Gleniffer High School, often referred to simply as Gleniffer, is a Scottish state school for boys and girls aged 11 to 18. It was founded in the late 19th Centurary as Camphill School, with the main campus located in the more northern Paisley central region.
In its present form, and since 1988, Gleniffer is located on the foot hills the iconic Gleniffer Braes

Gleniffer Braes

‎Gleniffer Braes is a short range of hills to the south of Paisley, Scotland which form the boundary of Renfrewshire and Ayrshire.-Area:...

 in Central Scotland, south of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

 city, and is currently one of the largest state schools in the Renfrewshire district.
The most recent HMIe report, carried out in September 2004, noted the school to have "high quality leadership provided by the headteacher and his senior management team" as well as having an "successful pupil participation" in the vast "range of extra-curricular activities provided".
Presently, the school is run by a management team headed by the schools third head-master Mr David Nicholls, who was appointed in 2004 to succeed Mr Roddy Gardener after his retirement.

The school attracts pupils from around the Renfrewshire catchment area, and over the past decade has expanded further to accommodate greater demand for its high quality educational resources. Pupils currently attending the school follow in the footsteps of artists and musicians such as David Sneddon

David Sneddon

David Sneddon is a Scottish musician and singer-songwriter.He has performed on British television, radio and theatre. Sneddon won the first BBC UK series of Fame Academy in 2002...

, winner of the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Fame Academy

Fame Academy

Fame Academy is a televised competition to search for and educate new musical talents. The winner received a chance to become a successful music artist. The prize consisted of a £1m recording contract with a major record company, plus the use of a luxury apartment in London and a sports car for one...

 in 2003, as did Scottish country singer Jill Jackson

Jill Jackson (singer)

Jill Jackson is a lesbian Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her material includes rock, folk and alternative country music.-Career:...

.

History

Gleniffer High opened in 1988 as an amalgamation between Camphill High School and Stanley Green High School, both of which acted as smaller institutions within the Paisley area at the time.
The then head master of Stanley Green High School, Mr Hugh Nesbitt, became the Rector of Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School

Paisley Grammar School, known for a period following 1896 as the Paisley Grammar School and William B. Barbour Academy, is a non-denominational state comprehensive secondary school in Paisley, the largest town in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The school was founded in 1576 and was formerly a selective...

, with Jim Aitchison joining the new Gleniffer High as its first head-master

Camphill High School

On the 14th April 1888 at 2 p.m. Camphill School was officially opened. Two days later over 1,000 pupils enrolled in the school which cost £23,000 to build, took two years to construct and accommodated over 2,000 pupils.
It was built on the site of the present Castlehead High with Mr. John Taylor as head-master.

Twenty-first century building

In 2006 work was completed on a modernised building, located on the site of the school's sports ground. Constructed by Carillion under a private finance initiative

Private Finance Initiative

The private finance initiative is a way of creating "public–private partnerships" by funding public infrastructure projects with private capital...

 (PFI) with Amey

Amey plc

Amey plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a United Kingdom based infrastructure support service provider. It was once listed on the London Stock Exchange but since 2003 it has been a subsidiary of Spanish company Grupo Ferrovial, S.A....

 contractors. The new building aimed to breathe fresh air into the crumbling construction that housed the school previously.

Controversy

The opening of the building was delayed in late 2006 due to failure of the Carillion contractors to meet the agreed finishing date of July of that year. Staff, equipment and supplies were therefore delayed also in being transported to the new facilities, with Carillion having been said to have had five figure fines for each day it over-ran.
By order of apology, the company nonetheless offered to pay for extra tuition for pupils after classes - a service that had then recently been cut by Renfrewshire Council Education Department.

Facilities

The new building constructed in 2006 drastically modernised the services on offer to both staff and pupils.

Sports

The new building offered the pupils large classrooms, each with internet access, whiteboards, and many with projector and modern AV facilities- a must have for modern education. Children however lost access to a swimming pool in the build, but have access to two indoor sports areas, a gym, and two large outdoor sports fields.
The school has a great history for sports provision, both curricular and extra-curricular, often with community resources being used to complement the schools modern facilities.

Uniform

The uniform may include, as listed by the Gleniffer High website: Black jumper/black skirt/pinafore/trousers/black shoes/white shirt and school tie. The school tie is black with red, maroon and sky blue stripes. The red and black colours on the Gleniffer tie originate from the old Camphill high school, as black was one of the school's main colours with a red stripe; whilst the maroon and sky blue are from the Stanley Green high school tie.

However, 6th year senior pupils wear sky blue coloured ties instead, that sport the Gleniffer High logo. This was introduced in 2005.

P.E kit

For P.E pupils are expected to wear a logoed red Gleniffer high school t-shirt or polo-shirt and can optionally wear a red logoed sweatshirt, black shorts (boys), black cycling shorts(girls), a pair of trainers and in poor weather pupils can wear black or dark coloured tracksuit bottoms.

Admissions

Pupils typically enrol at Gleniffer in Secondary 1 (first year)aged 11 – 12 years old, leaving after Secondary 6 (sixth year) aged 17 – 18. Many come from the local primary schools such as Brediland, Heriot, Langcraigs, Lochfield and Bushes. Although a few others may come from other nearby primary schools instead of the catchment secondary school for their area because the find it easier.

Houses

The school operates a "house" system to encourage competition amongst the pupils. There are 4 houses: Brodie; Moredun; Stanely and; Wilson. All are named after figures in Paisley/Scottish history. This system was established in the 2004-2005 year.

Departments and subjects

• Art
• Behaviour Support
• Biology
• Business Education
• Chemistry
• Computing Studies
• English
• Geography
• History
• Home Economics
• Maths
• Modern Languages
• Modern Studies
• Music
• Physical Education
• Physics
• Religious Education (RMPS)
• General Science
• Technical Education