Our Lady's High School, Cumbernauld

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Our Lady's high school is a six year roman catholic co-educational comprehensive school which opened in 1968. It caters for pupils living in Cumbernauld, Muirhead, Cardowan and Stepps and in addition we also have pupils from Condorrat, Dullatur, Moodiesburn and Castlecary. A large number of pupils took part in a variety of local and foreign trips and visits in recent years. Staff have also been to faraway places on official business. Among the diverse locations in recent years is Austria, Brussels, London, Paris, New York, Switzerland, Japan and Australia.

The permanent accommodation of the school is contained in two blocks, the first completed in 1968 and the second in 1974, linked by an enclosed passage at the first floor level. The older block contains the bulk of the normal classrooms and specialist accommodation for the art, home economics, chemistry, business studies and music departments. The school dining room, assembly hall and gymnasium are also contained in this building, as are the majority of the administrative offices.

Although, the school is undergoing construction and later refurbishment work. This will include extending the dining hall and making room for a larger library, as the previous one is to be used for more classrooms. An elevator is also to be installed to allow for disabled access, something the school has lacked in the past.

The newer building contains a small theatre, specialist accommodation for the biology, physics and technical departments, the school library and games hall together with general classroom accommodation. We welcome the opportunity to discuss with parents any special arrangements that may be necessary for physically disabled pupils. Many of these facilities, and also the fine hockey or football pitches, are in frequent use during the evenings and at weekends by many organisations within the community.

The school values and encourages extra curricular activities and is fortunate in having a number of staff who are willing to support activities at lunchtime, after school, at weekends and during holidays. Over the years various activities have been available including badminton, basketball, football, gymnastics, karate and netball. As well as choir, computing, dance, debating, drama, discos and the school choir.

The pupils also have the opportunity to take part in foreign trips, outward bound activities, retreats and theatre/cinema trips. The variety of clubs and activities on offer changes from time to time, of course, because of the changing interest and expertise of the staff. In addition each year group has a pupil council which meets with a senior member of staff on a regular basis and involves pupils in discussing school issues which affect them. A number of pupils receive instrumental tuition in music. Pupils are encouraged to take part in conferences, competitions and other events organised by agencies outside the school. The school community places a strong emphasis on fund-raising activities for charities or other needy causes.

The school is conscious that the partnership which we are anxious to achieve with parents is only possible where there are active home-school links. To this end parents are encouraged to feel that this is their school and that there are no barriers to access to the school. We promote contact with the home in a number of ways. A newsletter is issued to home once per month to keep parents and friends in touch with what's going on in the school. Parents' information and open evenings and regular workshops are held to explain changes in education, programmes of teaching and/or methods used in teaching courses or to discuss issues of mutual concern, occasional leaflets about the curriculum or individual subjects are issued.

A large group of senior pupils are now supporting first and second year pupils through the buddy system. After comprehensive training involving the school and Community Education senior pupils provide pastoral and curricular support to their buddy. This has proved to be a successful and popular venture.

The school has well-established links with our six associated primary school and these will develop further as the national "5-14 programme" is implemented. Our aim is to build a partnership which involves pupils, parents and teachers. The associated primary schools for Our Lady's high school are St Margaret of Scotland primary, St Lucy's primary, St Mary's primary Ravenswood, St Joseph's primary, St Barbara's primary and St Andrew's primary Cumbernauld. Pupils are visited in primary schools by the head teacher and teachers from Our Lady's high school so that they will know some teachers from the high school before they come to us and in order that teachers will be familiar with the work done by pupils in the primary school. They are also invited during the third term of primary seven to visit Our Lady's high school, follow a first year timetable and thereby get a taste of life and work in their new school. Primary seven pupils receive an information package about Our Lady's high school and can be selected to take part in our summer school.

Parents of the new S1 are invited to attend meetings with the head teacher and other staff from Our Lady's in their local primary schools in November and December of the year before their child's transfer to the high school. Parents are also invited to a mass of enrolment in the school in April. Head teachers of the primary schools meet regularly with the head teacher of Our Lady's to discuss curricular matters affecting both primary and secondary schools. Secondary teachers visit primary schools to meet pupils and teachers and to observe and assist with class teaching, as well as primary teachers having the opportunity to visit the high school to meet with secondary teachers.

[edit] Current Staff

Headteacher - Mr Currie

Deputy Head Teachers - Ms Grant, Mrs Alexander, Mrs Reid, Mrs Burton

English - Mrs Ferguson (Principle teacher), Mr O'Neil, Mrs McGuire, Mrs Spinks, Mr Finnigan, Mr Johnstone, Ms Quigley, Ms Heinze, Mrs McConnell.

Matematics - Mr Rice (Principle Teacher), Mrs Kirson, Ms Gallagher, Ms Jordan, Ms Docherty, Ms Young, Ms Tosh.

Biology - Mr McGregor, Mrs Cookman, Mrs Regan.

Physics - Mr Dolan (Principle Teacher), Mr Denton, Mr Templeton.

Chemistry - Mr Feenie, Mrs Mendosa, Mr Broadley.

History/Modern Studies - Mrs Cowie, Mrs Myers, Ms Manley, Mr McMullen, Mr Mullen.

Geography - Mr Lynch (Principle Teacher), Ms Mullen.

Modern Languages - Ms Lobit, Mr Campbell, Mrs Quigley.

Computing Studies- Mrs Millet, Mrs McKinnes.

Business Studies - Mrs McGee, Ms O'Donnell.

Technical - Mr Hughes, Mr Malley, Mr Brabender.

Music - Mrs Rafferty, Mr Devlin, Ms Stewart.

Drama - Mr Rafferty.

Art and Design - Mr McKernan, Ms Felvus, Ms O'Boyle.

Physical Education - Mrs Murray, Mr Aitken, Mr Sheridan, Mrs Walker, Ms Neil.

Home Economics - Mrs Sempie, Miss O'Donell, Ms Lafferty.

Religious Education - Ms McClory, Ms McArthur.

[edit] External Links

http://www.northlan.gov.uk/education+and+learning/schools/secondary/our+ladys+high+cumbernauld.html