Forres Academy New Build

February 2026

Consultation report on the proposal to relocate Forres Academy

The Education, Children’s and Leisure Services Committee agreed on 16 September 2025 to proceed with statutory consultation on the proposal to relocate Forres Academy to a site next to Applegrove Primary School.

The statutory consultation was undertaken in accordance with the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010. It ran from Thursday 18 September until Thursday 13 November 2025, covering the required minimum 30 days of term-time consultation.

A parents’ meeting was held on 29 October 2025, a public meeting on 04 November 2025, and an online meeting on 06 November 2025. People were invited to complete an online consultation survey and to make written submissions on the proposal. Pupils in the eight neighbouring primary schools were also asked for their views.

Following the statutory consultation period, all documentation on the consultation was sent to Education Scotland for consideration. Education Scotland has produced a report addressing the educational aspects of the proposal, which is published on its own website.

The next stage of the consultation process is the publication of the council report on the findings and outcome of the statutory consultation, having regard to the relevant written and oral representations and submissions, pupil engagement, survey results and the Education Scotland report.

Consultation report on the proposal to relocate Forres Academy

The documents below are the appendices to the main report:

• Appendix A - Relocation of Forres Academy Proposal Document
• 20260204 - Appendix B1 Presentation delivered to all consultation meetings
• 20260204 - Appendix B2 – Consultation Meeting Record (Parents Carers) Forres Academy 29 October 2025
• Appendix B3 – Consultation Meeting Record (Public) Forres Academy 4 November 2025
• Appendix B4 – Online Public Meeting Record – Online Teams Meeting, 6 November 2025
• 20260204 - Appendix C - Pupil Survey Collated Responses
• 20260204 - Appendix D - Online Survey Responses
• 20260204 - Appendix E - Survey Summary Report
• 20260204 - Appendix F - Written Responses Received

The consultation report is published from 4 February 2026. It will be submitted to the special Education, Children’s and Leisure Services Committee on 11 February 2026 for recommendation, and then to the meeting of Moray Council on 25 February 2026 to reach a decision.

For further information, please email learningestate@moray.gov.uk

Forres Academy Relocation Consultation

The Education Children’s and Leisure Services Committee, at its meeting on 16 September 2025, approved the launch of a statutory consultation on the proposal to relocate Forres Academy to a site next to Applegrove Primary School.

The consultation on the relocation of Forres Academy will run from Thursday 18 September until Thursday 13 November 2025. We would like your views on the relocation proposal and encourage you to take part in the consultation. An online survey, along with the consultation proposal document, will be available on Moray Engage from 18 September 2025. 

This consultation is being undertaken in accordance with the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010. The Act requires that changes to the school estate, including the relocation of a school be subject to rigorous statutory consultation.   

A report on the common good consultation was submitted to Moray Council on 21 January 2025. The common good consultation information can be accessed here.

A report on the site selection, including analysis of the survey responses, was reported at the meeting of Full Council on 22 May 2024.  The preferred site option is Applegrove/ Roysvale as per the minute of the meeting, with Lochyhill remaining as a possible alternative site.

An initial report was submitted to ECLS committee on 14 May with appendices detailing the full design team report and the outcome of both the online and paper survey.

Online survey results: Lochyhills 54.7% - Applegrove/Roysvale 45.3%

Paper survey results: Lochyhills 85.4% - Applegrove Roysvale 14.6%

Update (28 March 2024)

Further to the ECLS meeting on 27 March it was agreed that the next step for the Forres Academy project is to engage with the community regarding the site selection for the new build.

There are two site options remaining following the committee meeting: Lochyhills and Applegrove/ Roysvale.

Whilst there are risks associated with developing either of these sites it was noted that only Applegrove/Roysvale Park is under ownership of the Council, Lochyhill would require the Council to formally acquire the land in question.

The main risk with developing the Applegrove/Roysvale site lies with the fact that a major part of the developable site is classed as ‘Common Good’, although the main school building is not planned on this site but rather the Council-owned land adjacent to Applegrove Primary School and currently used as grass playing fields by them.

The cost for developing the Lochyhill site is up to £4m more than the Applegrove/ Roysvale site.

An overall location plan and plans of the two proposed layouts are provided below:

Lochyhills

Applegrove/Roysvale

An options appraisal of the two sites has been undertaken. The criteria and scoring are shown below.

September 2023

With the Scottish Governments approval of the LEIP 3 funding bid for Forres Academy, Moray Council have engaged Hub North Scotland and a Design Team to start work on designs for a new Forres Academy.

Three sites have been shortlisted as suitable locations for the new Forres Academy and these are presented in our ‘Place Based Review’ which assesses each option against the project’s Strategy & SMART objectives.

You can view the potential site options here.

While informal public consultation to gauge an intial response to the three site options has already occurred future formal consultation will occur and allow the opportunity for community to feed into the design and options for the new school, this will be communicated in the new year.