Renewal of the JGHS School Estate

16 December 2011 - Following consideration of some of the points raised during the planning process, revised drawings were published on the council's planning website. Full details can be found on the council's planning portal at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/planning (application reference - 11/02586/FUL). Comments were invited by 23 December. We anticipate the application will be considered by the planning committee in January 2012. Link to portal:

https://citydev-portal.edinburgh.gov.uk/idoxpa-web/files/A8DA587EE1B549A4F56F7926EE03303D/pdf/11_02586_FUL-PLANNING_STATEMENT_-_FURTHER_INFO-1295646.pdf

29 August 2011 - The Planning Notice appeared in the press on 26 August 2011 for comments. The documents can be viewed online by visiting the Council's planning portal with the following reference numbers:

11/02586/FUL for the new James Gillespie's High School 11/02585/FUL for the James Gillespie's Primary School extension

Additional information is on the Edinburgh City Council website. link

March 2011 - Pre-Application Consultation Period.

November 2010 - The City Council Education, Children and Families Committee considered a report on the consultation on the decant to Darroch for the duration of the new building project for JGHS. The School would operate on a split site for the duration of the project, with S1-S3 remaining at Lauderdale Street, and S4- S6 going to the Darroch site. Refurbishment and temporary accommodation will be required on both sites. The School Council had endorsed this option, but with a clear objection to conducting the move to Darroch over the 2012/13 Christmas break.

Despite the HMIE report noting that all stakeholders had rejected a Christmas decant and had put forward strong educational impact arguments for the decant being planned for a summer recess, the Education Committee voted on 9th November to go ahead with the Officer recommendation for a Christmas decant, on grounds of cost. The report is available online and the letter we received from the Education Convenor is here.

The Convenor Education Children and Families, Marilyne MacLaren^??, e-mailed the School Council with answers to some of our concerns. link.

The Consultation Report can be downloaded from the Council's website www.Edinburgh.gov.uk and can be found at the direct link below:

http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/info/675/consultations_on_education/1136/james_gillespies_high_school_decant

Hard copies are available from James Gillespie’s High School and its associated primary schools. Copies are also available for inspection at Newington Library and the Council Offices, Waverley Court.

August 2010 - Progress continues on the design schedule for the new building, and the City Council has conducted the initial consultation on the proposal to decant part of the school to the Darroch site, once construction starts on the Lauderdale Street site.

July 2010 - The School Council have responded to the consultation document issued by the Children & Families Department - click here to view the response.

June 2010 - The City Council held a community consultation meeting recently on the proposal for a partial decant to Darroch School site during the JGHS Building replacement project. A newsletter was also sent home via pupils, confirming that the Scottish Futures Trust will release the funds for the new school project in financial year 2014-15. The local authority has already set aside funds to start the project, so the consultation for decant looks at relocating S4-S6 in time for building work to start Jan 2013. In our response to the City Council, we are supportive of the general proposal and confident that the School Management Team is working to ensure minimum disruption to learning and teaching throughout. However, we have stressed that the transfer to Darroch should be planned to take place over the summer break (June 2012) as it would be far too disruptive to carry out at any other time.

The Children & Families Department has issued a consultation document about the proposed decant and have asked the Parent Council for comments. Please send any responses to Ann Henderson via the School Council e-mail address (at bottom of page) by 26 June.

May 2010: Representatives of the Project Board together with Children and Families Convenor Marilyn McLaren^? outlined the report on decant options to a Ann Henderson, Nigel Goddard, JGPS and Sciennes PS Parent Councils and JGPS and Sciennes Headteachers (all feeder primary HTs and Parent Councils were invited). The information given is essentially the same as that in the James Gillespies High School New School Update (11th May 2010) which should be in school bags / post on May 11th (text is here and the associate map is here).

A quick summary is as follows: during the rebuild (summer 2012 - summer 2014), S4, S5 and S6 will be decanted to the Darroch school building (off Gilmore place, about half a mile from the JGHS campus). S1, S2, S3 will remain on the JGHS campus on about half the site, while the other half of the site will be rebuilt. Other options were considered but the school management team considers the partial decant to Darroch to be the best available option. The favoured option is not final - a consultation process as below will be conducted, as below.

The decant decision process going forward is as follows: 18th May Children and Families Education Committee meets to consider the report on Decant Arrangements for JGHS (available here), seeking permission to consult. Assuming approved, consultation will take place May 20 to 1 July. Parents will receive consultation papers on 20 May (and we will endeavour to make them available here then). There will be a public meeting on June 17 at JGHS as part of this consultation.

