By Carla Buscema

OFFICIAL contracts have just been signed to build a brand new Queen Margaret secondary school, which is expected to open in October 2019 in South Ayrshire.

The £25 million project is going to give spaces to 800 students and it is going to provide modern classrooms, interactive ICT, a large games hall, two gyms, two all-weather pitches, and hard games courts.

Councillor Peter Henderson, Portfolio Holder for Resources and Performance, at South Ayrshire Council, said: “We’re committed to providing young people with the best possible start in life, and delivering a first-class education goes a long way to helping achieve that.

“By investing in this significant new building we’re creating a base to transform the way young people are taught, with the replacement school a more flexible space in which to deliver lessons.”

The new Academy is also going to benefit students and local people as the building would be open to the community as well.

Brian Mcginley, east Ayrshire councillor, added: “QMA is a wonderful investment in the school infrastructure in Ayr for pupils across south Ayrshire as part of a rolling capital programme to upgrade our estate.

This new school will help pupils to learn easier, provide modern teaching spaces to suit new ways of learning and will be a huge asset for the local community outside school  hours.”

Queen Margaret Academy is a Roman Catholic secondary school and it was open back in 1856. The school was built on the grounds of what today is St Margaret’s Church Hall in Elba Street. The school moved in 1976 in Dalmellington Road, which it now occupies and where the new Academy is going to be built.