Risen from the ashes

Hundreds of pupils welcomed in a new dawn of education today as a new joint nursery school opened its doors.

The £1.8m building brings together Festival Park Day Nursery and Kinning Park Nursery School, in the south side of the city.

Parents and youngsters were left devastated when the Kinning Park building was almost completely destroyed in a blaze started by firebugs shortly before Christmas 2002.

The massive blaze caused tens of thousands of pounds in damage and left the Kinning Park Nursery only a shell.

In a bitter pre-Christmas blow the youngsters lost everything they had been saving for the school Christmas Fair.

But there were celebrations today as pupils showed off their state-of-the-art building to family and friends.

Youngsters will enjoy up-to-date facilities, including new play equipment and computers for children and staff.

Festival Park was previously Clutha Day Nursery and will cater for 48 children full-time.

Kinning Park has a capacity for 70 children in the morning and 70 in the afternoon.

The two new nurseries will operate separately in the same building.

It was built as part of the city council's Pre-12 Strategy, which has seen 23 new-build schools and school campuses either completed or now under construction.

An additional 16 new-build schools are in the pipeline under Phase 4 of the strategy.

A further six schools have been comprehensively upgraded and refurbished.

The overall investment in Glasgow's Pre-12 sector since the strategy was launched in 2003 now stands at more than £261m.