At the full council meeting this week, councillors agreed McLaughlin & Harvey would begin work on the new home for St Mary’s RC Primary School and Burnbrae Primary on the site of the former Hopefield Primary in January 2019.

Midlothian Council’s cabinet member for education, Councillor Jim Muirhead, said: “Appointing the contractor is a real milestone in this project. It will allow us to relocate St Mary’s to a new school but also provide Burnbrae with extra capacity to accommodate growing pupil numbers coming from the Hopefield Farm housing development and other developments.”

The work will include a new grass pitch and new school building.

The new building could be open by early 2020.