New Beatlie school taking shape
Excellent progress is being made on delivering a superb new dedicated school for West Lothian children with severe, complex and medical support needs
Work on the fantastic new £15 million Beatlie School Campus in Craigshill, Livingston, is ongoing, with the majority of external works complete and most internal works now well underway.
Beatlie School provides specialist education for pupils aged three to eighteen with severe and complex support and profound medical needs.
The new purpose-built facility, in its new location at Craigswood in Livingston, will be a centre of excellence for children and young people, providing cutting-edge educational facilities when it opens later this year.
Beatlie headteacher Carol Robbie said: "It's great to see our fabulous new Beatlie School Campus progressing so well.
"Everyone in the Beatlie community is looking forward to moving into the finished school, which will have a real positive impact on the level of education and care we can provide our children and young people."
The project is part of a huge investment in schools for pupils with additional support needs, which also includes a new £7.5 million Cedarbank School in and a £5.8 million redevelopment of Pinewood School in Blackburn which were completed recently.
Executive councillor for education Andrew McGuire added: "I'm delighted that the work to deliver the new Beatlie School Campus is progressing on track.
"West Lothian has one of the best school estates in Scotland and we invested heavily to ensure our pupils have the best possible platform for learning, especially those for our pupils with additional support needs."
The £15m project is being delivered for West Lothian Council by its development partner Hub South East, with Morrison Construction appointed as the Tier 1 contractor - the same team that successfully delivered the award-winning West Calder High School, Calderwood Primary School and the multi-school Winchburgh Campus.
Eileen Mackin, Hub South East's Project Director said: "It's exciting to see the progress being made on site at Beatlie - it's really taking shape and I'm delighted that we're on schedule to ensure that pupils and staff can start using their new learning space after its handover in August.
"The new state of the art facility has been designed to be intuitive and meet the complex needs of the pupils, as well as being a joyful and stimulating environment which will allow the young people of Beatlie to continue to thrive. Seeing these plans become reality is fantastic and I look forward to following the building's progress to completion."
Allan Cunningham, Operations Director for Morrison Construction Building Central, said: "As we count down to the opening of Beatlie School later this year, we are pleased to report that construction is progressing well and pupils are on track to enjoy the start of the new school year in August."
Along with the core education facilities for nursery, primary and secondary pupils, plans for the new school, designed by architects Norr, also include a hydrotherapy pool, two general purpose rooms, a life skills area, multi-purpose hall and sensory garden.
The new school will also include the most up-to-date assistive technology products which are designed to help facilitate greater independence for those with mobility issues to explore their surroundings by increasing, maintaining or improving their functional capabilities.
In addition to the education facilities, the new school will have enhanced energy reduction measures and provide parent support facilities, including accommodation for partner agencies and support services including the NHS Child Development Centre (CDC), which currently support pupils throughout West Lothian. NHS Lothian is allocating around £1.5 million to the project cover the cost of the new CDC facility.
The new Beatlie School campus is being developed with council investment and funding the Learning Estate Investment Programme, a joint initiative between Scottish and Local Government.
