A SCHEME to upgrade or replace Glasgow's crumbling school estate has seen nearly £90 million spent.

Glasgow City Council's 4Rs - Education Estate Strategy is making sure all schools in the city are fit for their pupils.

Now nearly half way through, the project has seen £80 million of works have been completed with a further £9.5m underway.

A further £40m will be spent in year three of the programme.

St Marnock's Primary in Pollok is one of the schools that has undergone a complete transformation thanks to the 4Rs project.

The 40-year-old school was barely fit for purpose with rain water regularly pouring in ruining the children's work.

Staff said youngsters were often freezing cold and not motivated to learn.

Head teacher Heidi Fawcett said: "One of the biggest problems we had was water ingress. It spoiled children's work and spoiled the teachers' work and ruined our carpets - they would be left with a terrible smell after being soaked.

"Now it doesn't matter what the weather throws at us - we are dry inside and don't have any leaks.

"This building has been here for 40 years and now it is finally wind and water tight. We were given a new roof membrane.

"We have had improvements to floors, windows and doors and the change in the building is fabulous, fit for the 21st century.

"The windows are full length now. They used to be half windows and have grills on them. Now they are full length and open out to allow light and air into the classrooms.

"We aren't freezing any more - we used to be freezing here and it's very difficult for the children to get their work done and learn fully when they are so cold and uncomfortable."

In 2012 the Evening Times told of a council pledge to rebuild or refurbish every primary in the city, making a promise to spend £255m on the 4R's strategy.

This came on top of £550m spent between 2000 and 2012.

Since April 2013 remedial work has been carried out on schools to upgrade existing buildings, based on levels of need, and dealing with roof repairs, window upgrades, playground improvements and wireless fire alarms.

In year two of the programme whole school upgrades were completed with each one taking around six months to finish.

Mrs Fawcett added: "Our children would see their artwork hanging on the classroom walls and they would see the paint running from it because of the water ingress.

"This was really not a good situation.

"We got new ceilings in the classrooms and I could never have appreciated what a difference that would make, the light it would bring and the difference to the space.

"We couldn't replace our old ceiling tiles because they had become obsolete and now we have lovely ceilings with integrated lighting.

Year three will see a new buildings for Glasgow's primary schools start to spring up around the city when the new build programme of work fully begins. .

Merrylee Primary is having four classrooms added on to its campus while Crookston Castle Primary is having a new nursery build in its grounds.

Garrowhill and Glendale primaries will be moving to brand new buildings, as will Broomhill, Gowanbank and Dalmarnock.

Carntyne, Blairdardie and Sighthill will also be moved into new build primary schools and several new build nurseries will be created.

Some 11 primary schools around the city are seeing extensions with up to four extra classrooms added on to existing buildings.

Mrs Fawcett said: "St Marnock's now looks good, it feels good and the children are much more effective in their learning.

"We might be changing the climate of learning metaphorically but the council has changed the climate for us literally.

"We're really grateful to the 4Rs team for what they have done for us here."

Councillor Stephen Curran, executive member for children and young people, said: “We are making excellent progress with our programme for refurbishing Glasgow’s schools.

“There has been a huge increase in the number of schools where the fabric of the buildings has improved significantly.

“It’s a real tribute to the hard work of all those involved in delivering the 4Rs refurbishment programme that we’ve come so far in the past two years.

“Having the best possible school buildings will undoubtedly improve the learning environment for our young people and raise their educational prospects.”