THE smell of freshly brewed coffee and heavenly home baking will fill the air of the new Craigmarloch School every week — as pioneering pupils open their very own cafe.

Cafe Connect — run by S4 students — will be open to the public every Friday morning between 9.30 to 10.30am, starting on Friday 14 March.

Head teacher Eileen Stewart says the cafe will not only bring the community together at the sensational £44m shared campus site — but will also offer the young people running it the chance to gain vital on-the-job training and pick up valuable qualifications.

She said: “We have a long history of using cafes to promote work experience for our pupils and this will help them achieve national qualifications.

“It will also offer families and members of the public a place to get together and relax in a lovely setting.” Sixth year pupil Jordan Byrne, 17, came up with the cafe’s name after a competition was held in the school. As a prize, he won a family trip to the cafe as well as a box of chocolates.

The enterprising Craigmarloch kids also held a special launch event last Friday to help promote their exciting new venture.

They invited the Tele, along with Inverclyde MP Iain McKenzie and his Labour colleague Duncan McNeil, MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde.

Mr McNeil and Mr McKenzie said they were delighted to do the honours and officially open the new venue — and now the Cafe Connect team are busy gearing up for their first full day next week.