Brand new primary school in Perth given the go-ahead

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A council committee has given the green light to a brand new primary school in Perth. Perth and Kinross Council's Learning and Families Committee this week approved the establishment of a new primary school at Bertha Park.

Pending planning approval, the new school will be built on the site just west of Bertha Park High School and open to pupils in August 2026.The committee was recommended by officers to approve the new school and catchment area and changes to catchment areas of nearby schools when it met on Wednesday, November 2.The committee also rubber-stamped changes to the catchment areas of nearby Ruthvenfield Primary School, Pitcairn Primary School, Luncarty Primary School and Tulloch Primary School.

There is a 30-year masterplan for housebuilding on the outskirts of Perth at Almond Valley, Bertha Park and Perth West. Over the next 10 years 2512 houses are expected to be built generating roughly 678 primary school pupils.

The new primary would have capacity for 434 pupils with 14 classrooms.Bertha Park High School opened to pupils in August 2019.At Wednesday's meeting Independent councillor Colin Stewart asked why a recommendation had not orginally been made to "build an all-through school and attach a primary school to Bertha Park given there would obviously have been a projected need for one".Service manager Brian Reid said: " I know there has been very much a masterplan about Bertha Park was taken forward, how the housebuilding and numbers would stack up."He said there was "obviously a big timing difference" between the delivery of both schools and there were "significant challenges there" and "significance about government funding and how that was brought forward for the secondary school".He added: "I think