Gracemount High School

55°54′15″N 3°09′07″W

Gracemount High School
Address
136 Lasswade Road Edinburgh , EH16 6TZ Scotland
Information
Motto	Responsible, Respectful, Safe
Established	29 October 1959
Headteacher	Ross Hunter
Gender	Coeducational
Age	11 to 18
Enrolment	620
Houses	Skye, Lewis, Tiree
Colour(s)	Red, yellow, green
Website	https://www.gracemounthighschool.co.uk/

Gracemount High School (GHS) is a non-denominational six-year comprehensive secondary school serving south-east Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a current roll of over 600 pupils and around 80 staff. It is operated by City of Edinburgh Council, the local education authority. No current inspection report is available and it was last inspected in 2013.^[1][2]

League tables, published in 2019, ranking the percentage of pupils attaining five or more awards at SCQF Level 6 (Scottish Higher) in 2019, placed Gracemount High at 331 out of 339 schools with 13 per cent; the Scottish Government benchmark figure for GHS was 22.^[3] The Scottish Government's school information dashboard for Gracemount High shows attainment levels at SCQF Level 3 in S3 at over 90 per cent for reading and listening and talking in 2018-19; 73 per cent of pupils leave with at least one award at SCQF level 5 or better.^[4]

History

Old building

The original school building was opened in 29 October 1959 as a junior secondary school and became a six-year comprehensive school in the 1960s.^[5][6] In 2000, with the school in a very poor state and needing repairs, Edinburgh Council decided that the cost of repairing the building was too great, and that creating a new building would be a more viable solution.

Before the original school building closed and was then demolished in 2003, ex-teaching staff and students gathered for a party to mark the end of the original school building which stood for over forty years.

New building

The new school

Pupils and staff moved into the new building in August 2003.^[5][7] It is located adjacent to Captain's Road, and to where the old school formerly stood. The functional design has a central hall with classroom wings leading off.^[8]

The building was created under a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme by Edinburgh Schools Partnership (ESP). Gracemount was one of several 21st-century school buildings in Edinburgh found to be defective.^[9][10] The schools had all been built by Miller Construction, which was acquired by Galliford Try in 2014. Construction expert Prof John Cole published a damning report into the scandal in 2017.^[11]  Following this the ESP agreed to pay for all structural repair work (Nov 2018).^[12]

Cycling event

The school was the halfway point for the 2017 London–Edinburgh–London cycle ride.

References

1. "Education Scotland Inspection Reports page for Gracemount High School". Education Scotland Inspection Reports. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
2. "Top Edinburgh schools go 10 years without inspections". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
3. "In full: How every secondary school in Scotland ranks in exam league table". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
4. "Summary statistics for schools in Scotland no. 10: 2019 edition - gov.scot". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
5. "History of Gracemount High School". Gracemount High School. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
6. "Gracemount High School Standards and Quality report 2018-19" (PDF). Gracemount High School. Edinburgh Learns: Standards and Quality Reporting and School Improvement Planning. 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
7. "Panoramic Photo of Gracemount High School Entrance". www.edinphoto.org.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
8. "Geograph:: Gracemount High School (C) Kay Williams". www.geograph.org.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
9. Nicolson, Stuart (11 April 2016). "Why are 17 Edinburgh schools closed?". BBC News. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
10. "Defects found at 72 more Scots schools". BBC News. 13 April 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
11. Carrell, Severin (9 February 2017). "Damning report attacks firms which built fault-ridden Scottish schools". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
12. "Contractors agree to pay full defective Edinburgh schools bill". Scottish Construction Now. Retrieved 4 May 2020.

External links

• Images of the 1950s building