Stirling High School

Stirling High School
Address
Torbrex Farm Road Torbrex , Stirling Scotland
Information
Type	State
Motto	"Tempori Parendum"
Rector	Patricia Scullion
Enrollment	940
Telephone	01786 472451
Website	http://www.stirlinghigh.co.uk/

Stirling High School is a highly regarded state high school for 11-18 year olds run by Stirling Council in Stirling, Scotland. It is the main high school in the Stirling district, and currently has approximately 940 pupils attending. It is located on Torbrex Farm Road, near Torbrex Village in the suburbs of Stirling, previously being situated on the old volcanic rock where Stirling Castle lies and on Ogilvie Road.

The headmistress of the school is Patricia Scullion. The school operates a house system. The three houses are Douglas, Randolph and Stewart (Prior to August 2007, Stewart was a redundant House, with Snowdon instead being in its place), which are both for social and administrative purposes. Each house has a depute headteacher and a senior manager for support teacher.

School Structure

The school is divided into eight faculties each containg several departments. Each faculty has a senior manager of curriculum (bascically a principle teacher) The system works as follows:

Board of Studies
Headmistress: Mrs P Scullion
Depute Headteachers: Miss L Allen, Mr L Boyd and Mr I Fannon
School Resource Officer: Mrs J Anderson

Pupil Support Three Senior Managers of Pupil Support (one for each house)
Senior Manager Pupil Support (Douglas): Miss C Harrower (acting)
Senior Manager Pupil Support (Randolph): Mr D Downie
Senior Manager Pupil Support (Stewart): Mr G Cameron

Additional Support Needs (ASN)
Senior Manager: Miss F Kerr
This Department encompases all additional support needs within the school and comprises a department of Teacher of Additional Support needs who assist in the classroom and also teach individuals or small groups of pupils.

Creative
Senior Manager: Mrs B Marshall
This faculty includes the Art and Design, Home Economics and Music departments.

Citizenship
Senior Manager: Mrs E Candlish
This faculty includes the History, Modern Studies and Modern Languages departments.

English and Communication
Senior Manager: Mrs Donna Harris
This faculty includes the English and Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies (RMPS) departments.

Information Technology
Senior Manager: Mrs J Stevenson
This faculty includes the Computing, Business Education and Technical departments.

Numeracy
Senior Manager: Mr K Smith
This faculty includes the Geography and Mathematics departments.

Health and Wellbeing
Senior Manager: Mr T Black
As well as housing the P.E department this faculty oversees all activities regarding health issues and the wellbeing of pupils.

Science
Senior Manager: Miss C Malley
This faculty includes the Biology, Chemistry and Physics departments.

New school buildings

The new school under construction

The school now operates from a state of the art building on the former site of Williamfield Cricket Pitches, ex-home to Stirling County Cricket Club. The building is a fantastic resource which includes excellent PE facilities including a 25 metre swimming pool, large Games Hall, Dance Studio, Fitness Suite and artificial Football Field. Also the school is home to a large assembly hall, numerous science and food technology labs, a large music department including a recording studio and a number of fully equipped Computing Suites. As well as this the school has superb teaching facilities incluing innotavive 'flexible learning areas.' Stirling High School had an official opening ceremony on 26 June 2008, which consisted of a ribbon cutting by former pupil, Kirsty Young.

PFI

The new school is being financed by the controversial Public Private Finance initiative, which involves the current site being sold to developers. Over the following years, the developers then lease the school back to the council. This has been shown to incur massive debts and could end up costing the council in excess of £30,000,000. This agreement see the school's facilities management being carried out by FES FM Ltd rather than Stirling Council. Teaching, Administration and Catering will continue to be provided by Stirling Council.

Location

The new school sits adjacent to St Ninian's Primary School. It was built on a greenfield site of the old cricket club, and the current playing fields are to be sold off to housing. Concerns have been expressed at the community council that this will more than half the current green space in the surrounding area.

