St Ninian's High School is a six-year

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

state

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

Giffnock Giffnock (; ; , ) is a town and the administrative centre of East Renfrewshire in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies east of Barrhead, east-southeast of Paisley and northwest of East Kilbride, at the southwest of the Greater G ...

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire (; ) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It was formed in 1996, as a successor to the Eastwood (district), Eastwood district of the Strathclyde region. The northeastern part of the council area is close to Glasgow and ma ...

, 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 ...

Newton Mearns Newton Mearns ( ) is a suburban town and the largest settlement in East Renfrewshire, Scotland. It lies southwest of Glasgow City Centre on the A77 road, main road to Ayrshire, above sea level. It has a population of approximately 26,993, stre ...

Eaglesham Eaglesham ( or , or ; ; ) is a village in East Renfrewshire, Scotland, situated about south of Glasgow, southeast of Newton Mearns and south of Clarkston, East Renfrewshire, Clarkston, and southwest of East Kilbride. The 2011 census reveal ...

Netherlee Netherlee is an affluent 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 mo ...

, Waterfoot, Netherplace, Millhall and

Busby Busby may refer to: Clothing *Busby (military headdress), a kind of military headdress, made of fur, derived from that traditionally worn by Hussars. Places * Busby, Alberta, a hamlet in Canada *Busby, East Renfrewshire, a village in Scotland * ...

. The school roll was 1,714 as of September 2005, but has now risen to more than 2000 due to the schools academic success. The head teacher is Gerry O’Neil. The school's motto is "Floreat Iuventus" which translates as "Let youth flourish".

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. Another extension was completed in 2009. In 2008, the school was given the best inspection report which at that time had been given to a Scottish secondary school, seven "excellents" and 10 "very goods". The school was the first public-sector organisation to win the 'Quality Scotland' business excellence award; It was the 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 () 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 next step after Acce ...

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 (Scottish Gaelic: ''Sàr Àrd Ìre'') 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 Advan ...

in S6.

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 and grew up in Cromore. He was trained as an actor at Royal Conservatoire of Sc ...

, actor, playwright, and author *

Andrew Robertson Andrew Henry Robertson (born 11 March 1994) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays at left-back for club Liverpool and captains the Scotland national team. He is regarded as one of the best left-backs of his generation and one of th ...

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 lea ...

currently playing for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

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

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

and

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

* James McArdle, actor *

Aiden McGeady Aiden John McGeady (born 4 April 1986) is an Irish former professional Association football, footballer. He was born in Scotland, and represented the Republic of Ireland national football team, Republic of Ireland national team from 2004 until 2 ...

, retired footballer who played 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 Foot ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

and represented the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

at the international level. * Calum Gallagher, footballer currently playing for

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in the . They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United Football Club ...

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

, footballer currently playing for

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

* Lewis Smith, footballer currently playing for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

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