Hillhead High School

Admissions

It is one of the largest schools in Glasgow.

History

Grammar school

Until 1972 it was a co-educational selective school. It then became a comprehensive school.

Comprehensive

In 1972 the local authority in Glasgow abolished the selectivity process and the school gradually became a comprehensive school serving its geographical catchment area of Glasgow's West End, and serving many pupils from wider afield who had attended the primary school.

Former teachers

Colin Campbell, SNP MSP from 1999 to 2003 for West of Scotland (taught from 1961 to 1963)

Ann Dunlop Alexander painter, engraver and art teacher

School facilities

The school has two buildings, the Main Building and the Terrace Building. It also uses the nearby Wellington Church for mass assemblies at October, Christmas, Easter and Summer.

The X-shaped listed Main Building, acquired in the 1930s, is the larger of the two buildings, and is where most pupils begin their studies. Most of the school's classrooms and offices are situated on its four floors. Also in the Main Building is the library, where a career and exam advisor makes biweekly appearances. The main building was designed by E G Wylie in 1921, and construction finished in 1929. It is now protected as a category B listed building.

Originally owned by the University of Glasgow, the Terrace Building was acquired by Hillhead in c.2001. This building is used primarily for applied studies.

Notable former pupils

Don Arrol, Glaswegian comedian and presenter of Sunday Night at the London Palladium in the early sixties

Stanley Baxter, Glaswegian actor

Menzies Campbell, former leader of the Liberal Democrats

Kari Corbett, actress

Prof Gordon Younger Craig, FRSE, geologist, James Hutton Professor of Geology 1967–84 University of Edinburgh, founder trustee of Our Dynamic Earth

Prof Jack D. Dunitz, Professor of Chemical Crystallography from 1957 to 1990 at ETH Zurich, and known for the Bürgi–Dunitz angle

Sir Alastair Dunnett, journalist and newspaper editor, Editor from 1956 to 1972 of The Scotsman, and from 1946 to 1955 of the Daily Record

Islam Feruz, first footballer to play for Scotland under the school qualification rule

Alexander Fleck, 1st Baron Fleck, chairman from 1953 to 1960 of ICI

Laura Fraser, actress

Janice Hally, playwright and scriptwriter

Gilbert Highet, Anthon Professor of the Latin Language and Literature from 1950 to 1972 at Columbia University, New York

Prof E. A. J. Honigmann, Joseph Cowen Professor of English Literature from 1970 to 1989 at Newcastle University

Gordon Jackson OBE, actor, noted for The Great Escape and The Professionals