A TOPPING-OUT ceremony has been held to mark a milestone in the construction of a new £28m Community Campus.
Castkebrae Community Campus had pupils from the new school and the head teacher joined with council members for the ceremony.
The ceremony showed a final pile of concrete being poured onto the top floor marking the progress the site has made since being started earlier in 2020.
Young People – Josh Heath and Megan Douglas (current Castlebrae High pupils)
Depute Council Leader, Cammy Day and Vice Education Convenor, Alison Dickie, visited the site of the new Castlebrae Community Campus, alongside the school’s Head Teacher, longest serving member of staff and pupils.
The new Castlebrae Community Campus is being built in the heart of Craigmillar, next to the East Neighbourhood Centre and Library.
Externally there will be extensive landscaped areas for outdoor learning activities and a 3G artificial football pitch, which will be available for use by the local community outside school hours, as well as a community town square.
Councillor Cammy Day, Depute Leader for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “The pupils and staff were hugely excited for their new school as they have been involved throughout the whole process so they feel a real sense of ownership.
“The new Castlebrae Community Campus which will provide a first-class learning environment and an exciting, inspirational and creative hub for the whole community.
“This is an exciting period for education in the Capital with recent new builds and projects under construction demonstrating our ambitious new school building programme with £500m investment planned over the next 10 years.”
Plans for the brand new 700 capacity secondary school, which has the potential to be increased to 1,200, were developed after consultation with educationalists, service users and the local community.
Head Teacher Norma Prentice said: “It’s so exciting to be the Head Teacher of the new Castlebrae Community Campus. It will benefit the whole community by delivering high quality learning and teaching and enhancing our journey of continued improvement. This has been a challenging year for everyone and all the pupils and staff can’t wait to move in when the building opens early 2022.”
Councillor Alison Dickie, Education Vice Convener for the City of Edinburgh Council, said: “It was great to see how far work has progressed on the site since my last visit especially in the light of construction restrictions caused by the pandemic.
“As a Council we are taking every opportunity to innovatively build schools for the future that are fit for 21st Century learning – as this exciting design shows with extensive landscaped areas for outdoor learning activities.
The new schools we are creating all support greater accessibility and inclusion for all our young people.
“We will continue to develop the designs of our future school projects so they can support the needs of all learners and provide a much more inclusive environment promoting greater health and wellbeing.”
Greig Jamieson, Hub South East’s Commercial Director, added: “We’re delighted to have welcomed guests along to mark such an important milestone in the new Castlebrae Community Campus’s construction.”
Eddie Robertson, Managing Director of Morrison Construction Building Central, commented: “We are delighted to have reached this significant milestone in the construction of Castlebrae Community Campus.
“The pandemic has undoubtedly presented considerable challenges to the project team but days like this demonstrate their commitment to our clients and the commitment of the wider Morrison business to staying on track and providing an excellent new facility for local students.”
Work on site is progressing well and the new Castlebrae Community Campus is due to open early in 2022.
