Inverness super school plan: LibDems want Highland Council to consider new facility to ramp-up learning and attainment that is accessible online to all pupils

Highland Council will be presented with a plan from the Liberal Democrats to create a “game-changing” super school in Inverness to provide pupils aged 16-18 with advanced learning - and boost attainment.

The proposal will form part of the response to Highland Council’s £818 million budget that is due to be debated on Thursday amid concerns that flagging exam results is limiting opportunities for higher education.

Without putting a price tag on it - such a development is likely to be a multimillion-pound investment - some opposition councillors just want a commitment at this stage to investigating the possibility of it.

The Highlands was once known as having among the highest proportions of students at university but we reported this week how the region now sends eight per cent less than the national average to higher or further education.

So the opportunities offered by the idea, according to the Liberal Democrat group leader at the council Alasdair Christie, include closing the attainment gap and aiding the burden of hiring for subjects that are hard to recruit in.

The budget already contains some proposals to meet the demands of national policy by freeing under-pressure teachers from too much time in classrooms as well as more investment in additional support needs.

But Councillor Christie was critical of what he called “the total lack of ambition and vision associated with the final phase of secondary education” as he argued a new institution in the style of a sixth form college could be a “game-changer”.

‘We feel much more can be done’

Cllr Christie said: “One of the things the Lib Dems are particularly concerned about is the total lack of ambition and vision associated with the final phase of secondary education, we feel much more can be done.

“A proposal that we will be bringing forward to the council meeting is that we investigate thoroughly and comprehensively the possibility of establishing a physical building, combining it with the digital academy and virtual learning centre and provide a sixth form college based in Inverness.

“That would service not only Inverness pupils physically but also be able to attract pupils that may also want to travel in person from close proximities like Black Isle, Dingwall, Badenoch and Strathspey and also Fort Augustus.

“But it would also be able to be accessed with superior quality online connections anywhere in the Highlands so that all students in their final phase of secondary education would be able to access it if they wish.

“The benefits of doing this is that it would be the best preparation that students could have before moving on to further, higher or university education, it would provide a critical mass of students that would be able to take the harder-to-recruit teacher subjects - like for advanced language teaching.

“And because it would be able to be transmitted across the Highlands online it would create better learning opportunities for children throughout the Highlands so we see this as a game-changer for secondary education.”

He added: “It would put the Highlands at the forefront of looking at innovation and teaching in a different way and more importantly we believe that it would close the educational attainment gap that Highland has compared to the rest of Scotland.”

Highland Council will meet on Thursday to determine its annual budget.

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