logo
New £30 million learning campus in Neilston officially opens

New £30 million learning campus in Neilston officially opens

Glasgow Times12-05-2025
The Neilston Learning Campus brings together St Thomas' and Neilston primaries and Madras Family Centre onto a single campus.
It opened its doors to pupils in March 2024 and the official opening ceremony was held on Friday, May 9.
The campus was built to replace the outdated former buildings and was designed to ensure both schools and the family centre retain their unique identities and teaching spaces.
(Image: Jeff Holmes)It features shared facilities including a large sports hall, Digi-Zone, a dedicated space for science, technology, engineering and maths (STEAM), an art room, a green screen video editing area, and drama and music space.
The ceremony was attended by Jenny Gilruth MSP, cabinet secretary for education and skills, and councillor Andrew Anderson, convener for education, equalities, culture and leisure.
They unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark the occasion.
Councillor Anderson said: "Today's official opening ceremony was a wonderful way to mark this new chapter for learning in Neilston.
(Image: Jeff Holmes) "This fantastic campus, combined with the staff, pupils, parents and wider community, will become the beating heart of the village and contribute to an environment where our children and young people will flourish."
Ms Gilruth said: "I welcome the opening of this state-of-the-art campus – we now have a record number of pupils in Scotland being taught in schools that are in 'good' or 'satisfactory' condition.
"The Scottish Government is providing £10.6 million for the Neilston Learning Campus through the £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme which by the end of 2027-28, will have delivered 47 modern, state of the art schools."
Gerard Curley, headteacher of Neilston Primary and Madras Family Centre, said: "It's an absolute privilege to lead our school and family centre every day.
"This outstanding facility will give us a springboard to strive for even greater achievements in future years."
Marie Kane, headteacher of St Thomas' Primary, said: "Since moving to our new home, the whole community has embraced the change and we are very appreciative of this remarkable facility and the high-quality learning experiences we are able to deliver."
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Nicola Sturgeon's education legacy? PE is now third most popular Higher
Nicola Sturgeon's education legacy? PE is now third most popular Higher

