The future of school buildings is moving closer under projects by the Scottish Futures Trust.

The Trust, set up to improve public infrastructure investment, announced the opening of three new primary schools for the new term.

Under the Scotland's Schools for the Future programme, St Bernadette's Primary School in Falkirk, Daliburgh Primary School in the Western Isles and Gargieston Primary School in East Ayrshire are currently undergoing fit-out.

This now takes the number of schools completed this year to four, with a mixture of eight primary and secondary schools currently under construction. And before the end of the current financial year a further five schools are expected to get underway.


A spokesperson for the Trust said that the programme's objective is to "deliver good quality, well designed, sustainable schools at a competitive price" and a reference primary school design has been completed.

Earlier this year the Trust invited two architect companies, Reiach and Hall and Walters and Cohen, to develop the reference designs following a competitive tender.

The firms collaborated with East Dunbartonshire Council's Scottish Future Trust, and created the designs based on a project to replace Lairdsland Primary School in Kirkintilloch.

The designs have been progressed to RIBA Stage C and have been developed to deliver highly efficient, flexible and effective space for learning and teaching. Importantly the reference primary school designs are scalable so that they can be modified for smaller or larger school rolls.

To get a copy of the designs, contact Emer Fitzsimons, SFT Project Administrator at emer.fitzsimons@scottishfuturestrust.org.uk.

(NE)