I would like to re-assure readers that the purpose of East Lothian Council’s review, covered in last week’s Courier, is to ensure that our school estate is fit for the future and delivering maximum educational benefits for children and young people.

With East Lothian being one of Scotland’s fastest growing local authority areas, it is essential that we continue to deliver a modern school estate that can accommodate the increasing population while meeting learners’ needs.

We have, of course, committed £154m in our five-year capital budget to deliver new build, expanded and modernising programmes at education facilities across the county.

Earlier this year, the old Wallyford Primary School building, which had served the community well, was closed and replaced with a fantastic new school building to meet the needs of a growing community in a vastly improved setting.

This is an example of positive improvements that can be delivered for the benefit of the school and wider community.

Work is well underway, meanwhile, on the new Letham Primary School in Haddington, with a number of expansions in the pipeline elsewhere.

This highlights that East Lothian Council is focused on ensuring we have the best quality school buildings well into the future.

Carrying out such a review and having a clear plan in place is essential if we are to access external funding from the Scottish Government to support the level of investment required.

The council will consider a full range of options in order to adopt a long-term strategic approach.

In doing so we will also consult with communities and stakeholders to gather their views on East Lothian’s future learning provision and we will bring forward details of this in due course.

Fiona Robertson,

Head of Education and Children's Services,

East Lothian Council