New primary school for Tillydrone approved

Aberdeen City Council’s given the green light for the construction of a new three stream non-denominational school.

The new school, which will be built on the site of the former St Machar School, is expected to be operational by 2020 and will see the relocation of Riverbank School to the new site.

The Education and Services Committee has also approved that a study of how best to deal with capacity issues at nearby St Peter’s School – that’ll be presented to the next committee meeting.

The committee also instructed the Director of Education and Children’s Services to submit an option appraisal report before the end of 2017 to consider the future uses of the existing Riverbank School site taking into account the future needs of the community.

The moves follow an extended period of public consultation in November and December to consider options for local primary school provision.

Angela Taylor, Convener of the Education and Children’s Services Committee at Aberdeen City Council said: “It’s fantastic news that we can now move ahead in building our new school in Tillydrone that will provide expanded and sustainable provision of primary school education in the area.

“In building the new facility we now have the potential to create 200 new nursery school places and so meet the expanded early year’s learning and childcare services target required of every Scottish local authority by 2020.”

Existing primary schools in the area are operating at near full capacity and with new housing being built in the area, the school age population is expected to grow still further.