Mearns Castle High School

Coordinates: 55°46′05″N 4°19′05″W / 55.768°N 4.318°W / 55.768; -4.318 For schools of the same name, see Castle High School.

Mearns Castle High School

Established	1978
Type	Secondary School
Headteacher	Dean Smith
Depute Head Teacher	Ms O'Donnell Ms Lewis Mr McKenna Mr Dick Mr Cairns Mr Sorley Ms Gordon
Location	Waterfoot Road Newton Mearns East Renfrewshire G77 5GU Scotland
Local authority	East Renfrewshire
Staff	122
Students	1,352
Gender	Mixed
Ages	11–18
Houses	Balmoral Caledonia Gleneagle Sutherland Ramsay Wallace
Colours	Black with a blue/red/black and red tie; depending on year
Qualifications	Scottish Qualifications Certificate
Website	Mearns Castle High School

Mearns Castle High School is a secondary school situated on Waterfoot Road in Newton Mearns, an affluent commuter town in East Renfrewshire, Scotland roughly seven miles from Glasgow. Built in 1978, pupils from Mearns Primary, Eaglesham Primary, Kirkhill Primary and Calderwood Lodge are all part of the schools catchment area. The Head Teacher is Dean Smith.

The school has recently received a new extension. The extension of the school is part of a Public Private Partnership Project with builders HBG, the extension provides many extra classrooms, currently used for Maths, Social subjects and the school office. Mearns Castle is situated next to Maxwell Mearns Church which hosts the numerous services for all yeargroups throughout the year. It is also positioned next to Mearns Castle (15th Century), hence the name, "Mearns Castle High School"

It is currently named the Sunday Times Scottish State School of the Year, and the SQA results each year place Mearns Castle in the top 5% for Scotland as the school achieves consistently high marks in school performance tables.

Charities Week

Charities Week is the school’s main charity fundraising endeavour of the year. Various events are held during the week, with the main focus being the variety shows that take place in the theatre each lunchtime featuring pupils and staff. They normally also have a range of other events including; ‘Pie the Teacher’(The Pie Mafia), Van de Graph Generator Experience, Raffles, Tombola, Sponge the teacher, 5-a-side football and many more. Individual classes and class teachers often arrange a fundraising activity during the week as well and there is usually a non-uniform day on the Friday when pupils (and staff) have to pay £1 if they choose not to wear uniform that day.

In 2009, the school raised over £7000 during Charities Week.

Awards and recognition

The school was one of three finalists in the Most Enterprising Secondary as part of the Scottish Education Awards 2007, which aim to celebrate successes and recognise achievements in Scottish education.^[1]

The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice recently opened its training hub, 'Mearns Castle High Training Suite' in recognition of the fundraising efforts of students, teachers and parents who collected £15,000 (mainly from Charities Week) to help with refurbishment costs.

The Senior Concert Band have recently been awarded Platinum at the regional stage of the NCBF in Glasgow and Gold in the National Finals in Birmingham in mid-April. The recent Pakistan Floods funds run by several S6 years The Senior Boys Basketball Team won the Scottish Cup in 2008.

The Senior Boys Volleyball team came 2nd in the Scottish Schools Cup.

The school has also won the Scottish State Secondary School of the Year in 2010

Mearns Castle High School also has a very successful debating team, run by Mr. J McGowne. There is both a Junior and Senior team, which are both around 20 - 30 pupils strong, and regularly participate in, and host, debating competitions from around the country. Having won the Glasgow Bar Association competition in 2009 (and coming a close second in 2010), participating at Oxford University Competition, narrowly missing out on sending pupils to Cambridge University Competition, participating in EYP (European Youth Parliament - both in Scotland and on a national scale) and competing in the Law Society Donald Dewar Memorial Debating Tournament twice, all in recent years the debating team is on top form and looks set to stay this way for many years to come.

References

1. ^ Scottish Education Awards 2007. Accessed July 4, 2007.

External links

• http://www.ea.e-renfrew.sch.uk/mearnscastle/aboutUs/welcome.asp (Mearns Castle High School Website)
• Mearns Castle High School's page on Scottish Schools Online
• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/parentpower/schools_of_the_year.php?p=scottish_state_secondary