Larbert High School

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Larbert High School is a six year state, non denominational, school located in Stenhousemuir, Scotland. The school is run by Falkirk Council on behalf of the Scottish Executive Education Department. At October 2006, the school roll was 1,710, the total running costs of the school were £5,852,498 or £3553 per pupil^[1]. The current Rector (headmaster) is Neal McGowan. Since 1984, the school has had a twinning arrangement with the Gymnasium Michelstadt in the Odenwald area of Germany.

1 School Motto
2 Structure
3 Buildings
4 Departments
5 List of Rectors
6 References
7 See also
8 Links

[edit] School Motto

The school motto is Optimum Sequi, which translated from latin, means follow the best course in all things.

[edit] Structure

Pupils progress to Larbert High School at the age of 12, after 7 years of primary education, from 7 local primary schools, they are

Airth Primary School
Stenhousemuir Primary School
Larbert Village Primary School
Ladeside Primary School
Bothkennar Primary School
Carron Primary School
Carronshore Primary School

The school offers full time education for 11-18 year olds in S1 to S6. The national qualifications offered by the school are administered by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, and in common with most other schools in Scotland offers the examinable Standard Grade qualifications for 15 to 16 year olds and the Higher qualification for 15 to 18 year olds. Nominally students sit their Standard Grade examinations at the end of S4 at the age of 15 or 16, but the school has opted to allow students to sit these examinations a year earlier - at the end of S3, when students will be aged 14 or 15. Previously the first two years of school, S1 and S2 were used to give students a taster of all the subjects on offer, as well as "stream" students in S3 based on their performance, in preparation for the two year long Standard Grade courses beginning in S3.

[edit] Buildings

From 1886 to 1977 the school operated on from its primary site on Main Street, Stenhousemuir. However rising school rolls throughout the 1950's saw extensions added to the main building and the moving of departments. In November 1977 a new extension to the school was opened at Carrongrange around half a kilometre from the Main Street campus. In September 1996 the Carrongrange Building was itself extended with the English and Mathematics departments as well as the school library, moving into a new purpose built extension.

From 1977 to 2000 the school operated on a split site basis. The original site contained the majority of the science and technical departments, the modern languages department, religious studies and classics department, home economics department, school assembly hall and swimming pool, and until 1996 the English and Mathematics departments. The Carrongrange site contained the majority of the social science subjects, art, music, physical education, computing studies and business departments and from 1996 the English and Mathematics departments as well as the main school offices and medical bay.

The split site nature of the school meant that, at the change of periods, pupils had to travel, on foot (potentially up to 5 times per day), between the two buildings, which were some distance apart - a fact that was criticised in the 1999 inspection of the school^[2]. However in 1998 Falkirk Council opted to consolidate the school on the Carrongrange site, removing the need for students to transfer between different buildings. This was funded by the Private Finance Initiative, (PFI) and construction on the new part of the Carrongrange building commenced in February 1999.

In the spring of 2000 the school was opened on the one site at Carrongrange and the original facilities on Main Street site were demolished, which as of 2006 now comprises a private residential housing development. All existing Main Street departments were moved to their new premises, which included a new swimming pool, music and drama studio as well as school dining facilties, social space and assembly hall.

[edit] Departments

For the purposes of administration individual subject departments are split into 10 "faculties", these are

Faculty	Departments
Business	Computing (IT), Business Studies (Economics, Administration and Accounting and Finance)
Creative Arts	Art and Music
English	English
Humanities	Geography, History, Religion and Philosophy
Mathematics	Mathematics
Modern Languages	French, German and Spanish
PE and Drama	Physical Education and Drama
Science	Biology, Chemistry and Physics
Technology	Food and Consumer Technology, Craft and Design, Graphic Communication and Technological Studies

[edit] List of Rectors

Term of Office	Rector
1886 - 1913	Hugh Martin
1913 - 1930	William R Young
1930 - 1932	James G. Lockhart
1932 - 1937	John Smart
1937 - 1945	John M Amess
1945 - 1963	James Yortson
1963 - 1982	James Hunter
1982 - 1993	Eric Jamieson
1993 - 2004	Rosemary Holmes
2004 -	Neal McGowan