Sciennes Primary School

Sciennes Primary School is a school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It opened in 1892 and is one of the largest in Edinburgh. The school is co-educational and non-denominational.

The School was formally opened on June 3 by Lord Reay, opened in March with 500 pupils and 16 members of staff. New pupils enrolled fast and by May there were over 1000 pupils on the roll. It is very popular and suffers from overcrowding. The school was considered to be operating at 105.08% of its capacity during the 2018–2019 school year. An extension is planned Sciennes Primary School building was designed by Robert Wilson. The building is grade-B listed. The playground at the front of the building was divided down the middle by a railing to keep boys and girls apart. 'Boys' and 'Girls' is engraved in the stonework above the two entrances. The playground has been landscaped to create an ‘outdoor classroom / garden’ and a safe area in the street. The toilets were outside and not attached to the building.There was a bell tower on the roof. Sciennes was unusual for its time in having a swimming a pool in the basement where pupils for other schools sometimes came to have swimming classes. Windows in classrooms were designed to be high so that the outside world did not provide a distraction to pupils but large demonstrating the School Board's concern with the healthy effects of light and ventilation. From 1914 the Education Board of the Edinburgh offered the school facilities for Hebrew classes for Jewish children in Edinburgh on weekday afternoons.

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Sciennes

Sciennes (SHEENZ, ) is a district of Edinburgh, Scotland, situated approximately two kilometres (1+1⁄4 miles) south of the city centre. It is a mainly residential district, although it is also well-known as the site of the former Royal Hospital for Sick Children. Most of its housing stock consists of terraces of four-storey Victorian tenements. The district is popular with students, thanks to its proximity to the University of Edinburgh. Its early history is linked to the presence in the area of the 16th-century Convent of St Catherine of Scienna, from which the district derives its name.

Neighbourhood

Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh

The Royal Hospital for Sick Children was a hospital in Sciennes, Edinburgh, Scotland, specialising in paediatric healthcare. Locally, it was commonly referred to simply as the "Sick Kids". The hospital provided emergency care for children from birth to their 13th birthday, including a specialist Accident and Emergency facility. Some in-patient specialties saw children up to their 16th birthday. The hospital was located on Sciennes Road in the Sciennes area of Edinburgh's South Side and was managed by NHS Lothian. It moved in 2021 to the new Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Little France.

St Catherine's Argyle Church

St. Catherine's Argyle, or St. Cath's, is a Church of Scotland church located in the Grange, Edinburgh. The Scottish churchman and poet Horatius Bonar was its first minister. The present St Catherine's Argyle congregation was formed in 1968 from the union of two local churches - St Catherine's in the Grange (originating in 1861 as Chalmers Memorial Free Church) and the Argyle Place United Presbyterian Church (itself originally formed in April 1877). The present building is that which was built by Chalmers Memorial Church, which first opened its doors on 6 December 1866. Built of grey stone, with several pink granite pillars, a proposed steeple to the East of the building was never completed, though the interior of the building has been repeatedly modernised. Most notably so in the early late 1960s when the union of St Catherine's with Argyle Place was completed. Initially plans would have seen the current St Catherine's building remodelled as halls for the church, with the Argyle Place church functioning as the main centre of worship. A devastating fire at the Argyle Place Church building, however, saw the St Catherine's building established as the ongoing centre of worship, though the building still also remains a busy hub of community bookings to this day. In April 2008 the Rev. Victor Laidlaw retired after a 33 year long ministry to the congregation and parish. The present minister is the Rev. Stuart Irvin.

Alexander Russell Simpson

Sir Alexander Russell Simpson FRCPE FRSE LLD (20 April 1835 – 6 April 1916) was a Scottish physician and Professor of Midwifery at the University of Edinburgh. He invented the axis-traction forceps also known as the obstetrics forceps which assisted in childbirth and reducing pain.