Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Plea for John Swinney to take action on Tain Royal Academy

John Swinney
John Swinney

Education Secretary John Swinney has been urged to visit Tain Royal Academy to see for himself the leaks, substandard heating, “inadequate” canteen and poorly drained playing fields.

The school’s state of disrepair has been already been highlighted by pupils in an online video.

Highlands and Islands Tory MSP Edward Mountain visited the school at the end of last week after pupils invited to him tour the buildings and pitches.

He admitted he was “shocked” by the problems outlined in the video and revealed he has now written to Mr Swinney calling on him to see the problems first hand.

“As I saw on my visit, Tain Royal Academy has big problems with water leakages and buckets are still scattered around library to catch water,” Mr Mountain said.

“I learnt that their music room is virtually uninhabitable in winter months because it is so cold and the school canteen is woefully inadequate for the 400 pupils. To add insult to injury, sports day has been cancelled because the field is too wet and has insufficient drainage.”


Local and Proud: Follow our new Facebook page dedicated to the Highlands and Islands


Mr Mountain said the building was “not fit for purpose” and more Scottish Government cash was needed to refurbish the school as well as others in the Highlands.

He added: “We must not forget that Tain Royal Academy was due to be replaced but a lack of funding has meant the Highland Council were left with no choice but to delay the project. “

A 2014 Education Scotland report recognised the proposal for a new campus for the schools in Tain would offer “considerable educational benefits”. But that project was stalled in 2017 over concerns about the site.

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “Funding had been allocated by the Scottish Government to build a new school at Tain but was re-directed at the request of Highland council following delays in the process.”

The spokesman added that councils were directly responsible for school buildings and Highland had been  awarded over £63million as part of its £1.8billion Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme.

Highland Council has begun a consultation looking at a new campus and is discussing priorities with the government.

John Finlayson, chairman of the council’s learning committee, said: “We are spending as much as we possibly can on our schools. The capital programme approved in March 2018, commits £213m to school investment over five years. Highland does however have a significant number of schools, and a range of matters to be addressed in relation to condition, suitability and capacity improvements.”