Schools Investment Programme
"Every school should be a centre of excellence, raising aspirations, inspiring learners and teachers, enabling and supporting education, and making a positive contribution to local communities.”
Scottish Executive 2002
What's been happening so far?
In 2002 the Scottish Executive (now known as the Scottish Government) asked local authorities to submit School Estate Strategies. After extensive consultation with all schools and school boards on whether current schools were “fit-for-purpose”, a Schools Estates Management Plan (SEMP) was submitted in December 2003.
An Outline Business Case (OBC) was produced which said that the following buildings were in need of upgrading:
Kirkwall Grammar School
Stromness Primary School
Papdale Halls of Residence
This was the first stage in bidding for funding from the Scottish Government.
An initial offer of funding, which was equivalent to £50 million, was made in November 2006. This was subject to further discussions between Orkney Islands Council and the Scottish Executive, as well as the submission of more details on the projects via a Revised Outline Business Case (ROBC).
How will the designs of the building be chosen?
In February 2007, the Policy and Resources Committee recommended that a Joint Steering Group and Project Team were formed to work on the plans for the new buildings.
Parents, pupils and staff from KGS, Stromness Primary and Papdale Halls of Residence were consulted with in the summer of 2007 to help identify where the buildings should go.
Councillors took part in a series of seminars to give their own views on the projects and in turn a number of reports were brought to January / February 2008 Council meetings. The Revised Outline Business Case was agreed at Full Council on the 26th February 2008.
What happens next?
Detailed specifications for each of the new buildings have been developed. This has involved the establishment of task groups for each of the new facilities to allow wide ranging consultation with key partners, including pupils, school staff and parent representatives.
Pupils at Stromness Primary School, KGS and the hostel have been involved in workshops with the project team to get their views on how they would like their new school to look.
The project team anticipate construction to begin in early 2011 with facilities planned to be complete by 2012.
To keep up to date with the project, why not have a read of the Project Team diary by clicking on the link on the left of this page.
In Depth
- Stromness Primary School
This gives details on the new Stromness Primary School project - Kirkwall Grammar School
This gives details on the new Kirkwall Grammmar School project. - Papdale Halls of Residence
This gives details on the new Halls of Residence project. - Swimming Pool and Squash Courts
This gives details on the new Swimming Pool and Squash Courts project. - Project Team Diary
The OIC Schools Investment Programme project team will be keeping a project diary over the next few years. - FAQs
With any large scale project that the Council is undertaking, we expect the people of Orkney to have questions about the finer details of what's happening. The following is a list of the questions about the Schools Investment Programme that we are asked on a regular basis. - Logo Competition
The Schools Investment Programme project, which is responsible for the building of a new Kirkwall Grammar School, Stromness Primary School, Papdale Halls of Residence and a new Pool, recently ran a competition for Primary and Secondary pupils from Orkney schools to design a logo for their project. There were over 50 entries from Primary and Secondary schools. - Early Consultation
Details of the 2007 School Estate Improvement Programme consultation, which collected the opinions of more than 1200 pupils, parents and staff on the future of Kirkwall Grammar School, Stromness Primary School and the Papdale Halls of Residence.