All 17 schools closed because of structural concerns back in March will welcome back city pupils next week. The final remedial works on Drummond Community High and The Royal High have now been completed by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership which means all pupils will be back in their own schools as normal for the start of the new session next Wednesday.
The confirmation will be a huge relief to pupils, parents and school staff and brings to an end a saga that has dragged on since April.
The first sign that something was wrong came in January, when hundreds of bricks were dislodged from a wall at Oxgangs Primary School during Storm Gertrude. Repairs were carried out and the school reopened within a few days – but was closed again weeks later when an inspection revealed serious concerns about the way the external wall had been constructed when the school was first built 10 years ago.
Oxgangs was part of the controversial Public Private Partnership (PPP) programme that saw 17 schools built or refurbished in a £360m deal between the council and a private finance consortium.
Days later, three more schools – St Peter’s RC Primary, Firrhill High and Braidburn Special School – were also closed after being deemed to be unsafe for pupils and these were followed in April by the remainder of the PPP1 schools, including local primaries Pirniehall, St David’s, Craigroyston and Forthview as well as Rowanfied Special School.
The schools were all built by Miller Construction, which was bought over by Galliford Try in 2014..
In total 17 schools were closed with 7,600 pupils affected as the Council put in place a huge logistical plan to provide alternative arrangements. More than 5,000 children were educated at over 70 different schools and education facilities during the three months until the summer holidays.
Council Leader Andrew Burns said yesterday: “I’m delighted that all of our pupils affected by the closures will be back in their own schools next week as we promised parents we would try to achieve this. We stressed to the Edinburgh Schools Partnership that they should bring forward school reopening dates where possible which has happened.
“Our priority has always been the safety of our pupils and staff and we insisted that ESP and their contractors ensure all our schools are 100% safe to reopen. All the relevant paperwork has been published on our website having been reviewed by an independent expert on behalf of the Council.
“I want again to thank parents and pupils for their patience and understanding and teaching staff for their commitment and flexibility during these difficult past few months.
“The next steps now are to establish exactly what went wrong with these schools. The Council has appointed respected construction and procurement industry expert John Cole CBE to lead an independent inquiry.
“Clear and thorough terms of reference set out exactly what we are aiming to achieve through this inquiry. We want to find out what went wrong and are determined to see what lessons can be learned, not just here in Edinburgh but across Scotland and the UK.”
The independent inquiry is underway and is expected to finish before the end of the year.