The rebuild process and timeline remains the same. The strategic design brief (see below) is nearly completed (expected early June and we will try to post a copy here then). It will form the basis for the design team (architects). Design and planning approval are expected to take place from now to summer 2012. Decant/rebuild are expected from summer 2012 to summer 2014, or possibly a bit longer. Of course these dates are expected/planned - any number of events/factors could alter them as the project progresses.

Meeting held at the School. Neil McCallum^? (DHT) gave a presentation on the options for decant during the rebuild, a preview of the information made available to Ann Henderson and Nigel Goddard at the meeting referred to above. This was followed by a presentation on the new school design brief, which will form the basis of the architect's work (available here). Notes/questions-arising are here.

April 2010 Update

There will be a JGHS Building Renewal Meeting on Wednesday 5th May at 7:00pm at the School. This meeting is open to all parents and carers. The meeting will be to cover the School Design Brief and to give an update on the new school building.

March 2010 Update

The Project Board is looking at two options for decant 1) Split site with Darroch 2) Total off site at Tynecastle. There is no date set yet for the report (with recommendation to be fowarded to Children and Families), discussions are ongoing! So C&F have made no decsions as yet. As soon as a date is set for the report, we will be told. At that point we can decide how best to engage prior to the report being finalised.

February 2010 Update

The options report (see Dec 2009) will be finalised imminently. We understand that the Tynecastle option is now looking quite unlikely. Other options are being considered, including onsite, partial offsite (i.e., part of the school stays onsite) and full offsite.

If the report recommends a decant (full or partial), and Children and Families accepts this, then there will be a statutory consultation with parents. We have urged the C&F to let us provide some input along with the report, prior to their decision.

Alex and Neil are very happy with the way the Strategic Design Brief process has been working. This document is now scheduled for the end of April.

January 2010 Update

The options report (see Dec 2009) was submitted to Children and Families as a work in progress and they have extended when it is to be completed by. The reason for this is to allow more time to look at other feasible options with regard to other off-site options, on-site decant and split site situations.

The Design brief is still progressing although it has slowed slightly with the impending school inspection. It was due for completion for the end of March, however Alex and Neil feel that this is too rushed and will be looking for this to be extended to the end of April.

December 2009 Update

3 members of the Project Board made presentations to the School Council:

• Billy Macintyre, Head of Resources for Children and Families. Chair of the Project Board and Project Sponsor.
• John Baker, City Development Department. Project Monitor with expertise on Design and Construction
• Alistair Wallace, Partner, Thomas and Adamson. External Project Manager.

Meeting notes are here. The summary is as follows:

• Funding is secure £40M from Scottish Government, £20M from City of Edinburgh
• The rough timeline is: 2010-11 Design. 2011-12 Planning permission. 2012(summer) - 2014/2015 Construction.
• The design consultants are working with the school staff (and thus pupils) to come up with a Strategic Design Brief. This document will form the requirements given to the design team (the architects, etc). Parents will be consulted when the Design Brief is produced.
• The possibility of JGHS moving to the old Tynecastle school (suitably refurbished) during construction was mooted. An options report is being prepared on the feasibility of this and of onsite decant (moving staff/pupils around the current campus as it is rebuilt in phases) which will be presented to Children and Families in January 2010.
• The primary points of contact for parents with the Project Board are Neil MacCallum^? (Depute) who is seconded 40% to this activity and Alex Wallace (Headteacher), both of whom are on the Board.

September 2009 Update

During September the Scottish Government announced that JGHS would be in the first wave of their new school building programme. We understand this means that the Scottish Government is committed to £40M of the £60M budget.

Prior news

The City Council has prioritised JGHS, along with four other schools, for complete refurbishment as soon as possible. £33M has been allocated by the City toward the £165M estimated cost, and we expect the initial stages (consultation, planning, etc) to commence within the next six months.

An exciting feasibility study was produced in early 2008, showing how the school estate could be renewed in 3 phases without any decant offsite. There would be decant to temporary buildings onsite as the phases progressed. The complete study is available as a 1.5 MB pdf file here. This document should be seen as an initial concept indicating the feasibility of a phased rebuilding - it is not the initial plan and there would undoubtedly be many very significant differences in the final buildings, arising from the detailed planning and consultation that we hope will take place over the next year or two.

Questions?

Nigel Goddard is Vice-Chair for Buildings Renewal. If you have questions, contact him at .