A “radical” plan to rescue Govan High has been unveiled by Glasgow City Council. The 390-pupil school is to be transformed into a “community campus”, offering FE courses and sport and healthy-living initiatives alongside the traditional curriculum.
Gordon Matheson, the outgoing executive member for education and social renewal, said the school would be the first to be tackled under the council’s new strategy, in which secondaries will develop specialisms through links with further and higher education institutions and cultural bodies based in the city.
The proposals, which the council wants to implement by August 2010, would secure the future of Govan High, which has a falling roll and has dropped below the minimum feasible level for providing a full curriculum. “The status quo is not an option,” he said. “I’m not saying there were any plans in terms of closure but, given the challenges the school faces, not least in terms of its falling roll, there needed to be a radical revision of how we manage it.”
Headded that the enhanced FE and skills opportunities offered by a community campus on-site were likely to attract placing requests.
School insiders say the number of placing requests is on the increase and this year’s S1 intake was larger than in previous years. Govan has a hairdressing course taught by college lecturers, runs a dance programme delivered by a dancer in residence, and has established an engineering partnership with Stow College.
Mr Matheson insisted that the proposed partnership with Anniesland and Cardonald colleges was “a real step change” and would take educational provision to a different level.
The council envisages the campus offering three distinct strands:
- college school, for pupils only, aged 12-18, offering a core curriculum taught by teachers;
- vocational college or skills academy for pupils aged 14 and upwards, as well as adult learners from the local area, specialising in areas such as science and technology, health, hairdressing, beauty therapies, hospitality, and business and creative industries, delivered by FE lecturers;
- centre for the partner agencies involved in the Govan Children and Family Plan, offering community sports and healthy-living initiatives.
