Jordanhill School

History

The college was an out-of-town location that sought to merge two teacher training centres that were heavily influenced by education training pioneer David Stow, a Glasgow merchant. These were the Free Church Normal Seminary and the Dundas Vale Normal Seminary, two of the earliest teacher training colleges in Scotland. This merger was a government-sponsored initiative of 1905, when it was decided that teacher training should be taken away from the church and placed under the control of a provincial committee.

The site of the college - and now the school - was on the old Jordanhill Estate grounds. The old Jordanhill House was demolished around 1915, with the Glasgow Provincial Committee buying the land to build their new college, though the plot had been for sale since 1911. The school buildings were completed in 1921, although the school was founded a year earlier, in 1920. Headmasters include Andrew Walker (1891–1974), who led Jordanhill College School from 1936 to 1956, having earlier served from 1921 to 1932 as a mathematics and science master and - initially - the only teacher in the new secondary department, formed in 1921 with twenty pupils. His successor, William T Branston (1915–1984), at the time of his 1956 appointment was the youngest headteacher in Scotland and whose tenure - Branston retired in December 1980 - saw successive challenges, from sustained upheaval in Scottish school curricula to a serious bid to shut Jordanhill College School in 1969. (It survived, the controversy concluding in December 1970, with the school adjusting readily to non-selective and non fee-paying status)

A former naval officer and veteran of the Second World War, committed to good works from amateur dramatics through the YMCA (he chaired the Glasgow organisation) to the Scottish National Orchestra Chorus and influential lay service in the Church of Scotland, William Branston was to most pupils an 'astonishingly remote, God-like figure'. He enforced regular religious observance - such as morning assembly - and the school was noted through the 1970s for its rigid uniform code and highly conservative, rote-learning traditional teaching methods, notably in arithmetic and English grammar.

The school remained under control of the College until 1988, when it switched to its current directly funded status. This move caused controversy at the time, with various other options considered (including becoming a Council-run establishment or, indeed, a fee-paying school). In the end a combination of a spirited "Save Our School" campaign spearheaded by Branston's successor, Alistair Cram and ingenious political machinations led to the school becoming directly funded by the Scottish Office (and later the Scottish Executive). Cram resigned in 1988, and in 1989 'College' was dropped from the school name, at the insistence of Jordanhill College.

In 1993 the college merged with the University of Strathclyde, with the Jordanhill Campus serving as home to the Education Faculty.

Rectors

Modernisation

An addition in recent years is the Macmillan Building, a small building behind the school; housing a classroom used for RE and additional sports changing facilities. In early 2005 the school acquired the former Laurel Park games hall on Anniesland Road, in partnership with the Glasgow Academy.

Miscellaneous

The school's Latin motto, beneath its coat of arms is "Ad summa nitor", which translates to "Strive for the highest".

The school uniform consists of dark trousers for boys (brown shorts were obligatory in the Primary Department until 1977, when the option of 'longs' was ceded to Primary Seven boys) a brown skirt (or pinafore for primary girls) for girls, a white shirt (the option of cream was permitted into the early 1990s) and a brown blazer. Girls are not allowed to wear trousers (However there have been movements and petitions by student bodies within the school to end girls not being allowed to wear trousers, which have all been controversially blocked by the board of managers and the SMT) and blazers are compulsory for all pupils, regardless of weather, making them unusual for a Scottish state school. The tie is yellow, brown and green for everyone except the seniors (S5- S6) who have a brown tie and pupils achieving excellence in extra-curricular activities (for example representing their country at their chosen sport) who may be awarded a green Honours tie. (S4-S6 only).

The school is categorised as non-denominational, but students are however required to attend 3 Christian Church services at the end of each term, at Jordanhill Parish Church.

In 2015, the school controversially denied a place to a disabled, special needs child.

Jordanhill's Senior Management Team (SMT) consists of:

The railway station closest to the school is Jordanhill railway station.

The school was used as a filming location for Trainspotting, the film of the 1993 Irvine Welsh novel. The school has also been used for the filming of BBC dramas, Shetland and Single Father