Autumn/Winter 2013/14
www.inverclyde.gov.uk Issue 18 Autumn/Winter 2013/14
The Council newspaper for all Inverclyde residents
INVERCLYDE
Winter Festival Your FREE guide to what’s on this festive season: centre pages
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Inverclyde schools top of the class
FIRST LOOK: InView takes you inside the £44m Port Glasgow Community Campus set to open in December. Inverclyde can now boast one of the best school estates in Scotland thanks to nearly a quarter of a billion pounds worth of investment. Three schools are set to move to their new homes at Inverclyde Council’s flagship £44 million Port Glasgow Community Campus. Craigmarloch Additional Support Needs (ASN) School will move on Monday 9 December while St Stephen’s High School and Port Glasgow High School will move to the new campus on Thursday 12 December. Pupils from the three schools will arrive on those dates after three exceptional closure dates to allow teaching resources to be moved from their current accommodation. St Columba’s High School moved into their new building in August following the £15 million refurbishment and
extension of the former Gourock High School building. Work is due to start on the £5.5 million refurbishment and extension of Ardgowan Primary School in Greenock - in 2014. Education & Communities Convener Councillor Terry Loughran said: “Our Schools Estate Programme is delivering a package of new and refurbished schools. This means not only buildings that are in fantastic condition and suitable for purpose, but are exciting and special places to learn. The regeneration of Inverclyde is well underway and the redevelopment of the school estate is central to this. Education is at the heart of our vision for the future and we are determined to provide education services of the highest quality to meet the needs of the community. Our schools are not just about providing resources for pupils, they are also there for our communities to support lifelong learning, leisure and community services.”
Once the Port Glasgow Community Campus is completed all of Inverclyde Council’s secondary schools will be A-rated and 90% of primary schools A or B rated, according to condition ratings supplied to the Scottish Government every three years. Councillor Loughran added: “We have come a long way in the nine years since the first strategy to renew the school estate was set out, before any work had begun. When we started on this programme the condition and age of many of our school properties and the changing demands on school buildings, meant the school estate in Inverclyde no longer met the needs of our school communities. Over the next year we will take further significant steps forward with the refurbishment of Ardgowan Primary and design work on the refurbishment of St John’s, St Patrick’s and Kilmacolm Primary Schools.”
Transformation moves on across Inverclyde see page 3
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Tourism visitors on the up for Inverclyde see page 4
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Headteacher wins lifetime achievement see page 8
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InView is available in other formats, on request. For more information call (01475) 717171.