Falkirk Council

The project involves the replacement of four high schools: Denny, Falkirk, Grangemouth and St Mungo's. Following the Council's previous pathfinder PPP project, this will result in its portfolio of eight high schools all being fit for delivery of education in the twentyfirst century.

It will provide the platform to allow the Council to deliver its commitment to continuous improvement in education and to value achievement in its widest sense along with attainment.

The Council is also committed to enhancing the role that the school can play in its community and, in turn, the access that the community can secure to the school. Set within the context of our Integrated Learning Community initiative, we are striving to make the school the focal point of its community in terms of community participation, lifelong learning and active citizenship. We believe that greatly improved school fabric will increase local pride and be to the benefit of all.

To achieve these educational and community outcomes, the Council is pursuing what is termed as a Non Profit Distributing Organisation (NPDO) model|.

Key features that make this model attractive to the Council are:

• formal involvement of community and education stakeholders
• surplus funds generated are retained and can be distributed for education / community purposes rather than being distributed to shareholders.

The project timetable anticipates the schools will be open in academic year 2008/2009. This reflects a build period of up to 24 months for a high school and the inherently lengthy tender and negotiation period before the consortium to build and provide subsequent appropriate services if selected.

The Council has received a Conditional Grant award of £70m towards the project from the Scottish Government. This will be paid over 30 years to assist the Council meet the annual service charge payable to the consortium providing the schools. This leaves a balancing sum, which the Council needs to find from its own resources.

More detailed information regarding the Outline Business Case (OBC) can be downloaded here|. This document was submitted to the Scottish Government by Falkirk Council in support of the Council's bid for grant support.

The Community Schools Project Team held a Design Workshop| on elements of good school design. Download a copy of the outcomes paper of that workshop Download a copy of the outcomes paper of that workshop here|.

The Council's Planning Section has produced a Planning Brief| for the school sites.

The Community Schools Project reached a Financial Close on Friday 18 May 2007. Following this a Final Business Case |was submitted to the Scottish Government.

The Council, and in particular the Project Team, are keen to obtain the views of stakeholders - such as pupils, parents and the broader community - as the project progresses. If you have any views or questions you wish to raise, please email them to schoolsreplacementproj@falkirk.gov.uk| or write to Iain Henderson, c/o Education Services, McLaren House, Marchmont Avenue, Polmont, Falkirk FK2 0NZ.

Current status

The Community Schools Project reached Financial Close on Friday 18 May 2007. 

Timescales for the delivery of the new schools have also been agreed with Grangemouth High scheduled to open in December 2008, Denny High in February 2009, St Mungo’s High in June 2009 and Falkirk High in July 2009.

  Visualisations of the new schools produced by the Falkirk Gateway consortium can be found here|.