Senior School
Dedicated teaching, pastoral care, challenge and opportunity

Senior School is an exciting stage in your child’s education. At St Columba’s we promote a vibrant learning culture where pupils are encouraged to achieve their potential both in and outside the classroom.

Our success is evident not only in our excellent academic results, regularly placing St Columba’s as one of the highest-achieving schools nationally, but in the impressive young people you will meet in our classrooms, at an international debate and on the field. 

We combine the pursuit of academic excellence with a range of opportunity and challenge to develop self-confident and independent young people who have a strong sense of community and who will become responsible and reflective future leaders.



Pastoral Care
Safe, supported and valued

At St Columba’s we place great emphasis on the care and wellbeing of all pupils. All pupils are known as individuals; their personal qualities are appreciated, their individual needs are recognised and their progress and attainment monitored throughout their years at School.

Pupils belong to one of the four Houses - Craigmarloch, Duchal, Kilallan and Strathgryffe. Members of the same family will normally belong to the same House. The House system promotes a strong sense of community where pupils of all ages integrate with one another and older pupils help and support our younger pupils.

The Head of House is a key person for pupils and parents and is the first point of contact with the School. The Head of House is responsible for Personal and Social Education, monitoring progress and attainment, subject choice and UCAS applications. Heads of House meet pupils individually at least twice per session and are available at all parents’ evenings.

House Captains play an important role in supporting the members, particularly the younger members, of their House. Every new pupil is allocated a Regent from Senior VI to ensure that their entry to Senior School is a happy one.



Learning Support
Support and advice for pupils

At St Columba’s Support for Learning staff offer support and advice to pupils, staff and parents to enable all our pupils to achieve their potential.

The support offered is tailored to address individual needs, whilst ensuring that pupils can access the full curriculum leading to national qualifications. We strongly believe that the best support is delivered by subject specialists, who are provided with advice to assist individual pupils.

Additional support may be offered to pupils within their classes and in some cases pupils are extracted to provide individual or group assistance.

We have adopted a whole-school approach to teaching study and revision skills and these can be reinforced, together with individualised support strategies, at lunchtime or after-school sessions to meet particular needs as they arise. Subjects also offer a variety of focused drop-in support at lunchtimes, after school or by arrangement.


Support for Learning staff co-ordinate all Alternative Assessment Arrangements for internal and external exams. These arrangements are designed to enable pupils with an identified learning difficulty to demonstrate their ability, in compliance with SQA guidelines.

View our Support for Learning information booklet here.
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Curriculum

Inspire, nurture, empower

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Senior VI

Preparing for the future

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Careers

Guidance and inspiration

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News

See what we've been up to

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