Alongside them is a new £16 million primary school building, designed by an award-winning team of architects, that is intended to symbolise the regeneration of Craigmillar.
This is the joint campus for the St Francis catholic and Niddrie Mill pr
imary schools that will open its doors in August.
John Quinn, general manager of Promoting and Regenerating Craigmillar (PARC), has invited The Scotsman to tour the new campus, which is at the heart of what will become the new Craigmillar.
Having worked for PARC for six years, Quinn cannot conceal his enthusiasm for a dream that is finally becoming a reality.
"We are not a PPP project. We are on time and we are on budget," he says with pride, as teams of workmen put the finishing touches to the building.
PARC was set up by City of Edinburgh Council and EDI (the property development company owned by the council) in 2001 to act as an independent body that would regenerate Craigmillar, building new homes for sale and rent and using the money raised to develop assets for the new community, such as the two schools at the heart of the project.
Designed by Glasgow architects Elder and Cannon, the campus is a flowing structure that gives each of the schools an equal and symmetrical area of classrooms.
At its heart is a shared assembly hall and gymnasium fitted with 400 pull-out seats that transform it into a theatre space. Adjoining this is a shared dining area flooded with light from a glass wall that looks out onto a paved area framed with trees. And each school has two floors of classrooms clustered around huge open areas that can be used as flexible spaces for learning.
Stephen Hoey of Elder and Cannon, says: "The two schools are almost symmetrical. We have tried to eliminate corridors and create teaching spaces that flow into one another."
On the roof of the new building is a terrace with views to the Pentland Hills and Craigmillar Castle on one side and to Arthur's Seat and the Firth of Forth on the other. Standing on the roof looking out over the stunning natural setting makes you wonder what happened to make Craigmillar synonymous with social deprivation.
During the 1950s and 1960s there were up to 25,000 people living in the area, but the population dwindled and the community went into a serious decline. At the time PARC was set up, the area was classed as the most deprived in Edinburgh, and the fourth most deprived in Scotland. As many as 30 per cent of those who lived there claimed incapacity benefit and a further six per cent were unemployed. Drink and drug problems were rife and crime was a serious problem.
There were many attempts to stem the tide until 2001, when a radical new masterplan was unveiled. The new Craigmillar, with the primary schools at its heart, will include a mixture of social and private housing – with no distinction between one sector of the community and another. Radical ideas about design have come from around Europe, including roads that are intersected with trees to slow down traffic.
With the schools almost complete, Craigmillar is on the point of transformation. Quinn says: "There are currently around 7,000 people living here, and we are hoping to double that to 15,000. The people who lived in the houses that have been demolished have a right to return here.
"They are part of this community – and the school is at the heart of the community."
As general manager, Quinn has visited community groups and tried to involve as many people as possible in the planning process – even to the extent of inviting suggestions for the new street names. Efforts have also been made to involve the pupils and headteachers of the two schools in every step of the planning process. Outside the school, a sensory garden is currently being landscaped – but the choice of plants and the final design will be left up to the staff. The architects even agreed to change the interior colour scheme after the head teachers objected to purple and white.
Construction manager Bill Armstrong says: "When a group of children from the two schools came to visit, the first thing they said when they walked through the door was 'wow'. One of the aims at the beginning of this project was to create a building which had the wow factor – so for me that was a moment when I thought, we've done it.
"One of the kids even said: 'How many sleeps before we move in?"
Sadie Miller, head teacher of Niddrie Mill, says: "We have been talking to children about the change for a year, and pupils and teachers from both schools have come together to work on how we will share the space."
Margaret Duff, head teacher of St Francis, says: "It has been a long time coming but now it is almost a reality it is so exciting. It is a stunning building and it is at the heart of the community, which is what we always wanted."
Sadly, there has already been some vandalism of the new site – but all those working on the project are hopeful that this is merely a temporary setback.
Quinn says: "I think people are buying into what we are trying to do and our hope is that if you create a building of quality then people will respect it."
Marilyne MacLaren, convener of education, children and families for City of Edinburgh Council, says there is a great sense of optimism about the new schools.
"The fact that this project has been managed by PARC rather than being a PPP project means we have not been so constrained and there has been a great desire for quality," she says. "PARC hasn't cut any corners – it is very keen on making something that is going to be seen as a design icon.
"Craigmillar has been bugged by problems for so long but things are starting to change. Both Niddrie Mill and St Francis have already made fantastic improvements in their reading, writing and arithmetic. So the children who are moving into the new schools are already achieving."
The full article contains 1085 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
