Ds is now in his 4th year at Aberdeen Uni so I don't have the most up-to-date info 
But from my continued contacts via the rugby club and other people who go into the school, the new head teacher (in post for 2 years now) seems to have continued the good work of the previous headteacher (only heard one negative comment but that's from someone who always complains about everything so is never satisfied ).
What I liked about the school was that they encouraged holistic development in their young people, celebrating sporting, musical and artistic achievements as much as academic ones. They also encouraged self-sufficiency and self-starting.
Ds was in the top sets for English and Maths and while in some schools this could meant being seen as "geeky", this was never the case at Shawlands. It might have helped that he was captain of the rugby team
Good academic success with many going on to study medicine, vet science, engineering, accountancy etc at good Unis (including Oxbridge). This despite the challenge of the highly mixed demographic of its catchment and the fact that there are over 50 languages spoken at the school (which is not taken into consideration when calculating its Virtual Comparator).
Pastoral support was good and ds was well supported in writing his Personal Statement for Uni (and got Unconditionals for both Strathclyde and Aberdeen).
I think anyone who wanted to do DoE could - which not all schools can offer to everyone. Other extra-curricular activities (as well as being a School of Rugby - for both boys and girls) were gymnastics, swimming, musical stuff (sorry - ds was a rugby player so he didn't get involved in the extra curricular arty stuff )
The Parent Council had two funds: a School Fund which was for "nice to have" extras that the different departments put forward cases for; and the more important "Achievement Fund" which ensured that no young person was blocked from extra curricular activities (like DoE) due to lack of funds (so the PC was only given generalised info as to where it went in order not to breach confidentiality) and for things like special lunch time clubs.
Ds was a placing request but I'm not sure placing requests are successful nowadays (maybe only siblings) as it's now bursting at the seams.