Scottish Catholic Observer

THE last Notre Dame Sister to serve as headteacher at Fernhill School in Rutherglen has praised its decision to become fully co-educational as pupils and staff made a special reconnection with the past.

The school embraced its shared history between the Sisters of Notre Dame, as it invited Srs Maura and Agnes along to the rededication ceremony of the school’s oratory, now named in honour of Our Lady.

“It’s good because it’s progressing in response to the needs of the day, and that’s important,” Sr Maura said.

“It was a very good day. I’m delighted to have been here, to see the school and to know this continues where we started it.”

Having operated as an all-girls primary school run by the Sisters of Notre Dame since the 1950s, Fernhill was saved from closure by a group of parents, reopening in 1972 as an independent day school.

It recently made the switch to educate boys up until the age of 18, and following the ‘positive’ move the school has maintained its core ethos of a ‘good Catholic education.’

The Fernhill community gathered at the newly renamed Notre Dame Oratory on May 16, with staff, pupils and invited guests joining in a beautiful ceremony with Bishop Joseph Toal of Motherwell.

“I was invited to come along by the school, so it was nice to be part of the occasion and to say the prayer of blessing in their oratory and to be part of that, and to see a place of prayer and worship in the school which hopefully will be used well by the pupils and be an inspiration for the rest of their work,” Bishop Toal said.

As Pope Francis encouraged the dedication of holy places in the Year of Mercy, pupils researched Fernhill’s history and, coupled with the school’s patron being Our Lady, to whom the school community has a great devotion, it was decided the oratory would be renamed the Notre Dame Oratory.

“We’re rededicating the oratory because our parent council suggested that Pope Francis had suggested organisations name some of the holy places after the Year of Mercy,” headteacher Laura Murphy said.

“We put that to the pupils, and we were thinking of something to do with the Year of Mercy, but the pupils then researched the school’s history and they wanted to name it Notre Dame after the founders of the school, the Notre Dame Sisters.”

Mrs Murphy also spoke of the decision to admit boys, which complemented the importance of the Fernhill family.

“We always say we’re a Fernhill family and we always say we’re a family community,” she said. “There was a lot of families that had boys that wanted to stay at the school every year, and they couldn’t because it was girls only.

“We’ve always had boys up until Primary 7, and then the boys had to leave, so we thought we would open it up and allow families to be able to stay together, and all the children to be educated in the one school.

“This is our first year, it’s been very successful and next year we’ve got a really good cohort of boys going into first year.”

The chair of the school’s parent council, Sharon Doonan, also spoke highly of the school’s connection to its rich history and the changes the school has seen.

“I thought it was beautiful, it was such a lovely day,” she said.

“Fernhill’s identity is just so steeped in the fact that the Sisters of Notre Dame were here and the school itself, all the pupils, have such a love for Our Lady, such a dedication to Our Lady.

“She seeps through every part of the school, so it was really important to the school—not just the teaching staff but the pupils—that Our Lady was part of the fabric of the school.

“I think its great that there’s change and it’s a change that’s been brought about in consultation with the parents and the pupils at every step.

“Because of the type of school it is, and the family community, it’s big wrench sending your child away.

“From a family perspective, it’s much easier to have your children at the same school. And this is the education that you want for your children, it’s just so lovely.

“It’s definitely a positive change. There’s lots of exciting things happening, lots of material changes to the grounds but the core ethos remains the same, and that’s a good Catholic education.”

The day proved to be a chance for the whole Fernhill community to celebrate the school’s past at a time of change as it looks to the future.