Coltness High School is a non-denominational, co-educational, comprehensive school serving the north side of Wishaw catering for boys and girls from 3 associated primaries. It takes pupils from S1 through to S6 and currently has a roll of 746 pupils. We are currently in the midst of a school remodelling programme which will transform the original building and facilities. The Technology Block opened in June 2011 and the main teaching block is on track to open in August 2012. The new facilities will provide excellent accommodation across all curricular areas for the pupils and staff.
The school is served by a well-qualified and highly motivated staff. This includes 56.6 FTE teaching staff, 7 office staff, 4 technicians 2 classroom assistants and a team of janitors. The Senior Management Team comprises the Head Teacher and 4 Depute Head Teachers.
A team of Pupil Support staff look after the academic and social, health and wellbeing of our pupils within a vertical system made up of 3 Houses, Arran, Lewis and Skye. The team is further extended to include support for careers, Home School Partnership Worker, PSHE, Attendance Officer and PT Raising Achievement.
We wish to involve parents in all aspects of their child’s progress through the school. It is in everyone’s interest to establish good home/school links. We do this in a variety of ways, some formal and some informal. Parents’ evenings can either be information evenings or consultation evenings to discuss your child’s progress repor,t or workshops to find out about the latest methods of learning. Our newsletter, ‘Closer Contact’, is sent out to parents once or twice per term with details of “what’s on” within the school also a weekly column in the Wishaw Press.
The school enjoys strong support from the Parent Council and is actively involved in supporting the work of the school and maintains close links with the teaching staff. Many of the parents and staff work closely to fund raise and run different events every year.
We take great pride in the achievements of our young people and we hope that parents will encourage pupils to participate in the wide range of activities available in the school. We have achieved success in a range of competitions. These include public speaking, maths challenges, dance competitions, triathlon, football, music, art and science competitions.
We are extremely fortunate in the school that so many staff are willing to give of their time to work with pupils out-with the normal timetable. There are many sports activities available such as badminton, football, gymnastics, hockey, netball, trampolining and volleyball. There is a school band. Other activities that are available include astronomy, chess club, debating club, textile club, jewellery club and a craft club. There are many social events organised by the school such as ‘House’ reward trips, Christmas dances, Halloween party S6 formal and many more.
We believe that our school is part of a much wider community, extending through Wishaw to other parts of the country. Pupils, parents and staff work hard throughout the session to support the wider community through fund raising events. Links with local industry are well established through curricular activities such as work experience, world of work skills days and challenge of industry conferences. We have developed an exciting business partnership with Foundry MusicLab (FML), and a close link with Childline Scotland was recognised by a Curriculum Innovation Award. Informal links continue through work experience for senior students.
We have a very successful Peer Tutoring programme where senior pupils work with junior pupils and work towards the Millennium Volunteer Award. A number of the senior students involved in this programme have also had their work recognised with the presentation of the Princess Diana Award.
In order to make the transfer of pupils from primary to secondary school as smooth as possible regular meetings are held throughout the session at which the depute head teacher, the principal teacher support for learning and the head teachers of the three associated primaries are present. There are discussions of curricular matters and the procedures for transfer.
- In September we hold an informal parents’ evening for primary seven pupils and their parents where all departments put on displays which are designed to give everyone indication of what is ahead of them at Coltness High.
- In March members of staff from support for learning and guidance visit the primary school and meet with the primary seven teacher to identify the needs of pupils and discus the progress of pupils coming to Coltness.
- In April/May a similar exercise is carried out in the primary schools from which pupils have made placing requests. Extra transition is organised for pupils who will have difficulty adjusting to the change.
- In May all pupils attend a two-day induction visit where they follow a timetable to give them a flavour of the curricular areas. They are allocated to the class they will be in when they come to the school in August. The purpose of the visit is to let the pupils become familiar with the layout of the school as well as meeting their new classmates.
- We also hold an information evening for parents at which they have the opportunity to speak with those staff who will be most involved in monitoring their son/daughters progress ie guidance staff and members of the senior management team.
- Throughout the year various workshops are organised for the pupils in the high school run by school staff.
- During the summer holiday a ‘Summer Chill’ is run for pupils who find transition more challenging for whatever reason. The days are organised by the HSPW and staff in the school volunteer time to work with the pupils.
- Just prior to starting in August an Induction Day is held for all pupils who will be in the new S1.
There are three primary schools in the Coltness High catchment area, Calderbridge Primary, Cambusnethan Primary and Cleland Primary. About 30% of the S1 roll are placing requests from other local schools.