Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Bertha Park pupils welcomed into newly launched £32.5m school

Headteacher Stuart Clyde opened the doors to 1st and 2nd year pupils at the brand new high school in Perth today.
Headteacher Stuart Clyde opened the doors to 1st and 2nd year pupils at the brand new high school in Perth today.

Pupils were piped into Bertha Park High School on Wednesday morning as the £32.5m brand new school was officially opened.

First and second year classes were piped in by one of the older pupils as the first non-replacement new secondary school in Scotland for more than two decades opened its doors.

Head teacher Stuart Clyde, who spent the last five years leading the Community School of Auchterarder, said taking the helm at the new school is like being handed a clean slate.

He said: “We’ve had a wonderful start. The pupils showed up in full school uniform looking fabulous.

“Everything went to plan, all the buses arrived on time and the pupils were piped into the amphitheatre by one of the second years.

“That really set the scene before we had an assembly about our values and expectations.”

The 1,100 capacity school is bringing in several ideas which have not been applied before in other parts of Perthshire, including 80 minute classes, no school bells and no phones, but Apple iPads for every child.

Pupils who spent their first year at Perth Grammar made their way into the school at 9am, along with pupils who spent last year in primary seven at Auchtergaven, Dunbarney, Forgandenny, Logiealmond, Methven, Pitcairn and Ruthvenfield primary schools.

With only 16 teachers, one principal for each department, the rest of the school will fill up with a new year-group each year.

The school, built by Robertson Construction, has also teamed up with US firm Microsoft to become a centre of excellence for digital technology.

The new premises and new ethos has come as a surprise to some pupils, according to Mr Clyde.

“I think some of the pupils expected things to be the same as their previous schools and got a bit of a shock,” he said.

“This is a unique opportunity to reset the clock. It lets us challenge what people think school should be.

“Our staff are from across Perth and Kinross and some from outwith the local authority too. We had a phenomenal number of applications from all ages.

“We took a long time to see other new build schools across Scotland and their best practices.

“We’ve been able to take bits and pieces from each and learn from their mistakes. While there is very little which is brand new, we’re bringing it all together which hasn’t been done before.”