A fresh era in education for young people in Kilbirnie is underway after the new Moorpark Primary School opened its doors.
The new facility – sitting adjacent to the former building – welcomed staff for the first time on Monday (28 October) with the pupils joining them from Wednesday (30 October) to commence a new chapter in their learning journey.
The school has 12 primary classes and a 16-place early years provision and its spacious hall, breakout areas and an all-weather pitch offer a fantastic and welcoming new learning environment.
Constructed by Clark Contracts, the building – part of North Ayrshire Council’s Capital Investment Programme – also has sustainability and the environment at its heart.
As one of the Council’s key priorities, the environmental performance of the building was a significant factor in the development of its design and selection of materials.
Some of those key features include:
- an effective natural ventilation strategy which will provide natural, fresh air throughout the year and solar pv panels provide free, renewable electricity for the school building.
- improvements to local pedestrian and cycle pathways, as well as the provision of new cycle and scooter storage facilities at the school for all pupils, staff and visitors to use.
Andrew Mcclelland, Head of Service (Education) said: “A huge thanks to all the teams and partners involved. We appreciate that building a new school is an incredibly complex process. It takes a lot of work and expertise by many people and we are lucky to have such talented teams here at the Council.
“I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Head Teacher Elaine Mann and her staff for making the transition to the new school so seamless for the pupils. We are sure they will make amazing memories there. Not only will it be a fantastic learning environment but the building will also be energy efficient and it has been developed with sustainability at its core.”
“We are thrilled to finally be here. A massive thanks goes to all the staff and the wider community for their unstinting support and patience in recent months. We very much look forward to what the future brings and we couldn’t be happier or prouder of our wonderful new school.”– Head Teacher Elaine Mann