Park Mains High School
Location and headteacher, contacting the school, plans to increase future capacity, future roll projections, parent and carer updates
Location and headteacher
Park Mains High School is on Barrhill Road in Erskine. Alan Dick is the headteacher.
The associated primary schools are Bargarran, Barsail, Bishopton, Dargavel, Inchinnan, Langbank and Rashielea.
Headquarters contact details
- Link education manager: Julie Colquhoun
Contacting the school
If you have any questions about general school matters, you can contact the school as follows:
Plans to increase future capacity
We are working on plans to expand Park Mains to meet the expected rise in pupil numbers in the years ahead.
Councillors agreed in 2023 to extend Park Mains High School to add capacity for another 400 pupils, taking the total capacity to 2,000 pupils. We expect this to be complete by summer 2027.
In late 2023, we and our consultants held a series of surveys and workshops with hundreds of staff, pupils, parents and members of the local community to get their views on how an extended Park Mains might work.
This covered what people thought does and doesn't work well in the existing building, the types of learning environment they prefer, and what they want to see from an extended Park Mains, both as a school and a community facility.
See the key findings from our survey [646KB]
Since then we have been developing designs for how we plan to extend the building. These include:
- a new teaching building next to the existing west wing of the school
- a new PE building next to the existing PE block
- an extension to the dining area
- changes to the layout of the existing building to keep subjects together
- extra car parking and expanded bus drop-off/pick-up area.
In September 2024 we submitted a Proposal of Application Notice, to start a 12-week period of engagement before the full planning application is submitted next year.
This included two public events at which members of the community were invited to see the design work done so far. We thank everyone who came along. You can see a copy of the display boards we presented at the event in the link below.
See the boards showing the designs for an expanded Park Mains [5MB]
When the full planning application is submitted in 2025, there will be further formal consultation with relevant bodies, and the opportunity for local residents to make representations.
Roll projections
The school roll at Park Mains will increase in the years ahead, as planned new housing development in the area grows.
Our latest roll projections for all Renfrewshire schools for the ten years until 2034 were produced in partnership with data specialists, based on their tried-and-tested formula used across the UK. You can see the projections in the report presented to councillors in October 2024.
There is a section in the report which looks in more detail at the future impact on Park Mains and how this will be managed. You can see this at section 7.4 of the report (on page 10).
Should we need to in future, we expect to be able to keep the roll at Park Mains within capacity by using our admissions policy to limit the number of requests accepted from pupils who live outwith the area, or from pupils who did not attend an associated primary school.
Parent and carer updates
We will continue to keep parents and carers updated on work to extend the school through direct updates. You can read these updates here:
We also meet every three months with the Park Mains Parent Council Liaison Group, made up of members of the parent council from Park Mains and each of its feeder primaries, plus school staff and senior council officers. This group meets regularly and is a key forum to discuss current and future issues around the school.
Park Mains High School
Bargarran Primary School
