Paisley Grammar School update
Friday 20 June 2025
Dear parent or carer

I’m sure you will have noticed the great progress on the new Paisley Grammar School Community Campus being built near Renfrew Road over recent months.

So, with little over a year to go until new building opens in August 2026, I wanted to give you an update on that work and what’s planned between now and then.

This update is being shared with current Paisley Grammar School parents and carers, as well as those at the five associated primary schools (Gallowhill, Mossvale, Ralston, Todholm and Williamsburgh) whose children may be moving there in the years ahead.

What’s being built
Facilities you can look forward to in the new building will include:
  • two full-size sports pitches (one 3G and one grass), plus outdoor learning and social spaces
  • modern facilities for practical subjects including a 300-seat theatre, fitness suite, dance studio, maker space, teaching kitchens, drama studio and music suites 
  • facilities for hire by the wider community, such as meeting rooms and flexible learning spaces
Below is a plan showing how the site will be laid out once complete. Behind the school building will be the two sports pitches. You can also see the bus drop-off and the staff car park on either side of the building.
The former Chivas administration buildings facing on to Renfrew Road are not part of the new school. The council is currently marketing these to find a new use and owner.

Construction update
Construction of the building started a year ago and has progressed well since then. The aerial image below shows how the site currently looks from the air.
The cladding on the outside of the building is now being installed, giving you a better idea of what the finished outside of the building will look like. Inside, some of the pupil and teaching spaces are also now being formed.

Below are images showing the school’s central heart space—inspired by the memorial hall in the current building—which will be the school’s main dining space.

They show how it looked earlier this year when we visited with some of the pupils, and an artist’s impression of what it will look like once finished.
School travel update
The area around the new school—and the route into it—will look very different by the time everything is built.

The school is being built within the site of a separate project (also led by the council) to create new road links and safer walking, cycling and road access for pupils.

This will include:   
  • a new east-west road, still to be built, which the entrance to the new school will be off. This road will run from a new junction with Renfrew Road (just south of the roundabout at McDonalds), along the north edge of the West College Scotland site, then join up with Abercorn Street and Harbour Road;  
  • the new road will eventually lead to a new road bridge over the River Cart, giving pupils living on the other side of the river easier access to the new school (note—this won’t be built next year when the school opens)
  • an underpass under Renfrew Road (from behind M&S to the B&M car park). This will join the new walking/cycling route (now open) which runs behind the college and beside the school, and links to Renfrew, the new Renfrew bridge over the Clyde, and the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation District Scotland near the airport
We appreciate many of you will have questions around how pupils will get to the new school. We are currently developing the details of a travel plan. This will cover pick-up and drop-off, walking and cycling routes, parking, and buses.

As per our current policy, any pupils living more than two miles from the school and within the catchment will be entitled to free home-to-school transport.

Details of this will be shared nearer the time and we will include in this parents and carers of pupils who are moving into Primary 7 next year and who will be the first S1 year-group in the new school from 2026.

What happens next
Over the next year, our team at council HQ will be working closely with Ms Levens and her team at the school to plan the move, which as I’m sure you’ll appreciate will be a huge amount of work.
Some Paisley Grammar School staff and pupils have already had the chance to see around the new site and we will look to offer this to others nearer the time.

I’m also conscious next year means the end of an era for the current building. The existing site has served the town well for more than a century but isn't set up for the type of modern facilities (indoors and outdoors) which you will enjoy in the new building.

The council is marketing the current Paisley Grammar School site for new owners who will find a new use for the building and we hope to be in a position to update on that at some point.

Given the history and the memories tied up in the current school building, we will be working with the school to commemorate that over the next year and will be in touch with more details at a later date.

I hope you found this update useful and would like to wish you all a good summer break.

Gerard McLaughlin
Head of Education
Renfrewshire Council
Online services and MyAccount, customer services, appointments at Renfrewshire House, how to make a complaint, compliment or suggestion. 

Education updates

Renfrewshire Council, Paisley, PA1 3EU

Unsubscribe