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 New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: steaua  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 15:11

The Scottish Government has announced they will help fund a new Woodmill High , in conjunction with Fife Council. Well done to everyone involved in this.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 15:33

That's good news. Is this for a rebuild or for the planned "super campus"?

Apparently the fire was as bad as the Glasgow Art School.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: dave67  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 16:05

Going to be a super campus

Let`s try making it till Christmas
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: BigJPar  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 16:36

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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: oapar  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 17:12

Would appear to be funding for new super campus, so no news here.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: JTH123  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 17:21

Don't you just love politicians...
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: SAP PAR  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 18:22

This was always due to be announced after the summer holidays. Funding also earmarked to extend QAH and Dunfermline high.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 18:32

That's what I thought. It was in the press before the summer that the funding would be announced now.

Anyway, all that matters is the funding is confirmed and they can get on with building it. Hopefully they can begin refining how WHS pupils are being taught so that there's less disruption in the mean time. It'll probably be a couple of years until the school is complete.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: JTH123  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 19:58

I take it QAH is being extended to cope with the additional kids coming from all the development going up there?
Doesn't stack up otherwise given they can accommodate the Woodmill S2.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Tue 3 Sep 20:32

Fair few houses going up at QAHS and more planned for the entrance to Townhill and at the old sub station site by the loch. The extension will be paid for through developer contributions. I think it's the case that if the council don't spend it they have to give it back. Sure that happened with Tesco's contribution to public art. There were supposed to be various pieces around the town but instead there was only ever the stairs to nowhere.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: GG Riva  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 05:58

It had been suggested that any insurance premiums due would not need to be paid unless the new school was built on the same site, giving the authorities a dilemma.

I wonder if some kind of compromise has been agreed? A lower premium and a greater contribution from the Scottish Executive and Fife Council, perhaps?



Not your average Sunday League player.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: Playup_Pompey  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 14:31

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/17880294.woodmill-high-school-john-swinney-makes-announcement-dunfermline/

WITHIN the last few minutes, Education Secretary John Swinney has confirmed funding has been made available for a new shared learning campus to replace Woodmill High School.

The estimated cost is between £150-180 million. The Scottish Government has confirmed it will invest up to £90 million in capital to fund the college portion of the campus, and up to 50 per cent of the overall cost for the schools element.

The proposed joint learning campus would bring together pupils, students and staff at Woodmill and St Columba’s high schools and Fife College in what Holyrood describes as modern, fit-for-purpose and low-carbon facilities.


The new campus could be ready by the end of 2024.

Who foots the bill for the remaining half of the schools element and how this affects Fife Council's plans to build a new Inverkeithing High School is unclear at this stage.

Mr Swinney is visiting Woodmill High now and is meeting headteacher Sandy McIntosh, before moving on to speak to school students being accommodated at Fife College and representatives of Fife College and Fife Council.

We have a reporter covering his visit and will provide updates and further reaction to Mr Swinney's annouicement as the afternoon goes on.

Mr Swinney said: “Woodmill High School was devastated by the fire and it is clear that Fife Council, Fife College and surrounding schools have made a tremendous effort to find alternative accommodation and minimise disruption to pupils’ learning.

“Since the fire ten days ago, I accelerated discussions with Fife Council and Fife College and I am now very pleased to confirm we support the development of a brand new joint learning campus.

“Locating the two schools and Fife College on the same site would give pupils easy access to a greater variety of subjects and qualifications.

"Schools, colleges and universities are the cornerstones of our communities and a joint campus model will give Dunfermline a hub of high-quality, low-carbon and digitally-enabled facilities.”


Convener of Fife Council's education and children's services committee, Fay Sinclair said: “This is a really exciting opportunity. We have been looking at ways to expand, replace and improve our school buildings for some time and a shared campus will open up so many different learning options and routes for our young people to access the careers they want.

“We have already held community engagement sessions on the future of education provision. This will inform our work with Fife College to bring forward firm proposals for a new development, which the community will be consulted on before plans are finalised.

“Today’s announcement gives the Woodmill community reassurance about the long-term plans for their school, as we work through short- and medium-term arrangements at this difficult time.”

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Fife College principal Hugh Hall said: “The proposals for the new campus, incorporating two high schools, the college and a university hub are learner-centred, innovative and progressive and will be transformational for education in Scotland.

“The college has been working with Fife Council in formulating the proposals and together we will be moving at pace to take forward proposals to create a unique learning environment in West Fife.”

The Scottish Government had been in discussions with Fife Council on the construction of the joint school and college campus since before the fire at Woodmill. In fact, the council has been asking for money for this campus since July 2015.


