The first images of a new £13million primary school in Aberdeenshire have been revealed.
Parents in Portlethen have been calling for a third primary school for years to cope with the influx of families moving into the area.
Last year Aberdeenshire Council lodged the proposals for Hillside School, which will have capacity for 350 children.
The development will ease pressure on the town’s other two primary schools, with Portlethen Primary already well over-capacity.
Now impressive images of the 13-classroom school have been released, showing how it will sit on the five-acre site near Causey Mount road.
The plans include two grass football pitches and another all-weather, floodlit pitch, a nursery, nature garden and car park with 75 spaces.
Also included in the proposals are two GP rooms, a gymnasium with retractable seating and an energy facility.
Portlethen councillor, Alistair Bews, said he was looking forward to the school opening next year, and welcomed the progress.
He said: “I am delighted with the plans, I think myself and some of the local community groups are. The community council were just a little concerns that there may be some delays.”
An Aberdeenshire Council report on the plans said the site would offer “flexible internal learning environments” which would provide facilities for “active, investigative and exploratory learning”.
It added the new school would be “an accessible learning environment for all pupils with additional support needs”.
Plans for a third school were shelved in 2010, but the urgent need for it was highlighted two years later after council officers revised the capacity of the town’s two primary schools, Fishermoss and Portlethen as part of a wider review.
They realised the latter was already over-capacity – with the roll expected to rise by more than 300 by 2019.