PLANS for the new parts of Cairneyhill Primary School show there will be a like-for-like rebuild of the former school.

A blaze ripped through the junior section of the school, built in 1981, before spreading and damaging other areas of the building on December 8 last year.

Fortunately, all children and staff were safe but, in the aftermath, pupils had to be accommodated at other primary schools.

They have been back at their own desks in Cairneyhill since April but nursery and infant pupils have been in temporary accommodation.

Parents were invited to take a look at the plans at a drop-in session last week.

The rebuild will be the same design as the former school but will modernised with up-to-date building standards.

The work will start in January and is expected to be complete for when the new academic year starts next August.

Architect Kevin Tivendale, from Fife Council’s property services, said: "There is a natural transition through the school; as the pupils move up they go to the next part of the building and we wanted to maintain that.

"Some of the new features will be an accessible toilet and nappy-changing facilities in the nursery and spaces will be broken down more with sliding doors.

"This is all in line with Fife Council's specification for every nursery across the Kingdom as we bring in the extended hours programme which will be seen across Scotland.

"We've taken this opportunity to reflect that at Cairneyhill."

Although the new parts of the school will be ready for pupils in August, construction staff will be on site until October as they work to take down the temporary accommodation and landscape these areas.

"Moving the children in at the start of year will make the transition easier," explained Kevin.

"It puts less pressure on staff who had to move very quickly last time.

"We can appreciate that the headteacher didn't want to put everyone through too much upheaval after everything they had already been through."

Fife Council have been working with parents through the year on the project providing feedback and say a "flow" of information has come through with a larger than average response and turnout to consultations.

Parents were concerned about drainage beside the nursery and the council will also address this issue in the build.

While pupils were away from the premises before April, the authority refurbished other parts of the school that were not fire-damaged, including making the reception more accessible.

After the fire the school got a brand-new fire system and rebuilding the school with the modern regulations will mean fires will be contained within one room.

Kevin added: "Schools have strict evacuation policies and everyone will be out within two or three minutes, that will always be are main concern.

"Anything after that is protecting the building."

Officers say that a tender has been found for the contract that is likely to be worth around £1.5 million but needs to be signed off by the insurance company paying for the finance.

A decision is expected next week.

During the build the construction will be separated off by a fence. There will be restrictions in place though such as no deliveries or moving of vehicles from the site during the school day for safety.

"We have found that children love seeing construction going on around them, such as seeing the diggers," Kevin said.

"We try to do educational talk during that time and we have a number of trades involved.

"There is no getting away from the fact there will be noise, but we will do our best to accommodate the school as much as we can.

"We encourage the headteacher to have daily chats with the contractor and we have regular meetings between all the parties."