New £3.5M Badenoch school extension given the go-ahead

A badly needed £3.5 million extension will bring an end to the "terrible" teaching conditions at the strath’s largest secondary school.

Highland Council’s south planning applications committee has approved the demolition of classrooms and the construction of a three-storey extension to provide new rooms at Kingussie High School.

The new addition to the school will replace the current temporary huts put up nearly 40 years ago to help over-crowding then.

Eight general classrooms, a music suite with practice rooms and a recording studio, plus other staff and pupil facilities in a modular unit will be created, as well as a new entrance to the school

The total floor area is expected to be around 1,000 square metres, and the new building will have a lifespan of more than 60 years.

The approval at the meeting in Inverness follows three years of hard work by the school’s parent council and local Highland councillors to persuade the local authority to tackle the deteriorating conditions at the school.

Kingussie, which has a slightly higher roll than Grantown Grammar School, has generally been regarded as the region’s second worst school – after Wick Academy – in terms of teaching conditions. Work on the extension is expected to start next week and be completed by October next year.

The council’s area planning manager Nicola Drummond said the design was very much in keeping with the current school building.

She said Kingussie Community Council had initially objected to part of the scheme, particularly the colour of paint used to finish it.

The building will be painted in red, white and black which are the school’s colours.

Committee member and local councillor David Fallows said the current school was "not the prettiest in the world" and welcomed the forthcoming improvements.

Headteacher John Tracey said after the go-ahead: "The whole school community is absolutely delighted that planning permission has been granted for our very much needed upgrade in accommodation.

"The parent council played a big part in moving this development along as did our pupils who spoke at council meetings and in the Scottish Parliament about the terrible conditions they were expected to learn in."

Mr Tracey continued: "The temporary huts started to arrive over 30 years ago and have deteriorated since then until they are no longer usable.

"What a difference this will make to the learning environment of our young people.

"We now look forward in the short term to working with the contractors to ensure we get as much educational value from the building process as well as new accommodation in the longer term."

Mike Donaghy, chairman of Kingussie High School Parent Council, said: "These much improved facilities will no doubt prove a great motivater for both students and staff alike."

"We are relieved that this last part of the jisgsaw is in place and I personally think the colours will instill a sense of pride and bring a much needed vitality to the new building."

The planning application was amended to delete the proposed relocation of the biomass boiler and flue, which has been the subject of most of the objections to the proposed improvements.

This scheme, which will cost £100,000, will be the subject of a separate application.

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