St Ninian's High School is a six-year co-educational

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 ...

state

high 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 '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

in Giffnock,

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire ( sco, Aest Renfrewshire; gd, Siorrachd Rinn Friù an Ear) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. Until 1975, it formed part of the county of Renfrewshire for local government purposes along with the modern council areas of ...

, Scotland. The school, which opened in 1984, serves Giffnock, Clarkston,

Thornliebank Thornliebank ( Scots: ''Thonliebank'', Scottish Gaelic: ''Bruach nan Dealgan'') is a suburban area in East Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, it is located on the Auldhouse Burn about s ...

, Newton Mearns,

Eaglesham Eaglesham ( ) is a village in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, situated about south of Glasgow, southeast of Newton Mearns and south of Clarkston, and southwest of East Kilbride. The 2011 census revealed that the village had 3,114 occupants, dow ...

Netherlee Netherlee is a suburban residential area in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. It is situated on the west bank of the White Cart Water about 4 miles (6.5 km) south of Glasgow city centre. Part of the Greater Glasgow conurbation, it is mostly conti ...

, Waterfoot,

Netherplace Netherplace is a hamlet in East Renfrewshire. It is to the west of Newton Mearns, and adjacent to the M77 motorway The M77 motorway is a motorway in Scotland. It begins in Glasgow at the M8 motorway at Kinning Park, and terminates near Kilm ...

Millhall Millhall is a hamlet in East Renfrewshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies southeast of Eaglesham, northwest of Strathaven and southwest of East Kilbride. Polnoon Castle, a scheduled monument, is in Millhall. History Millhall i ...

and Busby in

. The school roll was 1,714 as of September 2005, and the Head Teacher is Gerry O’Neil. The school's motto is "Floreat Iuventus" which translates as "Let youth Flourish".

Overview

The school is often used as a 'test bed' for new systems or initiatives (due to its relative affluence and high exam pass rates). Examples include: *First public-sector organisation to win the 'Quality Scotland' business excellence award; *First state-funded school in Scotland to abandon the

Standard Grade Standard Grades were Scotland's educational qualifications for students aged around 14 to 16 years. Introduced in 1986, the Grades were replaced in 2013 with the Scottish Qualifications Authority's National exams in a major shake-up of Scotland's ...

examination system in favour of the Higher Still system, using Access 3,

Intermediate 1 Intermediate 1 ( gd, Meadhan Ìre 1) is an educational qualification in Scotland on the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) achievement ladder similar to General Level at Standard Grades; it is the ...

and

Intermediate 2 Intermediate 2 level is Level 5 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework; it was the level between Higher and Standard Grade Credit. It was initially available to pupils (generally in S5) who achieved a grade 3 or 4 Standard Grade but, ...

for pupils in third and fourth year, while maintaining "

Highers In the Scottish secondary education system, the Higher () is one of the national school-leaving certificate exams and university entrance qualifications of the Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) offered by the Scottish Qualifications ...

" in fifth year and

Advanced Highers The Advanced Higher is an optional qualification which forms part of the Scottish secondary education system brought in to replace the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS). The first certification of Advanced Higher was in 2001. It is normally ...

in S6.

History

Between 2000 and 2002, a multi-million pound extension was built for the school (which was originally designed to hold only 700 pupils). The extension had been scheduled for years earlier (and completion by 1999 at the latest) however problems with the PFI tender for another local school project caused years of delay. 2009 saw the completion of another extension, housing ten science classrooms, as well as geography and modern language classrooms. On 11 March 2008, the school was given the best report ever given to a Scottish Secondary school, gaining seven "excellents" and 10 "very goods".

Notable alumni

Kenny Boyle Coinneach Iain "Kenny" Boyle (born 13 May 1984) is a Scottish actor, playwright and novelist. Education and career Boyle was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. His childhood life was divided between term-time in Glasgow, where his paren ...

, actor, playwright, and author * Andrew Robertson,

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

currently playing for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

club

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

and captain of the Scotland national team * John Spencer, retired footballer who played for Chelsea,

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

and

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 ...

James McArdle James John McArdle (born 3 April 1989) is a Scottish actor from Glasgow. He won the Ian Charleson Award for his role as Mikhail Platonov in '' Platonov'' and was nominated for an Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for p ...

, actor *

Aiden McGeady Aiden John McGeady (born 4 April 1986) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for Scottish Premiership club Hibernian. Born in Scotland, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team from 2004 until 2017. He started his c ...

, footballer currently playing for Hibernian and the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

* Calum Gallagher, footballer currently playing for Dumbarton *

Liam Lindsay Liam James Lindsay (born 12 October 1995) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a centre back for EFL Championship club Preston North End. Lindsay started his career with Partick Thistle breaking into the first team at Firhill ...

, footballer currently playing for

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

* Lewis Smith, footballer currently playing for Hamilton Academical

References

External links

St Ninian's High School's page on Scottish Schools Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Ninian's High School Catholic secondary schools in East Renfrewshire Educational institutions established in 1984 1984 establishments in Scotland Giffnock