Woodfarm High School

Woodfarm High School
Established 1962
Type Public School
Head Teacher Mrs Nicola MacGlashan
Location Robslee Road, East Renfrewshire,
Scotland
Students c. 800
Gender Coeducational
Colours Junior Tie Senior Tie
Website www.ea.e-renfrew.sch.uk/woodfarm

Woodfarm High School is a Scottish public school in Woodfarm, East Renfrewshire, and one of the highest achieving High Schools in the country. It has a roll of approximately 800 pupils. The Headmistress is Nicola MacGlashan who joined the school in August 2014.

The school achieves very 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 2006, 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 five houses.

  •      Arran
  •      Bute
  •      Cumbrae
  •      Tiree
  •      Vegan

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 members 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 a Head Boy, Head Girl, Deputy Head Boy and a Deputy Head Girl who have main responsibility over the prefects and the pupils in general.

Head/Deputy Head Boy and Girl and Prefects

In S5 (12th year of education), pupils have the opportunity to stand for selection for Prefect. All staff vote and a small number of candidates are awarded prefect, typically those favoured by teachers. In S6, all pupils have the opportunity to stand for selection for Head/Deputy Head Boy/Girl and the Senior Prefect Team. Applications are shortlisted and a small number invited to give a presentation to the School Managemt Team and are interviewed. From there the Head Boy/Girl, Deputy Head Boy/Girl and their senior prefect team are appointed.

Pupils who were unsuccessful in being elected prefect in S5 and are also not successful in being appointed part of the Senior Prefect Team have the opportunity to re-apply to be prefect in S6.

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
  • Anime Club
  • Football Team
  • Netball Team
  • Hockey Team
  • Running Club
  • Gymnastics Club
  • Athletics Club
  • Amnesty International
  • Science Club
  • Christian Club
  • LGBT Club

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 (Mr. P. Lindsay)
  • Proforming Arts (T.B.C)
  • English (Mrs. J. Galt)
  • Maths (Mr. J. O'Toole)
  • Modern Languages (Mrs S. Thomson)
  • Health and Wellbeing (Mr MacCracken)
  • Science (Dr. S. Hadfield)
  • Social Subjects and RME (Mr. S. McDonald)
  • Technology and Design (Miss. A. Waddell)

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.

The demographic makeup of Woodfarm is interesting with pupils from the affluent suburbs of Giffnock, Whitecraigs and Clarkston attending alongside pupils from working class areas such as Thornliebank and Woodfarm.

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20101223055703/http://news.stv.tv/school-tables/?all=true. Archived from the original on 23 December 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2012. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1230585/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. ↑ http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,791773/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. ↑ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4780792/. Missing or empty |title= (help)

Coordinates: 55°48′12″N 4°18′38″W / 55.80333°N 4.31056°W / 55.80333; -4.31056

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