Scotsman

time2 hours ago

  • Scotsman

Nicola Sturgeon's education legacy? PE is now third most popular Higher

Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Like many households across Scotland with teenagers, last week our home saw a flurry of excitement over exam results. The outcome of the Nationals 4 and 5, Highers and Advanced Highers arrived through the post or on text messages, being greeted either with joy or dismay. It is customary for politicians at these times to congratulate all the young people who have done so well, and the teachers who guided them to what are, hopefully, good outcomes and better opportunities for their lives ahead. However, it is also necessary to take a cool, hard look at what exactly these results tell us. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad There was certainly an attempt to put a positive spin on the overall numbers by the SNP Education Secretary, Jenny Gilruth, who highlighted that the number of pupils achieving an A-C grade across all levels has increased compared to last year. PE was once a rare exam subject, but has become the third most popular Higher, apparently because it is thought to be easier than subjects like maths (Picture: Fox Photos) | Getty Images Highers getting easier? Whether this tells us much in itself is debatable. Pass grades will always vary, due to a variety of factors, not least the relative difficulty of the exam papers. Just because the pass rates increase doesn't necessarily mean that either pupils or schools are performing better, and of course the converse is equally true. I can well remember a recent conversation with a retired maths teacher who lamented the fact that, in her opinion, Higher maths exam papers were easier than a generation ago, and therefore better pass rates were only to be expected. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Others will be better qualified than me to comment on the accuracy of that assessment, but it certainly appears to be a common view amongst those who have been within the teaching profession over a long period. In assessing the overall impact of rising pass rates, we also need to look at the subjects being chosen by pupils. PE is now the third most popular subject being taken at Higher. In the experience of my youngsters and their peers, this is because they believe that PE is a subject which is easier to pass than, say, maths, chemistry or physics. We also know that more children now choose a PE Higher than one in all modern languages put together, which surely must be of concern to the Education Secretary and schools. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Steady decline of Scottish education A better comparison rather than simply looking at year-to-year changes in pass rates is to consider where Scottish education sits in relation to other countries. And here the picture is not so rosy. Outcomes in Scottish education have been in steady decline compared to many other countries, as evidenced by comparative international tests. It is hardly something to celebrate. But our Education Secretary was particularly keen to seize on one figure last week, and that was the reduction in the attainment gap between pupils in most and least deprived communities. For Higher results, this has indeed declined, with the difference in attainment of A grades reducing from 22.1 percentage points last year to 22 in this year. When looking at all passes from A-C at Higher, there was no reduction at all, although for National 5s the reduction was more marked. Those minimal improvements only reflect what has happened over the past 12 months. Look further back, and the story is even less positive. The attainment gap for all Higher passes has actually widened since 2019, when it sat at 16.9 percentage points. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad None of this gives us much confidence that Scottish education is safe in the SNP's hands. And what is most worrying is not Gilruth's attempts to put such a positive spin on the figures, but the fact that, in 2016, the then SNP First Minister Nicola Sturgeon made closing the attainment gap a priority for her government, on which she asked to be judged. In the same year, her then Deputy and Education Secretary, John Swinney, said that he wanted to see the attainment gap 'substantially eliminated' within ten years. That just gives us one year to go with no significant progress having been made. No wonder my Conservative colleague Miles Briggs, who speaks for our party on education, responded by saying: 'No amount of spin from them can avoid the fact that Nicola Sturgeon's promises in relation to the attainment gap lie in tatters.' Young Scots being let down In a week when we read wall-to-wall coverage of Sturgeon's memoirs, there has been a great deal of commentary about her legacy. Yet, on the very topic that she wanted her leadership to be judged on, it has been shown to be a failure. Too many young Scots have been let down by nearly two decades of the SNP in power, and the inability to tackle the significant issues facing Scottish education. None of this is due to a want of resources. Spending per head on Scottish pupils substantially outranks that south of the Border, perhaps by as much as 20 per cent or more, and yet educational outcomes in England are significantly better than here. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It is a reality that the education reforms in England over the same period that the SNP have been in power here, delivered either from Labour or Conservative governments, have driven up standards and improved results. In the meantime, the SNP have preferred a one-size-fits-all approach to Scottish schooling, and have stuck doggedly by the Curriculum for Excellence, which is clearly long past the point it needed to be ditched, or at the very least substantially revised. Young people only get one chance at education. Despite the good work being done in Scottish schools, too many are being failed by an antiquated system that doesn't recognise the challenges of the modern world. Responsibility for that must rest at the door of SNP ministers, chief among them Nicola Sturgeon. That is how we should judge her legacy, not on self-serving memoirs.

Highland Council to make £100,000 upgrades to play parks
Highland Council to make £100,000 upgrades to play parks

BBC News

time9 hours ago

  • BBC News

Highland Council to make £100,000 upgrades to play parks

Highland Council is set to make improvements to a number of children's playparks across the Black Isle and Cromarty Firth areas.A total of just over £100,00 has been awarded to improve play equipment and safety in Alness, Invergordon, Evanton, Munlochy, Cromarty, Culbokie, Rosemarkie and Fortrose are set to council said these sites were chosen following local feedback and condition surveys. Money for the upgrade has been allocated through the local authority's Capital Programme, as well as other key sources including the Scottish government play park renewal will include the installation of new swings, seesaws and ziplines in some of the parks, and the creation of a sensory garden in Evanton.

Scotland's grouse moor licensing scheme is a farce
Scotland's grouse moor licensing scheme is a farce

