M&S Fort William

The Lunch Club is open to all members of the public. The meals are nutritious and healthy and freshly prepared everyday by our cook. Our members are mainly elderly. We work closely with the local Doctors and Dieticians who fully support the work of the lunch club. Lochaber Action on Disability collect members from their homes and take them to lunch club.

We do many activities including baking, cooking, crafts, rural skills, gardening and we have small animals which the participants learn about. The Lochaber Rural Education Trust (LRET) is a unique facility offering education and recreation to children and adults in Lochaber. You can discover our centre at the foot of the Ben Nevis surrounded by breath-taking scenery. Helping to run the centre are a fantastic group of volunteers from the local community, who believe in preserving the heritage and culture of the area. Meanwhile, the Education Centre brings education and training opportunities for those who are interested in rural life and history. We are a fabulous resource having a fully equipped classroom and an additional meeting room with a capacity for over 30 students of all age ranges. The aim of the Trust is to develop the area to provide facilities which do not exist elsewhere in Lochaber, for the benefit of people of all ages and abilities.

Lundavra Primary is an established community primary school within the wider Fort William area. The new build school opened in August 2015 following the amalgamation of Upper Achintore, Fort William and Fort William RC Primary Schools. We currently have 212 pupils in nine classes and 49 pupils in two Nursery classes. Our catchment covers the wider Fort William town area and includes an area of significant deprivation (SIMD 2) as well as areas of private housing. We currently have 31 pupils on FSM and together with pupils from the SIMD 2 area band this makes up 31% of our total population. We have significant numbers of pupils with English as an additional language (24% of school roll) and also above average numbers of pupils with identified ASN (33% of school roll). The schools use of Pupil Equity Funding is featured on the Education Scotland National Improvement Hub in an ongoing Live Narrative Project to engage with practitioners across Scotland. Over the last three years the school has developed and implemented a vision of how digital technology can enhance learning and teaching, in December 2016 the school gained the Digital Schools Award Scotland and during session 2017-2018 the school became a Google Reference School. We have also showcased our work on Computer Science on the Education Scotland Practice Pipeline and were recognised as being a Sector Leading school in terms of Digital Learning during our recent HMIE inspection. Our Quality Improvement visit in March 2018 and a very positive HMIE inspection visit in May 2018 identified positive outcomes for staff, pupils and community. As a community school we continue to consolidate our links with those involved in the school as parents, volunteers, suppliers etc. In addition we see ourselves as being at the heart of the wider Fort William and Lochaber area so continually strive to engage and develop those wider links, for example our recently established monthly community cafe which brings in people from across the Fort William area, which has been very successful and which now supports a variety of charities across our local area. As a school we are seeking to improve and develop the facilities in the school, with a particular focus on the environment and in this regard are seeking help with a number of refurbishment projects. These include revitalising our bedding planters so that we can grow fruit and vegetables, improving the soil quality in those bedding planters and obtaining seeds, fruit bushes etc for those beds. In addition we need to apply wood preservative to all our outdoor play and learning facilities which are starting to deteriorate in our naturally damp climate. In addition there are general small DIY tasks which need to be completed around the school as well as on-going projects such as weed and ground maintenance.