New Secondary School Provision for Hazlehead/Countesswells/Kingswells - Feasibility Study September 2023

Overview

The Council is currently carrying out a feasibility study, to identify potential options for new secondary school provision to serve the communities of Hazlehead, Countesswells and Kingswells, in order to meet future school capacity requirements for these communities and to provide high quality learning environments to support the needs of all pupils, staff and the wider communities. In March 2016 a decision was taken by Council to include Kingswells within the catchment area of the new secondary school for Countesswells with effect from the time of opening, therefore any future new provision for Hazlehead and Countesswells would include Kingswells. (Kingswells is currently zoned to Bucksburn Academy)

The key objectives of the study are to identify what options are available to the Council:

• To provide new school provision for the Hazlehead, Countesswells and Kingswells communities
• The new school provision reflects the principles of ACCs Community Campus model which includes:
  • Providing a modern state of the art learning environment which is efficient and affordable
  • Providing sufficient capacity to meet future needs of these communities
  • Reducing carbon emissions and achieving the Councils net-zero ambitions

Initial findings from the survey work to date is indicating that the most viable option is to develop the new campus on the existing Hazlehead site, whilst allowing the current Hazlehead Academy to operate during the construction phase. 

Appendix 1 details the initial work to date to develop the new school campus on the existing Hazlehead site.

To help inform the outcomes of the feasibility study, we are inviting comments and feedback from pupils, parents, staff, community groups and all other stakeholders to understand your views regarding this proposal in advance of any statutory consultation.  This valuable feedback will be used to help inform the outcomes of the feasibility study and potential next steps. 

Why your views matter

The findings of the feasibility study, along with summaries of the feedback received from stakeholders, will be included within an Outline Business Case, which will be presented to the Education and Children’s Services Committee in November 2023. The Committee will then make a decision on whether to accept the recommended option and on the next steps.  Any proposal to create new secondary school provision for the three communities will require a formal public consultation, before the Council could decide whether to implement such a proposal*

 *All fully costed business cases for capital school projects will be subject to final budget approval from Elected Members before any works can proceed.

What happens next

A report, summarising the submissions received and the Council's response to those submissions, will be presented to a future meeting of the Education and Children's Services Committee in November 2023.