The Herald Scotland

time10 hours ago

  • The Herald Scotland

Scotland's grouse moor licensing scheme is a farce

No matter what your views are about killing an animal for fun, recent research has revealed the circle of destruction that surrounds grouse shooting in Scotland. This circle of destruction isn't just a catchy phrase, it's a systematic assault on natural ecosystems where each destructive practice enables the next, creating an interconnected web of environmental damage that stretches across the grouse moors that, in total, comprise around 12% of Scotland's land. Read More: On this land, hundreds of thousands of grouse are shot in a 'good year'. A good year means there's a high density of grouse on the moor, allowing substantial numbers of birds to be shot while still ensuring a sustainable breeding stock. To achieve a 'good year' then, that population of grouse needs to be 'managed' by the shooting estates to be unnaturally high. Population sizes are naturally increased by access to food and shelter and are decreased by exposure to disease and predators, what is commonly understood to be 'the balance of nature'. The balance of nature ensures a sustainable ecosystem that looks after itself. But a balanced ecosystem obviously doesn't produce an over-abundance of grouse that can produce a 'good year' for the annual shooting season. To achieve that 'good year' an imbalance needs to be created, the balance of nature is turned on its head. Extra food and shelter are provided by burning heather in the winter months. This provides new green shoots for the birds in the spring. It also releases CO2 into the atmosphere, encourages wildfires and stops trees from growing. This systematic burning creates the artificial habitat foundation upon which the entire circle of destruction depends. Birds of prey perch in trees. Of course, birds of prey are protected species, but breeding pairs are mysteriously absent from many Scottish grouse moors. Their natural diet includes grouse. Foxes, stoats, weasels and crows also naturally control the numbers of grouse. But as they have no legal protection, they can be killed to ensure there are more grouse to shoot. The largest scientific assessment so far revealed that around 200,000 foxes, stoats and weasels are killed by gamekeepers each year in Scotland to ensure artificially high numbers of grouse. There are compelling reasons why estates invest so heavily in maintaining those high populations of grouse. A report to the Scottish Government from the independent Grouse Moor Management Group revealed the capital value of an estate can be increased by £5,000 for every pair of grouse shot. Economic rewards such as these may go some way to explain why landowners will go to such lengths to maintain this artificially imbalanced system. The natural balance of ecosystems isn't entirely dependent on predation. A disease that regularly reduces grouse numbers is carried by a small worm, the strongyle worm. To reduce its impact, shooting estates deploy tens of thousands of grit-filled trays medicated with flubendazole in an attempt to kill the worms in the guts of the grouse. This is despite the medical and veterinary industry's concerns about the over prescription of such chemicals. This mass chemical medication completes the circle of destruction. The inflated grouse populations created by habitat manipulation and predator slaughter then require pharmaceutical intervention to remain viable, yet this intensive management system operates without meaningful oversight. Scotland introduced grouse moor licensing in 2024 under the Wildlife Management & Muirburn Act, supposedly to deter wildlife crime and ensure sustainable management. The reality has proven farcical. The grouse shooting industry threatened legal action against NatureScot's interpretation of the legislation. Rather than stand firm, NatureScot capitulated, weakening the licenses by changing coverage from entire estates to tiny areas around shooting butts. It's still unclear how this mess will be resolved. Polling shows that 60% of Scots oppose grouse shooting, with 76% against the predator control that kills hundreds of thousands of mammals annually. Even in the most remote rural areas - the supposed heartland of shooting support - opposition still outweighs support. Turning the balance of nature on its head goes on year in, year out on Scottish shooting estates. But 'good grouse years' do not. When you look at historical trends, the last time there was a 'good grouse year' was 2018. Predictions, in Scotland, for 2025 suggest that too will be a 'bad year'. That means, even if you think it's ok to kill a bird for fun, over that period of time more than a million foxes, stoats, weasels and crows will have been killed for nothing. Thousands of square miles of heather will have been needlessly burned and tons upon tons of chemicals will have been ineffectively strewn across the countryside. The economic incentives that drive this destruction continue to operate regardless of whether or not a 'good year' for grouse emerges. The circle of destruction surrounding grouse shooting reveals the true cost of allowing privileged minorities to treat Scotland's land as their private playground. Until we break this interconnected system of destruction entirely, Scotland's uplands will continue to serve private interests rather than the public good, and our wildlife will continue to pay the price for a democracy that has forgotten who it's supposed to serve. Meanwhile, the circle of destruction grinds on, crushing Scotland's wildlife and ecosystems beneath the weight of economic interests that benefit the few while imposing costs on the many. For those of us who think it's unethical and cruel to shoot a bird out of the sky - it's always a crying shame. Robbie Marsland is the director of Scotland and Northern Ireland League Against Cruel Sports

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store