Contractors working on the new £28.9m Eastwood High School have handed over the keys to East Renfrewshire Council.

The school has been built under the Government-funded 'Schools for the Future' Programme, run by the Scottish Futures Trust.

The programme is a £64.3m joint project between East Renfrewshire and Midlothian Councils that has seen the construction of replacement Eastwood and Lasswade High Schools.

Both authorities have worked together, even using the same design team for the build, and the suppliers for the construction.

The doors to the new facility are due to open in August, two years after development work started.

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In addition to a new building, the project includes separate sports facilities, such as an all-weather pitch with athletics track, games halls, dance studio and a swimming pool.

Eastwood High Sports Centre will open to the whole community outside of school hours from 1 July.

Once the old school building is demolished, another all-weather pitch will be created.

This makes up part of the last stage of the works and will be carried out between July and December 2013.

Convener for Education and Equalities, Councillor Elaine Green, said: "The new Eastwood High School is a tremendous investment in our area. Our schools are widely and rightly regarded as being the best in the country.

"The combined project with Midlothian Council and the Scottish Futures Trust shows what public services can do when working closely together to deliver projects of real value to local communities."

East Renfrewshire Council will adopt the same Scottish Futures Trust joint model for the building of the new Barrhead High School, this time working with West Dunbartonshire Council.

Work is due to start on Barrhead High in 2014.

(JP/CD)