School Information

History

North Berwick High School was founded in 1893, but before that there were already two schools in North Berwick – the Parish School and the Burgh School, the former dating from 1661. By the mid-nineteenth century the Parish School was held in a building at the corner of School Alley (now called Church Road) and High Street, and the Burgh School met in the room which is now the upper floor of Brian Ferguson, Chemist, at the corner of Market Square and High Street. The two schools united in 1868 and in 1876 moved into a new building, now the Museum, in School Road.

In 1893 the High School began with thirteen pupils in what is now the Abbey Church Hall, but in September of that year the pupils moved into their new premises in Law Road (the present Community Centre). In 1931 the High School and Burgh School combined, retaining both the School Road and the Law Road buildings until 1940 when the secondary school pupils moved into the current building beside the playing fields.

The 1940 building forms the front part of the current building with a two-storey teaching extension built in 1960. Sound and solid though this main building was, it proved inadequate for a school that grew to twice the size it was in 1940.

In 1994 the then Regional Authority (Lothian Region) agreed to include North Berwick High School in its capital budget with a four-year plan to upgrade the school accommodation. Building work, designed to replace our temporary accommodation with new permanent buildings and to refurbish the existing building, commenced in December 1996 and was completed in April 1998.

The school was further enlarged and refurbished under a PPP scheme which started in March 2003 and was completed in the Autumn of 2005.

The school now has a full set of classrooms in all areas of the curriculum.  The school has a large array of IT equipment including Promethean interactive whiteboards in every room, together with a large number of portable PCs for pupil use.  The school has a large assembly hall with excellent facilities for staging musical and dramatic productions and these are well used by the school and local community groups. We have excellent sports facilities both within the school and the adjacent Sports Centre. We also have social areas, including a beautiful school garden/courtyard, and a dining room, The Rendezvous.

Our school is now undoubtedly one of the best equipped in the whole of Scotland and is in an excellent position to rise to the challenge of providing quality learning and teaching under a Curriculum for Excellence.

Our Values

An extensive consultation on school values was carried out during June 2017. Staff, parents, carers, and P7 parents were invited to respond to an online questionnaire, and pupils were asked to share their thoughts during an extended registration. The same three questions were asked of everyone:

Q1. What values are important at North Berwick High School?
Q2. What can we do in school to promote and celebrate these values in our everyday practice?
Q3. What do you think the purpose of education is?

Parents and carers were also given the opportunity to add any further comments if they wished. Pupils, parents and staff were very clear that the values of curiosity, diligence, kindness and belonging matter to us at North Berwick High School.