Parents, pupils, staff and neighbours have been given their first glimpse of what a new state of the art primary school in North Muirton could look like.
The designs were presented at a consultation event last night after Perth and Kinross Council officially submitted plans for the new school in February.
The £14 million project is due to open in 2022 and will provide a new place of learning for pupils who currently attend Perth’s North Muirton Primary and Balhousie Primary, both of which are closing.
The local authority has chosen Edinburgh architects Architype to design the school.
The new premises, to be built by construction firm Robertson, will be built in the grounds of North Muirton Primary in Uist Place.
The nursery will be demolished first and the new school built in its place.
Hoarding boards will be erected to screen off the old North Muirton Primary building, which will be demolished. The land it currently sits on will be turned into a playground.
A council spokesperson said: “The new building will be built over two storeys to maximise the amount of natural light entering the building.
“The premises will have space for 16 classes as well as two general purpose rooms for things like drama, music and cooking.”
The main point of access will be moved to Argyll Road, providing a much wider entrance for the significantly larger number of pupils.
Around 117 children currently attend Balhousie and just under 250 are at North Muirton.
The new premises, if approved, could bring together as many as 484 youngsters, making it one of Perth and Kinross’s biggest primary schools.
Construction chiefs hope the blueprints will be agreed by the beginning of the next school year and want to begin razing the nursery in early 2021.
Opposition councillors and parents had tried to save the Victorian Balhousie building.
However, the school, which is more than 110 years old, had fallen into such a state of disrepair that building a new campus in North Muirton was declared a more cost effective measure than revamping the sandstone structure.
Another consultation will be held today at Balhousie Primary School from 4pm to 8pm.
