Ainslie Park High School was a state secondary school in East Pilton,

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, Scotland.

History

The school was designed by James Stewart Johnston in the mid-1930s, but building work was delayed until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and construction started in 1949. The school was originally to be called Pilton Intermediate School. From its opening in 1948 until 1965 it was a junior secondary school, meaning pupils left at the end of their third academic year. If they wished to sit O-grade examinations they had to move on to another school. The 1965/66 academic year saw the school attain senior secondary status, thereby allowing pupils to remain into fourth year to sit O-grade exams. The school subsequently expanded the academic syllabus to offer Higher examinations. The school colours were red and gold and the badge was a golden dolphin on a red background. The first headmaster was Norman Murchison, who was also a well known commentator on post-war education; in 1968 he delivered the 14th Charles Russell memorial lecture on the subject of 'Some social aspects of modern education'. He was also involved in numerous other debates, including on the propensity for young Scots to go abroad after the war and on the delinquency level of children in early 1950. He was made the first Citizen Of The Year for the City of Edinburgh, and a lecture theatre was named in his honour at the

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campus. He retired in June 1968 and was succeeded by Norman Chalmers. The opening of Craigroyston Community High School and the falling birth rate since the late 1960s meant that Ainslie Park was no longer viable as a secondary school, and the building became the North Campus for Edinburgh's Telford College. The axe finally fell on Ainslie Park in 1991. A full planning application to develop the site was submitted by Miller Homes on 21 March 2007 and was granted by the City of Edinburgh Council. The main building was the original building designed by J.S. Johnston in the 1930s' Art Deco style and was listed under category B. It was to be converted into flats while the rest was to be new build, but Miller Homes successfully appealed under test d: The repair of the building is not economically viable, and the old main building was demolished; only its façade has been retained.

1971 tragedy

On 21–22 November 1971 five members of a mountaineering club at Ainslie Park School and an 18-year-old trainee instructor from Newcastle-under-Lyme died in a

blizzard A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling ...

while trying to walk from

Cairn Gorm Cairn Gorm ( gd, An Càrn Gorm) is a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. It is part of the Cairngorms range and wider Grampian Mountains. With a summit elevation of above sea level, Cairn Gorm is classed as a Munro and is the seventh-h ...

to Corrour Bothy. A party of 14 children led by 23-year-old Ben Beattie, who was Ainslie Park's outdoor instructor, and his 21-year-old girlfriend Catherine Davidson, set out for Lagganlia to be met by a local instructor called Sheila Sutherland. The party then split into two with Beattie taking one group and Davidson and Sutherland taking the other. The latter group of six children struggled to reach their destination (the Corrour Bothy) and decided to settle for the night in a snow hole. Only two members of the party survived — instructor Catherine Davidson and pupil Raymond Leslie. The members of the party who died were: Sheila Sunderland the local instructor, Carol Bertram (aged 16), Susan Byrne (15), Lorraine Dick (15), William Kerr (15) and Diane Dudgeon (15). it stands as the UK's worst mountaineering disaster. Such was the public concern that on 23 November 1971, the day after the Cairngorm Plateau disaster,

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, the Secretary of State for Scotland announced in the

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that the

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had decided to institute a public inquiry under the

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Notable alumni

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MP * Frank Doran MP *

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, writer *

Bert Jansch Herbert Jansch (3 November 1943 – 5 October 2011) was a Scottish folk musician and founding member of the band Pentangle. He was born in Glasgow and came to prominence in London in the 1960s as an acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter ...

, musician * David Rennie,

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, footballer * Graham Fitzpatrick film director, screenwriter

Notable former teachers

* Terry Christie, football manager

References

{{authority control 1949 establishments in Scotland 1991 disestablishments in Scotland Defunct secondary schools in Edinburgh Educational institutions established in 1949 Educational institutions disestablished in 1991