Highland schoolkids to stay at home on first day of new term
Inverness school closed to pupils tomorrow after repairs delay
It's back to school for kids in the North tomorrow, but one Highland school is not ready for its pupils.
Repairs on Duncan Forbes Primary in Inverness have overrun, meaning the school term will begin late.
Instead doors will open to students on Thursday morning.
Highland Council's director in-charge of education is Bill Alexander. He told MFR News: "It has only become apparent that the outstanding work to the school building is going to take longer to complete than we expected and planned for.
"We therefore have made the decision not to open the school tomorrow and at this time anticipate that the school will open to pupils on the morning of Thursday 18th.
"Our sincere apologies go to all parents and pupils."
When our reporter asked why local authority officials were only aware a day before the beginning of the new term, Mr Alexander replied: "We'll need to look into why we've had such late confirmation of these delays.
"We understand that there have been weather difficulties, but we weren't aware until this morning of the detail."
Parents have been learning of the announcement on the page where some of them have been reacting angrily.
Lynsey Henderson posted: '...I'm raging! They've known for ages that it wasn't gonna be ready! If I don't work....I don't earn! They gonna pay me the days over had to take off???'
Nadia Michelle Francis-Lowe commented: 'One day's notice. That's shocking. Some parents do work and can't just chop and change days as and when liked.'
And Paula Graham added: 'My son's 1st day of school, we've been priming him for it for weeks and now we have to explain to him it's not happening, with only 19 hours notice by word of mouth!'