Perth residents get a first look inside Scotland’s newest school

Scotland’s first new school in a generation opened its doors to the public for an access-all-areas tour as part of the annual Doors Open Days festival.

Robertson employees involved in the construction of the £32.5m school at Bertha Park in Perth hosted 200 visitors over the course of the day.

Led by hub East Central Scotland on behalf of Perth & Kinross Council with Robertson serving as main contractor, construction work began in November 2017 with the project due for completion next summer ahead of the 2019/20 school term.

Kevin Dickson, managing director for Robertson Tayside, said: "Initiatives such as Doors Open Day are a fantastic way of engaging with local people, while providing closer visibility of the developing construction and architecture.

"The new school at Bertha Park is especially significant given its unique status as an entirely new school and not a replacement of an existing one, so it's important to Robertson to allow as many people as possible to discover more about the project and all the aspects involved in bringing it together.

"We had a great turnout with future pupils, parents and teachers all keen to catch a glimpse of features including the sports hall, gym, full size grass and synthetic football pitches and the attached multi-use games area."

Dr Gavin Lindsay, Doors Open Days Coordinator for Perth & Kinross, said: "It's not every day that you get the opportunity to step foot on an active construction site and rarer still to see the assembly of a new school up close.

"We were delighted to work with Robertson to bring 'behind the scenes' access to one of Perth's newest public buildings and allow the people of Perth and Kinross the chance to appreciate the architecture of education as it is being realised.

"Doors Open Days is a great festival for discovering local architectural wonders and we hope that visitors to Bertha Park High School and the other 54 venues that took part across the region this year had a great time getting into the buildings."

Stuart Clyde, Head Teacher of Bertha Park High School, said: "It was wonderful to see so many people from the community take an interest in our new school and everyone seemed incredibly impressed by the progress made in such a short time. We had some really interesting questions during the tours, and I learned something new each time I went round.

"All of the Robertson staff were brilliantly helpful, wonderful hosts and tour guides – I can't thank them enough. Doors Open Day was a fabulous way to really engage parents, pupils and the wider community, bringing the entire project to life."