Our Lady's High School is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

for 11- to 18-year-olds in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

North Lanarkshire North Lanarkshire ( sco, North Lanrikshire; gd, Siorrachd Lannraig a Tuath) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the northeast of the City of Glasgow and contains many of Glasgow's suburbs and commuter towns and villages. It also ...

, that is close to

Fir Park Fir Park Stadium is a football stadium situated in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The stadium plays host to the home matches of Scottish Premiership club Motherwell and was the temporary home of Gretna for the 2007–08 SPL season. Mo ...

stadium. The school educates around 675

pupils The pupil is a black hole located in the center of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina.Cassin, B. and Solomon, S. (1990) ''Dictionary of Eye Terminology''. Gainesville, Florida: Triad Publishing Company. It appears black ...

. The headteacher is Dan Cardle.

History

The school was established in 1888, making it one of the oldest Roman Catholic secondary schools in Scotland. It was originally an all-boys school and the first class of girls was not enrolled until 1945. In the same year, the school's famous War Memorial Chapel, built with funds raised by the school community, was opened. The current building on Dalzell Drive was built in 1974. In 1975, Our Lady's made it into the ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'', having a school roll of 2,325 pupils, making it the largest school in Scotland. Since 1997, Our Lady's has shared its accommodation with Bothwellpark High School which caters for students who require extra educational support.

Houses

The four school houses are named after famous holy people with ties to Scotland: St. Andrew, Queen Margaret of Scotland, St. Columba and the Venerable Margaret Sinclair. The house colours are red, blue, yellow, and green respectively.

Performing arts and physical education

The school wind band achieved a gold at the National Concert Band Festival in 2005-06. On 30 March 2007 the band attained a gold award at the Festival and then won the Lanarkshire Youth Musical Award for 2007. Their senior football team achieved national success in 2000 when they won the Under-18 Scottish Schools Football Shield. This was the eighth time the school has won this prestigious trophy.

Notable former pupils

* Sir Matt Busby, former manager of

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

* Sir

Tom Devine Sir Thomas Martin Devine (born 30 July 1945) is a Scottish academic and author, who specializes in the history of Scotland. He is known for his overviews of modern Scottish history. He is an advocate of the total history approach to the hi ...

, historian *

Patrick Doyle Patrick Doyle (born 6 April 1953) is a Scottish film composer with Irish heritage. A longtime collaborator of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work composing for films such as ''Henry V'', ''Sense and Sensibility'', ''Hamle ...

, composer * Colin Fox, former MSP * Charles "Chic" McSherry OBE, businessman, writer and musician *

Martin Ledwith Martin Ledwith is a Scottish actor and acting coach, best known for his work in theatre and television. Early life Ledwith was born in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, the fourth son of Peter Ledwith and Theresa Gregory. His first job in theatre wa ...

, actor *

Brian McCardie Brian McCardie is a Scottish actor and writer. Early life Brian McCardie attended St. Brendan’s, then St. Athanasius Primary Schools. He went on to Our Lady's High School in Motherwell. His parents moved from Motherwell to Carluke while h ...

, actor *

Billy McNeill William McNeill (2 March 1940 – 22 April 2019) was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lio ...

, footballer for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Bobby Murdoch Robert White Murdoch (17 August 1944 – 15 May 2001) was a Scottish professional footballer, who played for Celtic, Middlesbrough and Scotland. Murdoch was one of the Lisbon Lions, the Celtic team who won the European Cup in 1967. He later man ...

, footballer for Celtic and Scotland *

Stephen Pearson Stephen Paul Pearson (born 2 October 1982) is a Scottish former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He began his career at Motherwell and joined Celtic in 2004, where he won domestic honours including two Scottish Premier League ...

, footballer *

Frank Roy Francis Roy (born 29 August 1958) is a former British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Motherwell and Wishaw from 1997 to 2015. He was a Government Whip and Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury from 2006 to 2010, ...

, former MP (1997-2015) * Thomas Cardinal Winning, Archbishop of Glasgow *

Kieran Tierney Kieran Tierney (born 5 June 1997) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a left-back or centre-back for Premier League club Arsenal and the Scotland national team. Tierney came through the Celtic youth system and made his first t ...

, footballer for

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and Scotland (first year only)

References

External links

Official siteOur Lady's High School's page on Scottish Schools Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Our Lady's High School, Motherwell Catholic secondary schools in North Lanarkshire Buildings and structures in Motherwell Educational institutions established in 1895 1895 establishments in Scotland