BAM Construction start work on £85m high school in Rosyth

Contractors BAM Construction officially notified Fife Council that they are on site and the development is now underway at the Fleet Grounds.

They are the firm responsible for building the new St Columba's and Woodmill high schools at Dunfermline Learning Campus and are now preparing the 12 hectares of land off Admiralty Road where the new school will sit. 

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It has yet to be named and will replace the crumbling Inverkeithing High when it opens in August 2026.

Planning approval was granted in March.

The new school is being built to accommodate 1,735 pupils and up to 160 staff but the council admitted that, for the first two years, the school roll is expected to be higher than the capacity due to a "peak in pupil numbers".

'Community facilities' will be used for teaching spaces during this time.

Over the summer the council will ask pupils, staff, parents and the wider community what the new school should be called.

One councillor said there was a risk in leaving it entirely up to the public, pointing out that they could end up with 'Schooly McSchoolface'.

This is where the new school will be built, 12 hectares of land just off the A985 Admiralty Road in Rosyth. (Image: Fife Council)

He was told the final decision will be taken by local councillors.

The decision to replace Inverkeithing High - it's rated as the worst of Fife's 18 high schools for accessibility - was taken in November 2020.

Some children who are in the catchment area but have limited mobility do not attend the school and go elsewhere as they cannot access all areas.

Other parts of the buildings are not used due to asbestos while maintenance costs are thought to be as high as £25m.

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A grade B listed building, Inverkeithing High was built in 1973 and is made up of seven blocks and the community-use wing with swimming pool.

The last survey said there are no lifts, the toilets are in poor condition, there are leaking windows, doors and windows are "difficult to open", classrooms in the community area are "small, dark and lack ventilation", drainage is poor at the playing fields, the CCTV needs upgrading and there are not enough parking spaces.

READ MORE: Locals have 'no faith' that Fife Council will build sports hub in Inverkeithing

There is also no natural light in parts of the building, the central heating needs replaced, there are not enough power points, poor storage, the music department is too small for the number of pupils, the stage and dining hall aren't accessible to all, there's not enough social spaces for pupils during bad weather and the staffroom isn't big enough.

Repairs and maintenance in the last five years alone cost £800,000.

The 'crumbling' Inverkeithing High was built in 1973 and is now the worst secondary school in Fife for accessibility, while some parts are closed due to asbestos. (Image: Newsquest)

In contrast, the new state-of-the-art high school will sit in 12 hectares of land off the A985 Admiralty Road.

It will have fully accessible and flexible indoor and outdoor spaces for learning, an assembly hall which can accommodate 350 pupils with retractable, tiered seating and a mixture of grass and all-weather pitches, as well as multi-use games facilities, that will be available for community use.

It will have enhanced digital capacity, modern IT and Wi-fi access, better support for pupils who need additional support and a varied community learning programme in evenings and weekends.

Within the school grounds there will be a play area with seating areas, outdoor table tennis and a basketball court, and a community garden with growing areas and a greenhouse.

Plans also include a garden with a sensory area, seating, picnic benches, pergola, trike track, informal games area and storage shed.

However it won't have a swimming pool.

While Inverkeithing High will close in two years time, there's a concerted campaign - spearheaded by local councillor David Barratt - to keep the Wing and swimming pool open and invest in a new sports hub for the town.

The council said that doing so, or building a new one elsewhere, would cost £20m and a report on six options will be brought back to the council later this year.