Increased educational benefits, new contemporary accessible community facilities and long term economic benefits to the island were at the heart of the decision to name Tobermory South as the preferred site for a new £43 million 2-18 campus.
Councillors today agreed Tobermory South site as the preferred location, offering multiple benefits with minimal disruption to current education and travel routines. Located less than a mile from the existing high school, the site has an economic gain of over £3 million for the island without increasing travel times or carbon emissions for the majority of staff and pupils.
The £43 million project to build the new campus is ߣsirƵ and Bute Council’s single biggest investment.
The new campus will deliver a range of education benefits for children and young people with high quality modern learning and teaching facilities. It will also provide all children and young people access to improved sport and leisure opportunities. Pupils will benefit from a range of specialist staff, smooth transitions from ELC right through to secondary and more scope for work placements, flexible learning plans and apprenticeships. The campus will be fully accessible for all learners and the community.
Mull has a current population of approximately 3,000 with 178 secondary school aged pupils –55% in North Mull (includes Tobermory), 15% central, 16% South West Mull (i.e. Ross of Mull) and 14% in other parts of the island with the majority of the islands ELC and primary pupils currently attending schools in Tobermory. Community engagement has played a vital role in the project with communities helping to shape and progress the project with feedback through various routes from online surveys, drop-in sessions, Community Sounding Board, and a Pupil Working Group.
The Scottish Government has confirmed the council has gone beyond what they are required to do and is positive regarding the prudent approach they are taking.
Councillor Audrey Forrest, Policy Lead for Education:
“Providing our children and young people with a quality education lies at the heart of today’s decision. This has been by no means easy and we understand there are many different views as to where the new 2-18 campus should be located. This is about being both ambitious and realistic about what we can deliver for Mull. Unfortunately, even a £43 million investment cannot be all things to all people when there are mixed community views.
That said, our priority has to be our young people, delivering a contemporary campus that opens up further opportunities for them and benefits the whole of Mull in the long term. Tobermory South offers an exciting blank page, to work together to create something special for the island. A new campus will bring fantastic opportunities for our young people and help grow the island’s economy for future generations to come.
Community input has been invaluable throughout this process and we thank everyone, including our young people who have taken part and helped shape the proposals so far.
Although we remain at a very early stage of the Mull Campus project, today marks a major milestone. With a preferred location now in place, we can progress to the next stage of preparing a business case with further opportunities to give feedback as we look to launch a public consultation.”
Why choose Tobermory South?
Education benefits
A joint campus at Tobermory South will improve the current education offering by potentially providing more subjects including vocational subjects, increased apprenticeship placements and high-tech science facilities.
Active travel
Children and young people who currently walk or cycle to the existing campus, around 40% will be able to do this at Tobermory South. A central location would have removed most active travel options.
Journey times
Tobermory South will have minimal impact on existing arrangements for the majority of pupils as opposed to a significant increase in travel to a central location for the majority of pupils who live in the north of the island. This option would have also required an additional four buses with a cost of over £225,000 per year plus staff travelling costs.
Economic impact
The economic impact of having a joint campus at Tobermory South is higher than a central site and worth over £3.1 million for Mull. Factors including local investment, effects on housing stock, educational attainment, parent/ carer loss of earnings, staff commuting cost and transport carbon emissions were taken into consideration.
You can read the full report on the council website.
Background
The Mull Campus project is part of the North Schools Programme, a partnership between hub North Scotland ltd and five local authorities to deliver eight schools to the value of £333 million.
The Council submitted a bid for Scottish Government Learning Estate Investment Programme (LEIP) funding in October 2022 for a 2-18 campus on Mull. This was for a replacement of the existing campus. LEIP funding is provided on a ‘like for like’ basis to replace the existing campus. Even with a split site, two-school option, the funding criteria remains the same. The council would not have received any more funding if the bid was for a separate high school and primary. The original bid was for a campus and mentioned 59 times in the bid document.
In December 2024, Councillors discussed the option of a split site with two separate schools. The available LEIP funding would consider this option but would not cover any duplicate facilities leaving the council with an additional £12 million on top of the £43 million funding. Councillors unanimously agreed this was not affordable and chose to continue with the 2-18 campus option.] Following an extensive community engagement exercise, a list of key community criteria helped inform the site selection along with technical, travel and impact assessments. The criteria included:
- Keeping travel time to a minimum
- Keeping families together/avoiding children going off island
- Being able to sustain local populations and economies
- Plenty of outside space for sports and outdoor activities