DELIGHT in Govan at new school DISBELIEF in Maryhill as two closures go ahead

GLASGOW'S latest multi-million pound primary school has officially opened.

Staff, parents and pupils of St Constantine's Primary in Govan gathered to celebrate their £5.7million school.

The new school is a merger between the former St Anthony's and St Jerome's primary schools and Greenfield nursery class.

With a modern media suite, football pitches and bright, airy classrooms, the school is a marked improvement on the old primaries - where pupils were taught in temporary huts.

Headteacher Elaine Rogan has moved to the school from her former post as head of St Anthony's.

She said: "The new school is fantastic. The facilities are excellent and the children love the media suite and the football field.

"The teachers are enjoying making use of the new, larger classrooms.

"There have been no problems in mixing the two schools and the new building has helped to unite us."

The new school roll includes 302 primary and nursery pupils.

Primary 6 pupil Tia McAllister, 11, and nine-year-old Nathan Carmichael, who is in Primary 5, were thrilled to help officially open their school.

Tia said: "It's really good and really spacious.

"The new media suite is brilliant because all the children get to have a computer to themselves.

"I went to St Anthony's Primary but a lot of my new friends went to St Jerome's, so I've made friends I would never have met before."

The opening comes in the final week of term, when 11 city primaries and nine nurseries will close their doors for the last time under council cost-saving measures.

Parents protesting against the closures fear that moving schools will disrupt their children's education.

But councillor Jonathan Findlay, executive member for education, said the new school was a positive example of a school merger.

He said: "St Constantine's will be a great thing for the Govan and Drumoyne communities."

March marks end of an era

Wynford and St Gregory's parents and pupils march in protest as the schools shut Picture: Jamie Simpson AS youngsters in Govan were celebrating the opening of their new building, pupils from Wyndford and St Gregory's primaries were upset to be saying goodbye to their school. More than 200 parents and pupils gathered to march from their schools to Gairbraid Parish Church. Both Maryhill schools are set to close for good on Friday - despite a long series of protests from campaigners. Protesting parents occupied Wyndford and St Gregory's during the Easter holidays but the joint campus is among 20 schools and nurseries being axed. Led by a piper, pupils, parents and grandparents from the Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaign took part in the march. Mum Nicola Rathmill, whose five-year-old son Ross Lambey attends Wyndford, opposes the closure. The 35-year-old said: "We are all absolutely gutted so this funeral march today is for us to say goodbye. "We thought the council would change its mind, so no-one can believe this is going ahead. "We've still got to live in the area but there's nothing else here now that the schools are shutting. There are few smiles here now."