Ferryhill School: Pupils could spend YEAR at mothballed Torry school during multi-million-pound revamp

Children at an Aberdeen school could be forced out by the builders when a planned £17 million upgrade gets under way.

Victorian-built, “not fit for purpose” Ferryhill School has been on Aberdeen City Council’s to-do list for years.

“Critical issues are negatively impacting operations, reaching a point of immediate action,” families and communities executive director Eleanor Sheppard warned.

Councillors set aside £17.1m this year to design and pay for a facelift, extension and the construction of a standalone nursery.

Ferryhill School could be moved to empty Walker Road in Torry

But Ms Sheppard has revealed the revamp will leave no room for the primary’s around 400 pupils.

Plans are now being drawn up to uproot the whole school community across the River Dee to Torry.

The council is eyeing up its ‘spare’ school at Walker Road as the solution.

It’s around a mile from Ferryhill School in Caledonian Place, or about 20 minutes’ walking or a five-minute drive.

There were tears in the playground as pupils and teachers left Walker Road School over the October holidays, moving the the new-build Greyhope School.

Ferryhill School’s move to Walker Road would ‘minimise disruption’

In a report briefing the council’s finance committee, Ms Sheppard said: “[Relocation] will ensure that the work can be progressed safely and efficiently, whilst minimising the level of disruption to learning and teaching.”

Ferryhill School would decant to the mothballed Walker Road during next year’s summer holidays.

Building work would be expected to commence “shortly thereafter”.

Staff and the Ferryhill School parent council have already been briefed on the relocation plans.

Details on the move will be fleshed out alongside the business case for the refurbishment, which could include the council bussing pupils to the stop-gap school.

What’s wrong with Ferryhill School?

City officials were tasked with drawing up the makeover as Ferryhill School stretches at the seams.

The 1877 building has 15 classrooms, two nursery rooms, a library, a general purpose room and a gym hall.

But the dinner hall is already too small for the growing roll, amid predictions of future “increased pressure” as free school meals are offered more widely.

Space for PE is also lacking, as are the current nursery facilities and access to the outdoor play areas.

What will £17.1m buy Ferryhill School?

Officials’ preferred way forward would include modern dining facilities, a double court PE hall, and an improved nursery which would have direct access to the outdoors to aid child development.

The multi-million-pound improvements would take Ferryhill School from a D grade (“not fit for purpose”) to grade A (“fully fit for purpose”), Ms Sheppard pledged.

If the local authority’s outline plan is approved next week, 2024 will be spent drawing up detailed designs.

The work, expected to take between 12 and 15 months, is anticipated to begin in summer 2025.

Councillors will also consider an £8.6m update to the 1830s-built Harlaw Academy and £1.5m work to improve St Machar Academy next week.

Read more: 

• Victorian schools left to crumble as work hit by RAAC crisis – but Ferryhill and Harlaw repairs ‘a top priority’
• ‘I loved being here’: 93-year-old joins hundreds to say emotional farewell to Walker Road primary
• Pupils overjoyed during first day at Greyhope School following tearful goodbye to Walker Road
• The final chapter: Looking back at the history of Walker Road School in Aberdeen