Highland Council has lodged plans for a new nursery school building to be built next to Bunsgoil Ghaidhlig in Inverness.
The Gaelic-medium nursery is proposed to have two nursery rooms with a capacity of 30 per room, two P1 classrooms with a capacity of 25 per room, and a dining hall, kitchen, toilets, stores, meeting room and admin room.
The new school will increase capacity at Bunsgoil Ghaidhlig Inbhir Nis, which has experienced a boom in its school roll since it opened in 2007.
It was built with a capacity of 200 pupils in mind and at that time had 100 primary and 45 nursery pupils. The school now has 232 pupils and 80 nursery pupils.
Highland Council owns the field earmarked for the nursery, and the plans show landscaping, cycle storage and waste recycling points around the new building, along with paths linking it to the existing building.
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Inverness South councillor Duncan Macpherson welcomed the plans.
He said: “My wife is a Gaelic speaker from South Uist and we have family members who teach in Gaelic medium.
“Gaelic is spoken every day in our house, so I welcome the news that more children in my ward and beyond will have the chance to enter a purpose-built nursery and P1 unit to learn in the medium of Gaelic.
“An early years building next to the current school will create a campus-style one-stop shop.”
The new building is at a very early stage in planning so as yet has no timetable or costings.
Meanwhile, councillors at yesterday’s Corporate Resources meeting were shown ‘Fàs Foghlaim’, a short film directed by Donald Ewan Mackinnon and commissioned by the council to promote the benefits of a bilingual education.
Committee chairman councillor Alister Mackinnon introduced the film in Gaelic, while fellow Gaelic speaker Caithness councillor Raymond Bremner also commended the virtues of bilingualism.
The £10,000 film is designed as a corporate resource to show parents and guardians of children who may not have considered Gaelic medium education as an option and may have concerns or may not be confident in placing their child/children in Gaelic Education.