Parents, pupils and the wider community will have the chance to comment on plans for a new primary school building this week.
The new Noble’s Primary School will be located on part of the site of the old hospital of the same name in Westmoreland Road, Douglas.
Subject to planning permission and Tynwald approval being obtained, it is hoped to open in September 2016.
The building will accommodate the current Ballacloan Infants’ School and Fairfield Junior School.
These schools will merge as a single through primary school in spring 2014 on the retirement of Ballacloan headteacher Jill Gill.
Members of the public can inspect and comment on the plans for the new school at Fairfield Junior School on Wednesday (July 17), between 3.30pm and 7pm.
Present to discuss the plans will be Richard Collister, Department of Education’s estates director, and the architect and project manager.
Mrs Gill and Fairfield head teacher Ian Walmsley will also be attending.
Mr Collister said: ‘This is an opportunity for anyone with an interest in the development of the new school to view our proposals.
‘Ballacloan and Fairfield are very much community schools and we want to get the community involved at this early stage.’
He said: ‘We’ve got good experience of what is needed and good experience from what we have done at recent new school developments so we have put all that into a melting pot.
‘Hopefully we have pretty much hit the nail on the head in terms of what we are proposing but I’m to keen to explore if there are things we’ve missed or people feel this shoud be in couded or questioning as to why we have incorprated that.
‘Let’s have an open dialogue next Wednesday evening and see what feedback there is.’
The DEC has said the move is the final step in the reorganisation of separate infant and junior schools into primary schools.
Fairfield head Ian Walmsley will head the combined school.
The first phase of the work to turn the old Noble’s Hospital into a school started in March 2010.
It involved making the site ready for demolition.
Some £927,905 was approved for the preparatory works, which included removing asbesos from the buildings, demolition, levelling the ground and securing the site.
At that time it was intended that construction would start in 2014, with the school being ready to open in 2015.
The old Noble’s site was opened in 1912 but has been marked for educational use since 2004 following the creation of a new hospital in Braddan.