Berwickshire High School is a six-year comprehensive school located west of

Duns Duns may refer to: * Duns, Scottish Borders, a town in Berwickshire, Scotland ** Duns railway station ** Duns F.C., a football club ** Duns RFC, a rugby football club ** Battle of Duns, an engagement fought in 1372 * Duns Scotus ( 1265/66–1308 ...

, Scotland.

History

It was first opened in 1896, by Walter John Mabbott, who was the first Rector of the school. It started out with accommodation for 80 pupils in which extensions were built on to accommodate the rise in pupil numbers. By the 1950s the school had become very overcrowded so plans were made to create a new school. The new school opened in 1958. The school has a large catchment area stretching all over Berwickshire including

Greenlaw Greenlaw is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish situated in the foothills of the Lammermuir Hills on Blackadder Water at the junction of the A697 and the A6105 in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. At the 2001 United Kingd ...

, Chirnside,

Coldstream Coldstream ( gd, An Sruthan Fuar , sco, Caustrim) is a town and civil parish in the Scottish Borders area of Scotland. A former burgh, Coldstream is the home of the Coldstream Guards, a regiment in the British Army. Description Coldstream l ...

, Foulden, Paxton, Eccles, Leitholm, Allanton and Swinton. The school motto is from the famous poem Ulysses, ''"To Strive, To Seek, To Find and not to Yield"'' basically meaning to make the most of your life.William Anderson, A Century Recalled (no ISBN)

House system

The school has three 'houses' into which the pupils are split. This is not only a way to organise classes but is also intended to encourage a rivalry, being the basis of inter-house competitive events. The houses are named after notable people from

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of t ...

. The three houses are Scott, Home and Douglas. Each has its own colour, Head of House (Staff), House Captains and Vice Captains (derived from pupils in S5/S6) and House Representatives. Each earn points throughout the year, at the end of which the house with the most points wins the Interhouse trophy.

Change of buildings

The new high school was officially opened in February 2009. Work started in October 2006 on the new school which is located opposite the old building. The design was similar to Eyemouth High School and

Earlston High School Earlston High School is a secondary school in Earlston, Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Du ...

which were all built at the same time under a Public Private Partnership with the

Scottish Borders Council Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Notable former pupils

Daniel Blades, Lord Blades Daniel Patterson Blades (25 August 1888 – 6 February 1959) was a Scottish judge. Life Blades was the son of Sarah Pow of Armadale and Rev. Charles Blades, minister of Allanton. He was educated at Berwickshire High School and the University ...

, Senator of the College of Justice *

Harald Leslie, Lord Birsay Harald Robert Leslie, Lord Birsay, KT, CBE, TD, QC, DL (8 May 1905 – 27 November 1982) was a Scottish lawyer and judge, and Chairman of the Scottish Land Court. Early life Leslie was born on 8 May 1905, the son of Robert Leslie, Master Ma ...

, judge *

Ronald Mackay, Lord Eassie Ronald David Mackay, Lord Eassie, (born 1945) is a Scottish lawyer and retired judge of the country's Supreme Courts, sitting in the Inner House of the Court of Session. Education Mackay was educated at Berwickshire High School in Duns, Sc ...

, judge *

Helen Lowe Helen Lowe is a New Zealand novelist. Her first novel, ''Thornspell'', was published in 2008. She has since published the first two books in ''The Wall of Night'' quartet, ''The Heir of Night'' and '' The Gathering of the Lost''. Lowe is a thr ...

, one of the first women chartered accountants in Scotland

References

External links

Official website

Previous Website
{{authority control Secondary schools in the Scottish Borders Berwickshire Educational institutions established in 1896 1896 establishments in Scotland