| Motto | Justus et Tenax |
|---|---|
| Established | 1904 |
| Headteacher | David Dempster |
| Location | 26 Viewforth Edinburgh EH10 4LR Scotland |
| Staff | ~80 |
| Students | ~1100 |
| Gender | Coeducational |
| Ages | 11–18 |
| Houses | Westhall, Hartington, Viewforth, Bruntsfield, Montpelier, Leamington |
| Colours | Green, navy and black |
| Publication | Bootleg |
| Website | Official site |
Boroughmuir High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1904, and moved to its current site in 1913. Its catchment area is in the south side of the city. It has the best non-private sector exam results in Edinburgh,[1] while also ranking thirteenth in Scotland according to The Times Top 50 Scottish State Schools 2009 rankings.
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Boroughmuir has a war memorial to remember former pupils killed in both World Wars, and the school hold an annual Remembrance Service on Remembrance Day.
At the start of 1st Year (S1) at Boroughmuir, each pupil is assigned to a house, each of which is led by a member of guidance staff. The houses are named after streets surrounding the school - Montpelier, Viewforth, Hartington, Westhall, Bruntsfield and Leamington. It is the guidance teacher's job to monitor their assigned house members. To this end, students attend one hour of Personal and Social Education (PSE) with their guidance teacher a week. The pupils can earn points for their house by collecting "Praise Stamps" or "Positive Discipline Referrals". These credits are attained by behaving well in class, and completing work correctly. In S1 & 2 pupils receive letters home once they achieve a multiple of 30 stamps (e.g. 30, 60, 90). At the end of each term, the house with the most points will have its name engraved on a wooden board in the school atrium for coming out on top over all the other houses. In S3-4 the house with the most points at the end of each month is rewarded by being given the chance to go out for the day to a destination of their choice.
The school building goes back over one hundred years. It has a cafeteria and two gym halls on the bottom floor and a library on the top floor. Each floor, excluding the bottom floor, has a central corridor. On the first floor, this is the Management Team corridor. On the second floor, it is the Guidance corridor. On the third floor, the corridor houses the Science Technicians. The school has one disabled-access entrance and a lift. The classroom numbers work in a clockwise-increase fashion. From the central staircase, there is the central corridor, and one on either side. Going to the left would take you to the lowest numbers, as going to the right would give you the highest. On the left side of the first floor is the Modern Studies and History Department, on the right the Music Department. On the second floor, the left houses the Modern Languages (French, German, Russian, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and English) Departments, the right side houses the Geography Department and some English classrooms. On the third floor, the left houses the Art Department with some Science classrooms and the right houses the Science Department. The bottom floor, once you go through the door from the central stairway, to your right is the P.E. department and to your left is the C.D.T. department. Continuing to the end of the C.D.T. corridor, you will reach the north stairwell, the cafeteria and the exit to the school. This exit leads to the staff car parks, the H.E. sewing and cooking rooms and a few C.D.T. workshops. Home Economics (H.E) and Craft, Design and Technology (C.D.T) are mostly inside the school building, but with the H.E. kitchens outside and a small CDT workshop outside. It has an atrium where assemblies take place. Pupils doing P.E. (Physical Education) normally have to travel to sports centres outside school, these are usually Meggetland, Meadowbank, The Crags Sports Centre, and a local swimming pool which could be Sciennes or the Royal Commonwealth Pool. The main entrance is on Viewforth, and just up the road is Bruntsfield Primary School. There are plans for a new building to be built but no suitable sites have been found that are affordable. Another plan is to stay and renovate the inside of the building.
The school also uses an annex - St Oswald's Church Hall - as its drama department. The site is occasionally used for various other events including musical performances and SQA exams. The annex has two halls, each with a proscenium arch stage and lighting systems.
Boroughmuir had a change of feeder schools in 2006. Now Buckstone, South Morningside and Bruntsfield primaries feed into Boroughmuir. Bruntsfield used to feed into James Gillespie's High School, but now Preston Street, Sciennes and Royal Mile feed into Gillespie's.