Craigmount High School
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Craigmount High School is a comprehensive state school located in the East Craigs area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It moved into new premises at the beginning of the 2003 academic year. The current headmaster is John Campbell, recently recruited to replace the previous headmaster, John Fraser. There are currently about 1300 pupils attending the school.
Contents |
[edit] History
The first school premises were built on the site of an old working farm in 1970 to alleviate pressure on surrounding secondary schools due to an increase in new housing. With its futuristic 1970s architecture, the school was hailed as a marvel of intelligent design, incorporating a large drama theatre and a campus layout with large open spaces between buildings linked with raised corridors.
Due to an increase in pupil numbers putting pressure on building capacity and lack of money to make repairs to the flat-roofed buildings, the school took the decision to build a new premises. In 2003, work began on the new Craigmount building. The decision was made to sell the land the existing building was standing on along with the upper sports pitches to a property developer and with the revenue created, build the new building in a PPP (Public-Private Partnership) scheme.
[edit] New building
The new school building was built on the site of the old school's playing fields. It was completed in 2003, and pupils and teachers moved into it that August.
The new building, although admired for its appearance, has been heavily criticised by students and teachers alike due to the lack of a drama theatre and space for congregating and teaching in the building. In a 2004 edition of 'Skools' magazine, the new building was labelled as 'an intelligent investment' by Tony Blair.
[edit] Sport
Current sporting activities in Craigmount High School:
- Curling
- Basketball
- Football
- Jiu Jitsu
- Gymnastics
- Badminton
- Mountain Biking
- Hockey
- Netball
- American Football
- Rugby
[edit] Extracurricular activities
Craigmount High School prides itself on the wide range of extracurricular activities which it offers to its pupils, ranging from the sporting clubs mentioned above to the chess and debating clubs.
Once a year, Craigmount holds a three day Alternative timetable when upwards of fifty activities are offered to students in years S1, S2 and S3. Students can choose between three single day courses, one three day course or even a week long excursion abroad. Such a range of activities is unique among schools in Edinburgh.
In addition to this week several annual trips take place organised by various departments of the school. The music department runs a music tour abroad every few years (locations have included Paris 2000, Brittany 2002, Barcelona 2004, and Austria 2006) giving students the chance to gain valuable performance skills as well as to develop new friendships and good relationships with teachers. The history department also runs a very successful trip to the WWI trenches in Belgium each year.
Another example of Craigmount's non-academic experiences is the ChristMessFest music festival which will take place on December 13 in the concourse of the school building.
[edit] Head teachers
- Dr John Campbell - (2006-
- Mr John Fraser - (1999-2005)
- Mr Andrew Bruce - (1994-2001)
- Mr Trotter - (1970-1994)
[edit] Trivia
In late 2005 and early 2006, several hundred front covers of the Sunday Herald's youth-orientated magazine "Fresh" were stuck to the interior walls of the 6th year common room. The cover of the magazine depicted the face of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and each magazine cover had been individually edited by a student. For example, one example depicted Radcliffe as Hollywood Hogan, whilst another showed him with his face coloured in like Spiderman. This entity came to be known as "The Harry Potter Wall"
During the long hot summer of 1999, a rather large fish was cunningly placed in one of the roof tiles in the 6th year common room. It was recently discovered by an unsuspecting student examining the roof of the room. Not much of the fish remained, but the mental scars will be forever etched on the memory of --- -----. (name unavailiable due to legal reasons.)
