Gracemount High School

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]

Gracemount High School
Address
136 Lasswade Road

Edinburgh
,
EH16 6TZ

Scotland
Information
Motto"Committed to care and excellence!"
Established1959
HeadteacherRoss Hunter
Enrolment620
HousesSkye, Lewis, Tiree
Colour(s)Red, Green, Yellow
Websitewww.gracemount.edin.sch.uk/

The school has developed an approach to pupils personal development it refers to as the Gracemount Guarantee and the senior phase (S5 and S6) is based on personalisation and choice from a range of vocational and academic qualifications.[3] 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.[4] 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.[5]

History

Old building

The original school building was opened in 1959 as a junior secondary school and became a six-year comprehensive school in the 1960s.[6][3] 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.

New building
The new school

Pupils and staff moved into the new building in August 2003.[6][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 a number of 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.

gollark: That seems... convoluted and possibly prone to horrible problems?
gollark: I mean, there are Minecraft protocol client implementations, so probably.
gollark: There's cuberite and stuff too, I think.
gollark: Neat.
gollark: Not even that, I mean that most modpacks will probably have a few machines which, say, magically materialize ores from the void.

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. "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.
  4. "In full: How every secondary school in Scotland ranks in exam league table". HeraldScotland. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  5. "Summary statistics for schools in Scotland no. 10: 2019 edition - gov.scot". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  6. "History of Gracemount High School". Gracemount High School. 4 May 2020. 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.
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