After visiting the fire-ravaged Peebles High School this week, Deputy First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, pledged the Scottish Government’s support in rebuilding the secondary school.

Speaking to the Peeblesshire News outside the school on Wednesday morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Education said “significant remediation” will need to take place to restore education at the secondary school.

Thanking the emergency services and staff, Mr Swinney said: “I’d like to pay tribute to the Fire and Rescue Service who worked under very challenging conditions last Thursday to try to salvage and protect as much of the building as possible.

“And also to the staff and the pupils and community for rallying round the school and working with Scottish Borders Council to make sure that the school can recover from what’s a very serious situation that’s been experienced by everybody.”

We asked Mr Swinney if he had discussed any future plans for Peebles High School with the local authority.

He replied: “I’ve made clear to Scottish Borders Council that there are essentially three phases to the recovery of the school. The first is the immediate restoration as quickly as possible of face-to-face education for young people and I’m pleased to hear from Scottish Borders Council of their plans to establish that from next Monday.”

Vowing to work with the local authority to restore education as quickly as possible, Mr Swinney added: “There’s a medium term where we have to look at perhaps restoring education on this site, but there would have to be significant remediation works undertaken at the site to make that possible and the Government will be engaged with the council on how that is best taken forward.

“And then of course the damage here is of such magnitude that we will have to look at some form of rebuilding of Peebles High School, and I’ve made it clear to the council this morning the Government will want to be as supportive of that as we possibly can be as part of the wider investment in the School Estate Programme that we take forward on a habitual basis."

When pressed on a date for the rebuilding of Peebles High, Mr Swinney told us: “We simply have to wait until Scottish Borders Council formulates their plans. It’s important that that dialogue takes place within the local authority, with the school community and with the wider community here in Peebles.

“But what I do assure the local authority about and the local community is the Government will be closely involved in all of those discussions to enable us to be as helpful as possible to restore high quality education facilities here in Peebles.”

And with this message to the Peeblesshire community who are picking up the pieces following the devastating events, the Deputy Minister said: “This has been a very traumatic experience for the community of Peebles and particularly and acutely for the young people who witnessed the fire in the school.

"We should understand the scale of that trauma and support young people as they face those challenges and make sure we assist them in every way possible.”