Also in attendance were representatives of hub East Central Scotland who are leading the project and builders Robertson Construction Central.

While St Ninians Primary School’s existing Victorian section will be retained and refurbished to provide a dedicated home for the nursery class, primary school pupils and staff will be accommodated in a new two-storey building.

Here a wide, flexible “school street” will allow break out from classrooms for small group learning while more flexible dining, social and PE spaces will provide better facilities for larger whole school events including assemblies and school shows.

The £8.2 million development cost is being funded jointly by Stirling Council and the national Scottish Schools for the Future programme.

It’s just the latest in a round of recent projects Stirling Council has spearheaded to improve the school estate.

In June work began on a whole new St Margaret’s Primary School and nursery for Cowie while over the summer break the council’s Infrastructure Development Team moved in to carry out more than £500,000 of improvement works across many more schools and nurseries.

Projects included heating replacement at Gargunnock Primary School; installation of energy-efficient lighting and a new fire alarm system at Strathblane Primary School; replacement of radiators at Dunblane Primary School and provision of extra teaching spaces for pupils attending the autism provision at Riverside Primary School.

Robertson Construction Central managing director, David Cairns, added: “We’ve spent several weeks clearing and preparing the site and it’s great now to be able to start work on delivering this new school for the community who we’ll be working closely with throughout the build.

“We’re looking forward to creating a development that will provide a fantastic educational experience for pupils.”

Chief executive of hub East Central Scotland, Gary Bushnell, said: “We have worked closely with Stirling Council to bring the project to this milestone and look forward to the school providing excellent facilities for pupils and staff.”

The new build is scheduled to be completed next autumn.