last night was the annual Moray Young Citizen Award ceremony.  An excellent night.  For the third time in the five years of the competition an Elgin High School pupil received the top Individual Award.  Another individual was highly commended and a third commended.  A group of S.4 girls shared the school group award and the Zambia Crew were highly commended in the international category.  A very successful night for Elgin High School that demonstrates that it is the quality of what happens within the a school that is most important – despite the condition of the building.  However, it is with confidence that we now look forward to EHS pupils having the resources and facilities that they deserve and will allow even greater successes.

The pressure is on to finalise the number and size of rooms that are to be included in each area of the school.  Over the last 10 days senior staff have managed to meet with every department to review the proposals and look through draft Room Data Sheets.  These have proved to be very encouraging and a number of excellent ideas have emerged.  Meanwhile an educational consultant has checked our projections for room requirements when the roll of EHS increases.  Thankfully, this proved to be reassuring and we can now have confidence that the building will be able to cope with a growth in pupil numbers and changes in the curriculum.  In the background the architects are working on the plans and hopefully drafts should be available very soon.

EHS staff have not had to attend any meetings with people outside the school this week.  However, it has proved to be one of the busiest so far.  The Accommodation Schedule (the list of the number of rooms to be included in the building) has to be agreed by the end of the month.  Similarly the Room Data Sheets (describing what will be in each room) need to be finalised.  This is where there is a big advantage being part of the Scottish Futures Trust approach.  We have not had to write these beginning with a blank piece of paper.  Instead, we have the sheets from other schools as a starting point.   So the week has proved to be very busy as senior staff have met with subject teachers to review requirements.  The discussions have thrown up some interesting issues that have soemtimes required seeking external advice and checks.  Meanwhile, the work of preparing pupils for Highers and Nationals continues.

As the week comes to an end, there are three more steps to report on the road to the new build.  Firstly, by the middle of the week the ground survey work had been completed – all seems to have gone well.  Secondly, on Thursday we had an excellent meeting with representatives from Balfour Beatty.  We were discussing possible educational links during the entire construction period.  It looks as if pupils will be able to have an involvement in the project through just about every department.  There is the potential for some exciting inputs.  Pupils from Greenwards, Mosstowie and New Elgin will also have opportunities.  We spoke about “Balfour Beatty scholarships”.  These will be a real opportunity for some pupils – more to follow on this.  Finally on Friday we had a telephone conference call with Hubco and the architects.  We have reached a final agreement on what will be in the PE block.  Detailed plans can now be prepared.  For the remainder of the building we have given ourselves a deadline of the end of the month to finalise the plans.  It will be a busy four weeks of discussions!  You may also note the change in the link from the EHS website.  2016 seems a reasonable target date for the revised and improved building to be completed!

Over the last two weeks there has been much activity around the Elgin High School building.  Numerous pits and bore holes have appeared and then been filled in again.  Reports are all good and the construction company are gaining the information they need.  Meanwhile there was a very positive meeting between Hubco, Moray Council, the architects and Balfour Beatty.  Now that the additional money is secure we will be able to finalise the room schedule during the next few days.  This will allow for an initial capacity of 800 pupils.  If we can get this completed quickly then planning for “enabling work” on the site could start.  Hopefully, we will be able to announce the dates of the construction programme in the not too distant future.  It was a very positive planning meeting that brings the reality of a new build for the EHS community one step closer.

A significant day.  Construction workers arrived to start two weeks of ground surveying.  They will be drilling a number of holes to investigate the land on which the new build will be constructed.  The depth and spread of the bank of peat is obviously a key issue that will feed into the planning.  An exciting moment for all when we can at last see work being undertaken on the site.  It was also good to be able to welcome a representative of Balfour Beatty to the the Guidance department.  Steve joined representatives of the CITB to tell S.3 pupils about the wide range of career possibilities in the construction industry.  This is the first in many collaborations that will take place between Balfour Beatty and the school in the coming months and years.

Elgin High School replacement project update: – February 2014

This is our first newsletter of 2014. And, an exciting development to start the year!

The project team prepared a report to full Council on 5th February to give options regarding the final design and size of the school. The need for this arose because there were some affordability limitations with the existing design (Option A) which were causing concern.

There were four options given, which were:

Option A = Design for 720 pupils with an estimated maximum capacity for 758 pupils, Access from High School Drive only.

Option B = Design for 800 pupils, enhanced core (communal) areas for extra cost of £3M with future extension capability, plus access road from Edgar Road extension.

Option C = Design for 1000 pupils from outset for extra cost of £5.8M, plus access road from Edgar Road extension.

Option D = Defer a decision until any impact of decisions by the council, arising from the Sustainable Education Review is known.

The full report of these options including their advantages, disadvantages and associated risks can be found here:

http://www.moray.gov.uk/minutes/data/MC20140205/Item%206%20 – %20Elgin%20High%20School%20Replacement%20Project.pdf

We are pleased to inform you that the elected members unanimously agreed that Option B was the most appropriate option to choose. The Moray Council have therefore allocated an extra £3M to the project which will provide the most flexible solution for growth (should the need arise), vehicular access from Edgar Road and also make best use of the funding from the Scottish Government.

This means that we can now refine the school design, (which shouldn’t take long) to a high level of detail and progress to planning in the next few months. We will keep you informed along the way.

Site investigation work already started on February 3rd and will continue until the middle of February. The noisiest work which will involve drilling some test bore holes for gas monitoring will take place over the half-term break Feb 13 – 18 to minimise any disruption.

If you have any queries please direct them to ehsproject@moray.gov.uk or telephone 01343 563011

Regards,
The EHS project Team.

Moray Council has just accepted Option B for the new build, this is:

Option B = Design for 800 pupils, enhanced core (communal) areas for extra cost with future extension capability, plus access road from Edgar Road extension.

This is good news and work can continue.  More information to follow.

Yesterday saw the first sight of developments on the ground.  The topographic survey was started with the measuring of the area around the present building.  More to follow…