Hillhead High School

Can you review a high school? I’ll give it a bash, anyway.
When I was at Hillhead it resembled a prison — felt like it at times, too — but over the years it has had an extension built onto it, and the open air corridors (a throwback from Glasgow’s TB and Smallpox infested days) have been sealed with new ned-​proof double glazed windows.
I think I enrolled at this school during a rough time. In my six years in attendance there was interracial conflict, which saw horse backed police patrolling the premises, amalgamation problems and one of our favourite teachers was on the news because he got punched in the face! I can also vouch for the underlying bullying problems — the huge mix of backgrounds here meant that a majority of people came to blows with others at some point, and some of us felt a bit smothered under the wave. At the time I quietly got on with it but have fond memories of being verbally abused and having chewing gum stuck to my back… best years of your life, eh? This was partly to do with my inherent lack of balls though, and my hippy dippy registration teacher (now retired) who said I should know better — the kids to blame were from tough backgrounds. Now that I’ve toughened up a bit, I’d like to go back in time to tell her to kiss my enduring ass but at the time I just got on with it.
In the early noughties, merely getting by in Hillhead meant you slipped under the radar, but nowadays any traces of race troubles etc seem to have been eliminated. My gem of an English teacher is now deputy head which is a vast improvement in my opinion, and the school’s drama dept has had a makeover. Although we all mourned the loss of the gorgeous old stage that got turned into a gym, there’s a large drama space and the school departments work hard to produce school shows and give opportunities to all their youngsters. There are some strong players in each department, most notably French, English, Music, Maths, Art and PE. In these departments, the teacher’s efforts evidently pay off and they produce many bright young people every year. Technical, Home Economics and RE were always favourites of mine, too, with long term staff who were genuinely eager for you to do well. Our RE teacher had a heart of gold… he should’ve been paid to be a guidance teacher as well as heading his own department.
It’s been a while since I revisited but it’s nice to see some of the dust has settled in every sense of the word, and that certain areas are continually improved. The areas I loved — English and Music, namely — are still going strong, and the libarary continues to be a great resource for pupils of all ages. Hopefully the career’s advice team has been revamped and the school’s website needs to be brought into the new decade, but aside from that there are worse schools.