Woodfarm High School
Established | 1962 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Type | Public School | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Teacher | Mrs Nicola MacGlashan | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Location |
Robslee Road, Thornliebank, East Renfrewshire Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Students | c. 800 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Gender | Coeducational | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Colours |
Junior Tie Senior Tie | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Website |
blogs |
Woodfarm High School is a non-denominational Scottish public school in Woodfarm, East Renfrewshire. It has a roll of approximately 800 pupils. The Head Teacher is Nicola MacGlashan who joined the school in August 2014
The school achieves high exam results, along with other East Renfrewshire high schools. Woodfarm was the first secondary school in East Renfrewshire to receive the Level 1 UNICEF Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA), and received Level 2 in early 2015 making it the third school in the country to achieve this award.. In 2012, it was ranked the 7th best state school in Scotland by the percentage of fifth years attaining at least five Higher passes.[1]
Previous building and fire
The original Woodfarm consisted of four separate buildings, one with all general departments including gym, office and management facilities, another with Art and Information Technology departments and the final with English, Maths, Science and Home Economics. The fire destroyed the English and Science departments. The English and Maths building was also named the "Westfield Building".
However, a new wing to the school was opened in 2005, housing the Science, Maths, and English departments, as well as the office and cafeteria. The new 'Street' area is used for in school events such as the school ceilidhs that are held every year in December.
Staff Structure
At the head of all staff is the Headmistress. Below her are the SMT (Senior Management Team). This includes a head of year for all years of the school. Then there are the Principal Teachers who are Head Of Department.
House system
Woodfarm has four houses named after Scottish islands.
- Arran
- Bute
- Cumbrae
- Tiree
Each year, a male and female senior from each house is elected House Captain. There are also now Junior House Captains. The points system is mostly based on time-keeping and attendance, but also given from inter-house competitions, like the senior football tournament.
School Government
The main branch of the school government is in the form of the pupil council. There are a small number of elected member from each year who meet regularly with their head of year. The pupil council makes suggestions which are refined and passed to the appropriate person for action to be taken.
There is also an elected Head Boy and Head Girl (both with assistants) who have main responsibility over the prefects and the pupils in general.
Prefects and Head Boy/Girl
In S5 (12th year of education), pupils have the opportunity to stand for selection for Prefect. All staff and senior pupils vote and a small number of candidates are awarded prefect. At S6, prefects have the opportunity to stand for election as Head Boy/Girl. Those prefects who are not elected as head boy/girl are promoted to Senior Prefect.
Clubs and Societies
Throughout the junior and senior school there are many staff led and student led clubs. These Include:
- Fairtrade Committee
- Book Club
- Homework Club
- Craft Club
- Debating Society
- Rights Respecting Committee
- Basketball Club
- Football Team
- Netball Team
- Hockey Team
- Running Club
- Gymnastics Club
- Athletics Club
- Amnesty International
Departments
The subject areas in Woodfarm High School are structured into nine faculties. Each faculty has a faculty head who has overall management responsibility and leads the learning and teaching. The faculties are:
- Business Education and Computing (Mrs. L. Luker)
- Creative Arts (Mr. K. Selbie)
- English (Mrs. Galt)
- Maths (Mr. J. O'Toole)
- Modern Languages (Mrs. Hashagen)
- P.E. (Mrs. McLean)
- Science (Dr. S. Hadfield)
- Social Subjects and RME (Mrs. F. Johnson)
- Technology Faculty (Mrs. P. MacKenzie)
The head of each faculty appear in the brackets succeeding the name of department.
Achievements
Cluster primary schools
The pupils of Woodfarm High School are mainly made up of students transferring from the four feeder primary schools: Robslee Primary School, Thornliebank Primary School, Braidbar Primary School and Giffnock Primary School. A small percentage of students from primary schools in the Glasgow City Council area are also admitted to the school by placement request. In 2011, Robslee and Giffnock Primary Schools were merged to allow Our Lady of The Missions Roman Catholic Primary the use of the Robslee building. As of August 2014, Woodfarm High School will have only 3 associated primaries: Braidbar Primary, Thornliebank Junior School and Giffnock Primary School.
Notable alumni
- Dougie Payne (bassist for indie rock band Travis)
- Jordan Halsman (Footballer currently playing for Cowdenbeath)
- Chris Iwelumo (Former Scottish international footballer)
- Emily Middlemas (Singer who starred in The X Factor)
- David Murray (Professor of Old Testament & Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary)
- Manda Rin (Scottish musician and designer, best known as a member of the indie pop band Bis)
- Jennifer Reoch (Former Miss Scotland and TV presenter at STV Glasgow)
- Sergio Casci (writer and actor most famous for his screenplay of the films Man Dancin' and American Cousins)
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/20101223055703/http://news.stv.tv:80/school-tables/?all=true. Archived from the original on December 23, 2010. Retrieved January 1, 2012. Missing or empty
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External links
Coordinates: 55°48′12″N 4°18′38″W / 55.80333°N 4.31056°W