Surrounded by pupils, staff, councillors and project contractors, Fife Council leader David Ross and education cabinet secretary Jenny Gilruth cut the first sod together, to mark the beginning of the building phase of the £88 million project.

Cllr Ross said: “The ceremony is a significant step on the way to having a new high school for South West Fife, to replace the current Inverkeithing High School and I’m pleased that we had some of the young people who will benefit from this new school with us.

“This school will be the latest in the council’s programme to renew all its secondary schools and marks a total capital investment of £88m from the council with revenue funding support from the Scottish Government.

“We’ll be working with our trusted partners, hub East Central Scotland, contractors BAM and the Scottish Futures Trust to deliver a brand new state-of-the-art high school for the young people of South West Fife.

“It demonstrates the council’s continued commitment to provide the best learning environment and facilities we can for Fife’s young people and this new school is an exciting opportunity which will benefit learners and community users now and into the future.

The new school, which will replace the old Inverkeithing High School, will be the next new building to join a long list of schools built as part of the Building Fife’s Future programme, which includes the Dunfermline Learning Campus which will open in August this year.

Jenny Gilruth, cabinet secretary for education and skills, said: “The South West Fife High School project is another clear example of the Scottish Government working together with local authorities to provide modern, state-of-the-art learning environments.

“The new school will be of significant benefit to pupils as they progress through their school career as well as providing a range of facilities for the whole community to use.

“Since 2007, the number of schools in ‘good’ or ‘satisfactory’ conditions has increased from 61% to over 90% thanks to direct investment from the Scottish Government. In partnership with local authorities, we will continue to build on this progress even further through the £2 billion Learning Estate Investment Programme, with over £39.5m expected to come to this project alone.”

The £88m school, being built on the former Rosyth Fleet Grounds, will have capacity to accommodate around 1800 pupils, over three floors, with an open see and be seen approach throughout the school, similar to our other new schools.

CEO of hub East Central Scotland, Gary Bushnell, described how the building process will follow the Passivhaus principles of low energy use: “Designing and building the school to Passivahus principles ensures that learners will enjoy an environment that is full of natural light and with exceptional comfort standards.

“The facility will benefit from comfortable even temperatures and a constant supply of fresh air, while energy consumption is optimised to reduce carbon and running costs. This makes a significant contribution to meeting the council’s net zero carbon ambition.”

The new school, which is programmed to open in 2026, will bring many benefits to pupils, staff and the wider community including:

• fully accessible and flexible indoor and outdoor spaces for learning, supporting interdisciplinary learning and linking different subject areas together
• improved support for pupils who need additional support day-to-day
• an assembly hall which can accommodate 350 pupils with retractable, tiered seating that can be moved away to allow the space to be used for a variety of purposes
• enhanced digital capacity, modern IT and Wi-Fi access which will increase the opportunities for digital learning both for individual learners and community groups
• a low energy building built to Passivhaus principles which will use around 75% less energy than standard practice for a UK newbuild
• a wide and varied community learning programme in modern, purpose-built facilities in evenings and at weekends
• a mixture of all-weather pitches and grass pitches as well as multi-use games facilities that will be available for community use.