The Gordonstoun Board of Governors has just unveiled a major development programme which will secure Gordonstoun's future as one of the world's leading international boarding schools. In a letter to parents, former students and all other members of the Gordonstoun community the Principal, Simon Reid, outlined the School's exciting plans which, over the next five years, will encompass new buildings and a refurbishment of some existing facilities.
Initially work will commence on the final phase of the George Welsh Sports Centre and will be complete by December 2012. Students will be able to make use of these new facilities, which will include classrooms, a fully equipped fitness suite and changing facilities for students and visiting teams, in January 2013.
A series of further major and significant developments were announced which will aim to:
• enhance Gordonstoun's unique educational aims, its motto and curriculum;
• underpin students' happy and settled daily life matched by the expectations of modern boarding standards;
• develop the academic ambitions of all students and teachers.
At the heart of these plans is the creation of an academic and spiritual centre in the School's iconic Round Square building which will be accessible to all students. It will house the School's unique International and Spiritual Citizenship Department and promote increased academic excellence and ethos by bringing together the core academic departments, library and study areas and a new permanent Archive exhibition area.
The plans also include a purpose-built Drama and Dance Department adjoining the Ogstoun Theatre and the closure of the existing facility in the Ogstoun complex. The new facilities will include a bespoke dance studio and will house all drama and dance functions under one roof. There will be a subsequent renovation and extension of the Ogstoun complex into a new boys' boarding house which will house the boys from Round Square who will move out of their existing premises permanently to enable work to commence on the study areas of the Round Square building.
The first purpose-built boarding house on the Gordonstoun campus, Cumming House, will also undergo a major transformation and extension. The refurbishment will be sympathetic to the original character and design of the building which was originally built out of Canadian Cedar and used to assemble large quantities of army troops in 1940 when the School was evacuated to Wales.
The final part of the development programme will see the building of a brand new boarding house on the school campus to replace Duffus House which will close in 2015.
Principal Simon Reid said:
"These developments will enrich students' experience of what it means to be educated at Gordonstoun. They will strengthen the props for living and growing at school and ensure that we continue to turn curricular vision into reality for our students.
The benefits of shifting the school's facilities into a new era are massive and we believe that in these plans are the additional building blocks for ensuring the future health and stimulation of this school's relatively brief, but educationally vital, history. This opportunity for development must be taken firmly."