In February 2010 we moved in to a brand new building at a cost of £8.5 million. The school is located on the outskirts of Peebles and is a prominent gateway to the town. It is built in to the side of a hill overlooking the river Tweed and the town park, Haylodge Park. The positioning of the school provides wonderful views across the surrounding valleys for the school community.

Parents, staff and children approach the school by a single entrance walking up a short slope. The entrance to the school building is at the top of the slope and is via a small secure lobby. The nursery is situated to the left of the main door and has its own entrance. It is connected to the school internally but is a self-contained building with its own play space. Nursery pupils regularly come into the main building to use the computer suite, library and gym.

The main school building is on two levels with infant classes on the ground floor and middle and upper classes on the first floor. The school has over 470 children from approximately 320 families divided into classrooms from nursery to primary seven. The school is two streamed throughout. There are over 40 staff, which includes full and part-time staff, both teaching and non-teaching. An electronic security system is in place and visitors must register at the main entrance before gaining entry.

All but four classrooms have direct access to the outdoors. Different classes have access to different playground areas and an outdoor “classroom”. The nursery has its own garden, the infant years have their own grassy area, the primary sevens have their own veranda. All other classes have a large play area to the rear of the school. Classrooms are of a good size (64m2 ) with heating panels on the ceiling. All classrooms have floor to ceiling windows on one wall, which open manually. We have tutorial rooms and break out spaces throughout the school. All classrooms have a smartboard, white board, a painting/messy area and appropriate resource storage for staff and pupils.

We made the school feel like home with a range of personal touches supported by parents. Personalised tiles with the handprints of the pupils who were there on the day of the move, are displayed along the corridors above the cloakrooms. Panels of photographs of the children who were heavily involved in the consultations about the design of our new school, but had gone to High School before Kingsland was opened, make a striking display in the entrance. These depict the journey to school through the seasons.

We take a pride in all children’s work and regularly update our displays across the school in order to share it with the whole school community.

Our school has a large dining room and gym hall with a partition between which, when opened, creates a huge double space to be used for a range of whole school activities. The amazing library is a large bright open room which is used flexibly for learning and again which has amazing views overlooking the town.

Throughout the building there is a lot of natural light and the feeling of space. Staff and pupils love the building which we are very proud to call Kingsland.