First Minister Alex Salmond today formally opened the first school jointly funded through the £1.25 billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme.

Work began on the new Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School, near Livingston, in September 2010 and children had their first lessons in the state-of-the-art classrooms last week.

The new £5.2 million school was jointly funded by the Schools for the Future programme and West Lothian Council.

The single-stream community primary school for up to 231 school pupils comprises eight classrooms, an assembly hall and dining area, a nursery with 30 morning and 30 afternoon places, a community library, sports area, playground and changing facilities.

During an opening ceremony at the school, the First Minister said: "The state-of-the-art learning environment created here at Pumpherston and Uphall Station Community Primary School is testament to the Scottish Government's continuing commitment to halving the number of pupils in poor quality school buildings.

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"Recent figures reveal that 83 per cent of Scottish school children are now being taught in good quality buildings - a marked improvement from the figure of 62 per cent in 2007. And this third phase of the 'Scotland’s Schools for the Future' programme will widen access to quality school facilities further still.

"Every child in Scotland deserves a classroom fit to learn in and we will help local authorities to achieve this aim."

Leader of West Lothian Council, Peter Johnston said: "West Lothian Council made this significant investment to ensure that the local communities had a school and facilities that they could be proud of. We are delighted to be the first council to benefit from support from the Schools for the Future programme. Today not only marks an important day for the school community, but also highlights the value of successful partnerships between local and national government.

"We have worked closely with the Scottish Futures Trust to plan and build a school that meets and exceeds the expectations of local people. The new school is an impressive addition to our existing school estate. It has been designed to fully support the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence and provides a modern and inspirational learning environment for pupils."

(GK)