Pupils have welcomed Alex Neil from the Scottish Government to the site of their new joint campus school in Haddington.

Cabinet Secretary Alex Neil from the Scottish Government dropped in at the Haddington Joint Campus building site on Tuesday 8 November to see how work was progressing on the new school and received a warm welcome from pupils who will move into it next year.

Mr Neil, Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, was welcomed by Provost Sheena Richardson and pupils from St Mary’s RC Primary and Haddington Infant Schools, who will share the school at Tynebank Road when it is completed in October 2012. Pupils showed Mr Neil their ideas for the new playground which included giant pencils and a hill fort! The older pupils demonstrated their grasp of civil engineering when they asked the Council's architect George Hay technical questions about the construction of the new building.

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The option of a joint campus was the popular choice following an option appraisal and wide consultations among teachers, parents and the wider community in Haddington.

Provost Richardson said: "The sod has been broken on the site and the basic infrastructure work is well underway and on schedule.

"The choice of a joint campus is an excellent one as both schools were in outdated and unsatisfactory accommodation. The new school will provide educational facilities that will be second to none and will follow the superb new Dunbar and Sanderson’s Wynd primary schools and the award-winning Windygoul Primary.

"The Council received 50% of the school’s building costs - £4.7 million - from the Scottish Government through its schools investment programme. Morrison Construction is the main contractor for the joint campus school."

Mr Neil said: "It is incredibly exciting for me to see the work at Haddington Joint Campus get underway and to welcome to the site some of the children who will attend the school when it is ready. This is why infrastructure is so important to the Scottish Government – investing in infrastructure is investing in the future, as well as the present."

The brief for the new school was prepared by the Council’s Department of Education and Children’s Services. The key objective of the project is to provide a non-denominational infant school (primary classes 1 to 3) and a Roman Catholic primary school (primary classes 1 to 7) both with nursery facilities. The school rolls will be around 325 pupils at Haddington Infant School and 125 at St. Mary’s Primary School.

(GK)