Cairneyhill pupils will be attending Tulliallan and Crossford primary schools from Friday as the fire-hit building is "not structurally stable" and cannot be used.  

A blaze ripped through the school last Friday lunchtime and Fife Council said the rear of the building will have to be rebuilt with no classes in Cairneyhill until April at the earliest.   

In a letter sent to parents and carers today, Fife Council said: "Due to the extent of the damage to the building, we will unfortunately not be able to reoccupy the site for a number of months. 

"Therefore, we have had to identify alterative accommodation for the children with the priority being to keep as many pupils together and to preserve the school community."

From Friday (December 15), P1-P5 pupils will be accommodated within Tulliallan Primary School in Kincardine and three classes made up of P6-P7 will be taking their classes at Tulliallan Community Centre, just a short walk from the school. 

ASC school children will also be going to Tulliallan and their existing transport arrangements will remain in place. 

However, nursery children will be going to Crossford Primary. 

Parents are to be notified about timings of transport by Thursday, once arrangements have been finalised. 

Fife Council are also currently investigating bringing in hutted accommodation. 

Headteacher Fiona Hall said: “I can’t thank the staff, pupils and the wider community more for the way they have come together following the fire.

“We have had so much support from a huge variety of sources both within and outwith the council.

“I personally want to thank the staff, children and parents of Tulliallan for sharing their school with us for the time being. It is vital that we get all our children together as soon as we can so that we can talk about what has happened and start to get back to normal.

”I also want to publicly take this opportunity to thank my amazing staff team for their care, calmness, support and professionalism and my amazing children who I always say are the best and they continue to prove this even in such awful circumstances.”

Shelagh McLean, Head of Service, said: “I want to thank again all the Fife Council staff who have come together to find alternative accommodation as quickly as possible.

"We have also had support and offers of help from Fife community partners and neighbouring Perth and Kinross Council for which we are very appreciative.

“The majority of the Cairneyhill Primary School children will be accommodated within Tulliallan school building, with some children in the nearby community centre.

"We will of course transport children to and from Tulliallan school and those arrangements are currently being finalised.

“Nursery children and staff will be accommodated at Crossford nursery. Again transport will be arranged for them. We are currently still negotiating alternative accommodation for the Cairneyhill out of school club.”

The school have put together plans to ensure shows, a party and coming-together at the Church can go ahead next week. These are as follows:

Children to be dropped off and collected from the Scout Hall for all events in the Scout Hall

Tuesday 19th December - 1.30-3.30 Nursery Party for all Nursery children (3.00 parents welcome)

Wednesday 20th December - All P1-P3 children 9.00-2.00 children only

                        2.00-3.00 - Coffees and Nativity

Thursday 21st December - All P4-P7 children, 9.00-2.00 children only

                        2.00-3.00 - Coffees and Nativity

On Friday 22nd December - Church as planned, children will be dropped off at Church at 9.15am and collected at 10.30am.

Tulliallan headteacher, Elspeth Gow, said: “For those parents/carers and members of our wider community who remember our fire, we can empathise with the Cairneyhill school and community.

"At the time what stood out for me as the headteacher was the over-whelming support from our village, colleagues from other schools and Fife Council.

“Reflecting back on how important it was to keep our school community together, we are happy to support Fife Council’s decision to re-locate Cairneyhill Primary School to our campus.”

If parents are wondering what to do with their children until Friday, Fife Sports and Leisure Trust are offering free swims to all Cairneyhill children between 9am and 3pm. Children under 8 must be accompanied by a fee paying adult.