St Gerard's Roman Catholic Secondary School, Govan

St. Gerard's RC Secondary School

Established	1937
Closed	1998
Location	80 Vicarfield Street Glasgow G51 2DF Coordinates: 55°51′36″N 4°18′23″W / 55.860137°N 4.306310°W

St. Gerard's RC Secondary was a secondary school in Govan, formerly known as St Gerard's Senior Secondary School.

The school took pupils from a number of areas designated by Strathclyde region as being a priority in terms of social deprivation. It was quoted in 1991 that almost 50 percent of pupils were entitled to free school meals.^[1]

History

In the 1960s the school became a comprehensive.^[1]

An attempt was made by Glasgow city council to close the school in 1993, along with a number of other schools in the city. A joint action group representing the parents of the various schools was formed, and they put forward a request for the school to be opted-out of local authority control within the terms of the Self Governing Schools (Scotland) Act 1989 which was then in force.^[2][3] The dispute surrounding the closure and the use of the opt-out legislation went to the House of Lords, where it was ruled that Strathclyde region had acted unlawfully when the councillors voted to close St. Gerards after a ballot for the opt-out had been called. The campaign by the joint action group was successful in keeping the school open for at least a few more years.^[4]

The school was finally closed in 1998 as part of a Glasgow city council plan which included the closure of seven secondary schools in the city, including five denominational Catholic schools. This proposal was publicly criticised by Cardinal Thomas Winning as sacrificing the needs of the children in the Catholic community for the sake of short term financial gain.^[5][6]

Former pupils

• Billy Connolly
• Edward Dowd (school dux)
• Trish Godman
• Roderick Wright
• Iain Robertson
• Joe McBride
• Jim Craig
• Johnny Quigley^[7]
• Harry Haddock

Johnny Beattie M.B.E

References

1. Lovegrove, Gillian (1991). Women into computing: selected papers, 1988-1990. Springer-Verlag. p. 145.
2. Macdonald, Calum (10 February 1993). "Streetwise on the South Side". The Herald.
3. Macdonald, Calum (10 February 1993). "Schools row set to run and run". The Herald.
4. Mcbain, Barclay (6 October 1993). "Ruling on school closure 'unlawful'". The Herald.
5. McGinty, Stephen (25 January 1998). "Winning attacks Glasgow school closures plan". The Sunday Times.
6. Madeley, Gavin (28 January 1998). "Hard task for masters". The Herald.
7. "acumfaegovan.com", Johnny Quigley Profile