Coat of Arms and Motto

The coat-of-arms shows Queen Margaret, richly habited and crowned bearing in her right hand a sceptre and in her left a book all proper between two trees of knowledge, to remind us of the remote 12th century, when a bishop of St. Andrews, in whose diocese Stirling was, gave to Queen Margaret's Church of the Holy Trinity of Dunfermline the churches of Perth and Stirling and their schools. The wolf, couchant gardant, at the Queen's feet is taken from the "Small" Burgh seal, and reflects the early interest in education taken by the magistrates of the Royal Burgh, for later charters speak of scholam de Striuelin, and Scholam ejusdam ville, which suggest that the 'Church' school fairly soon became the town's school.

The latin motto Tempori Parendum translates to 'we must move with the times'.

The School War Memorial Window

The previous, 1960s era, High School of Stirling building

A stained glass window created by Mr James Atterson to commemorate the school's victims of the World Wars.

The following is Mr Atterson's description of the window from when it was installed in the old school. It has subsequently been moved to the new high school.

"This Memorial Window is built into the fabric of the School on the site of the town wall, which guarded our town in days gone by. In keeping with the School's ancient history and traditions, it is fitting that the medieval language of Chivalry and Heraldry should be used in the design.

This design is built round the Christian Symbol of the Cross - the Cross of Service, Sacrifice and Salvation. This Cross is formed by the central mullion and transom.

With shields in the upper portion are placed the emblems of the Services :- The Royal Navy is represented by the anchor, symbol of faith and steadfastness. The Army is represented by the firmly-grasped sword of Justice, raised in defence of freedom and right. The Royal Airforce is represented by a wing issuing from a cloud, symbol of these gallant Knights of the Air who dared all in defence of our country. The Merchant Service is represented by the trident issuing from a wave, symbol of the service which maintained our life-line throughout the seven seas at such high cost.

On the right lower portion of the window, is the figure of Queen Margaret, taken from our School badge, and at her feet the wolf of Stirling, traditionally associated with the ancient history of our town.

On the left, against a background of the old School and the Tree of Life and Knowledge, is the figure of a kneeling Knight in a Crusader's Cloak, offering his earth-won laurels in exchange for the Crown of Life.

Above the figure of Queen Margaret is the inscription, "Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life."

May this memorial give lasting form to the image each of us carries in our heart and mind of a "Verray parfait gentil Knight" who dared all, gave all, gained all."

The Old School

The 1850s building

In 1856 the high school was housed in a specially created building on Spittal Street. This building housed the classrooms for Mathematics, English, Modern Languages, Art, Classics; as well as a Gymnasium, and an Observatory on the roof.

This school stayed open until 1962, long after the Education (Scotland) Act 1872 which made education compulsory for children aged 5 to 13 and dramatically increased the intake of pupils for the school, when the school moved from its place at the top of the town, to Torbrex - the current position of the High School.

The building the old school was housed in has now been bought and turned into the Stirling Highland Hotel.

Recently the School moved from its home since 1962 on Ogilvie Road, Torbrex to a new state-of-the-art building on Torbrex Farm Road. The old building and site will be turned into housing.

Notable alumni

• Sir David Bruce KCB (1855–1931) - bacteriologist
• Patrick Forbes - 17th century Bishop of Aberdeen
• Rev. Professor Allan Galloway (1920–2006) - theologian
• Linda Gilroy - Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament
• Robert Henry - historian
• James MacLaren - architect
• Muir Mathieson (1911–1975) - conductor
• Sir John Murray - oceanographer
• John Sawers (1842–1906) - Australian banker
• Sir Craig Reedie - Chairman of the British Olympic Association
• Professor Sir Gordon Robson (1921–2007) - President of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Sir Josiah Symon KCMG - Attorney-General of Australia
• John Watson (1850–1907) - novelist
• John Grierson (1898–1972) - filmmaker
• Norman McLaren (1914–1987) - animator and film director
• Kirsty Young - television journalist
• Allister Hogg - Scottish International Rugby Player
• Gregor Tait - Scottish International Swimmer and reigning Commonwealth Games 200 m backstroke and 200 m individual medley champion

External links

• Stirling High School Online Community
• Stirling High School's page on Scottich Schools Online