Ayr’s Queen Margaret Academy has been nominated in the Best Education and Higher Education category of the 2020 International Partnership Awards.

The Academy is one of two major educational construction projects spearheaded by hub South West to be nominated for the prestigious award, alongside Cumbernauld Academy and Community Theatre.

The construction and infrastructure-focused public private partnership set up seven years ago to build new community facilities across Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway resulted in the creation of Queen Margaret Academy in Ayr. The school will now compete with two other Scottish projects, Jedburgh Grammar Campus and Queensferry High School, to come up trumps.

The annual Partnership Awards are organised by Partnerships Bulletin which each year judges projects in regions around the world including Asia, Australia, USA and Europe.

Planned originally to take place in May, the 21st annual awards ceremony will be broadcast online from London on Wednesday, December 9.

Michael McBrearty, Chief Executive of hub South West, said: “It is very gratifying that two hub South West projects have been nominated for this highly prestigious award which are celebrated throughout the world as leading examples of design and construction expertise.

“Since inception, hub South West has delivered Education sector projects to the value of £423m and, despite the disruption caused by COVID-19, we are currently on site and working on £45m of

educational projects.

“In addition, a further £227m of education developments are in the pipeline.”