The Scottish Government will fund 100% of the college element of the Dunfermline Learning Community Campus, up to £90 million, via capital grant.

The schools element of the campus would be funded as part of the £1 billion learning estate investment programme through a new funding model. Local authorities will borrow from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB) or use their own capital monies to pay for the upfront cost of constructing a new learning facility. The Scottish Government would pay for ongoing maintenance of the new facility and fund other outcomes to be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Fife Council will consult with the community before plans are finalised.

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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 14:44

This is simply the super campus proposal that John Swinney said back in May/June would be agreed in September. Guess what? It's September. So this has nothing to do with reacting to the incident at Woodmill.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: Jeffery  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 14:59

Quote:

GG Riva, Wed 4 Sep 05:58

It had been suggested that any insurance premiums due would not need to be paid unless the new school was built on the same site, giving the authorities a dilemma.

I wonder if some kind of compromise has been agreed? A lower premium and a greater contribution from the Scottish Executive and Fife Council, perhaps?


I wondered exactly this when the news came out the other day.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: JTH123  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 15:25

The obvious question now is one of timing. The nature of the combined campuses is that there will be facilities that are shared across the users.
Presumably the plan will be to build the Woodmill part first, say opening 2021/2022, along with the facilities it needs albeit some of those would become shared later?
My money is still on cabins being in place on the old site before Xmas.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: DulochConvert  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 16:22

My money is on having cabins ready for Easter, they bring back the S1-3, weather dependant. With then whole school in cabins for 20/21 & 21/22, then moving into the part completed campus.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: Playup_Pompey  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 16:24

is the shepherd land still a viable option or has this now been earmarked for housing?

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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 16:27

JTH, the funding isn't available until next year and they're expecting it complete by 2024.

This building is totally unrelated to what's happened at Woodmill. What's more, the Scottish Government are offering LESS than they'd initially suggested they'd provide. The St Columba's and Woodmill replacements were supposed to be 2/3 funded by Scot Gov. Now they're saying it'll be a 50/50 split.

Basically, Swinney has announced a funding cut but sold it as being a great deal for the school. He's also pretending this was quick thinking by the Scot Gov but those proposals have been on the tables for ages! It's a nonsense.

Despite Fife being Scotland's 3rd largest local authority, it seems to get royally screwed financially.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 16:28

Quote:

Playup_Pompey, Wed 4 Sep 16:24

is the shepherd land still a viable option or has this now been earmarked for housing?


The article says it's not decided yet but there's a massive sign up on the Shepherd site saying it's going to be the new home of Fife College. Went up a few months back.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: JTH123  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 17:16

Jake89 the funding wouldn't be needed till next year anyway as they're not ready to start building yet.
The whole campus is scheduled for approx 2024 but no reason why the Woodmill replacement couldn't be ready in 2-3 years.
Given that the campus is a replacement for Woodmill, st columbas and the college I'm not sure how you can say they're unrelated to what happened.
As for the funding proportions I've no idea.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 17:39

JTH, what I'm saying is the new campus would have happened even if the fire hadn't. The funding is unrelated despite Swinney making it sound like he leapt into action. He didn't. All he's done is offered less than Fife Council asked for.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: P  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 17:51

So do Woodmill & St Columbus merge or do children still get segregated like it’s the dark ages?
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: jake89  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 17:59

Still segregated.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: GG Riva  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 18:26

Quote:

P, Wed 4 Sep 17:51

So do Woodmill & St Columbus merge or do children still get segregated like it’s the dark ages?


No politician wants to grab this nettle as they're terrified it would be a vote loser, but it would be good to take this opportunity to integrate these two schools. Pupils could be separated for RE should they or their parents wish it.

When RC schools run by the state were introduced in 1918, it was in response to the endemic bullying of immigrant Irish Catholics in Scottish schools, particularly in the West of Scotland. You'd have to hope that things have moved on in the last 100 years, although if the Celtic/Rangers sectarian nonsense is any kind of yardstick, this may be a rather optimistic view.



Not your average Sunday League player.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: JTH123  
Date:   Wed 4 Sep 19:12

See what you mean now jake.

Kids are getting back to lessons now and that's the most important thing. I can see my 8 year old being among the first to go to the fully opened campus.
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 Re: New School For Woodmill High
Topic Originator: pacifist  
Date:   Thu 5 Sep 05:11

£135 million for education in Dunfermline and it's a bad thing? This is a huge investment, probably the biggest ever. Has to be good.
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