Holyrood Secondary School


Holyrood Secondary School is a Catholic secondary school in the south-side of Glasgow, Scotland. It is near Crosshill railway station, Hampden Park, A728 and the new M74 motorway.
Holyrood RC Secondary school is the biggest school in Scotland with over 2,000 pupils and 150 teaching staff. Holyrood was officially opened in 1936 and has had refurbishment which includes the Holyrood Sports Centre, which was opened in late 2000 and is used by the pupils during school and the community in the evenings and at weekends.

History

The school was founded in 1936 and originally functioned as a Senior Secondary with entry dependent on a high mark in the "Qualifying examination". In 1971 the exam was abolished and all Scottish state schools became equal in terms of status, curriculum offered and examinations taken.
In 2012, the school was the subject of a BBC television documentary series titled High School.

Facilities

The original school building, designed by the firm of John Burnet, Son & Dick, was built in 1936, and is now protected as a category B listed building.
Over the years, the school has had renovation and additional blocks purposely built, this is known as the "new block" and "I.T. Wing".
The new block also features new classrooms for English, Religious education and Social Subjects. The school features over 20 purpose built I.T. Rooms and also hosts three drama studios, complete with sound and lighting effects. In addition, several wood work and metal workshops are situated as well as modern laboratories for Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Nearly all classrooms within the school are fully equipped with state of the art SMART boards and projectors.
In 2001, Glasgow city council commissioned a modern sports centre to be built directly next to Holyrood, known as "Holyrood Sports Centre". The school has exclusive access during the day to all the facilities, with the centre being open at night to the public. The sports centre features a full size synthetic floodlit pitch, 3 seven-a-side pitches, changing rooms,inside gym hall and shower accommodation. In addition, an open plan gym which can be split into two separate halls, a dance studio and a modern extensive fitness suite. These facilities are used by all pupils for physical education and are an addition to the swimming pool and gymnastics hall.
In 2012, the school was selected as the Glasgow base for the Scottish Football Association's Performance Schools, a system devised to support the development of the best young talented footballers across the country. As of 2018, the dedicated coach for the young players at Holyrood is Joe McBride.

Malawi Partnership

The school has established a close partnership with Mary's Meals, which saw former deputy head, Tony Begley, resign from his position to take up a new role as the education co-ordinator of this nonprofitable charity. The school has also been at the forefront of fundraising for Malawi as well as Mary's Meals which involves under 30 pupils travelling to areas close to Blantyre, Malawi to reconstruct, renovate and build schools.
A team of 36 young people has now been chosen for 2013 after a successful 5 years of the project and will continue the work in Malawi, led by previous head teacher, Thomas McDonald. The school has so far raised in excess of £200,000 for Malawi.

Admissions

The school has a pupil roll of approximately 2000 pupils and 150 teachers making it one of the largest state comprehensive schools in Europe.

Notable former pupils

Arts & media
Business & finance
Politics
Sports
The school chaplain is Father John J. Carroll of St. Mary Immaculate Parish, Pollokshaws