New school open - at last.

We walked up past the new school which opened this week. It’s impressive. Madras College was previously a split site establishment, at two locations in town. That never worked well. Now the school population is altogether; the opening is great news for pupils and staff and the wider community. The single site campus on the outskirts of the town has state of the art facilities and a digital learning infrastructure. It’s taken too long to reach this week; the story started back in the 1990s, there was controversy over site location and design, the Court of Session quashed the approved Planning Application… and much more. The school has links to the University; the new school site was previously part of its estate, and is bounded by it (we walked one of the new core paths!). Part of the deal means the University has acquired some prime real estate in the town centre; the old College building will become a new school for Social Science etc. https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/education/schools/2282443/new-madras-college/

Our older son climbed Ben Lomond this morning. He got in touch from the summit to advise there was nobody higher than him to the South in Scotland at that point. Quite a thought! The teachers in the family finished their first week of the new Session.

The SNP and Scottish Greens outlined a proposed power-sharing arrangement this afternoon. It’s not a full coalition. The Greens could assume two Ministerial roles in the Scottish Government.