newslinesNumber 57 July 2009

THEGLASGOW ACADEMY

Founded 1845

Many congratulations to Cosmo Grant (S6) and AllenFarrington (S5) on winning the Law Society ofScotland Donald Dewar Memorial Debating

Tournament, the final of which was held in the debatingchamber of the Scottish Parliament.

In the tenth year of the competition,The Academy team camefirst of over 130 schools which took part. Debating the motion‘This House believes that the babies of 1999 are reaping thebenefits of devolution’,The Academy team were placed ahead ofGeorge Heriot’s School, Madras College and Mearns CastleHigh School.

Jan Fulton, who runs the Debating Society, commented: ‘I amdelighted that Cosmo and Allen have achieved the pinnacle oftheir debating success to date in what is their final year at TheAcademy. It was particularly pleasing that the Presiding Officer

Scottish champions – no debate!compared Cosmo’s dry wit to that of Donald Dewar himselfand commented that his three-minute summation was one ofthe best that he had heard in the ten-year history of theParliament.’

As well as the Donald Dewar Memorial trophy, Cosmo andAllen were presented with a cheque for £1000 for the schoolDebating Society and £100 worth of book tokens each.

Lorna Jack, chief executive of the Law Society of Scotland, said:‘Having witnessed the capabilities of these young people, it’svery reassuring to know that the future of debate in Scotland isin very, very capable hands.’

We are sure that Donald Dewar, a prominent member ofGlasgow Academy’s Literary and Debating Society in the 1950s,would have been delighted to know that the standard ofdebating at The Academy is as high now as it has ever been.

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S6 charityfundraisingCongratulations to S6 who raised over£1000 for Revive MS Support as a resultof their annual 24-hour sports marathonlast October. Despite extremeexhaustion, several pupils lasted the pacefor the whole 24 hours. Ravneet andGillian made toasties through the weesmall hours and Mrs Macdonaldcontinually claimed that people really didnot want to sleep, they really wanted toplay yet another game of uni-hock! Oneof the stars of the event was Amit Singh,who – between 3 and 5 in the morning –took on and beat all-comers in amarathon badminton match.

In theheadlines…(left to right) Louise Hyde,Nina Petric Gray andCatriona Murray show offtheir fabulously fashionablecreations at the opening ofthis year’s Art Exhibition.The show was opened byMr Iain MacLeod, theDeputy Rector, who has justretired after 25 years at TheAcademy.

History comes to life…Second Year History students have been studying World War Two recently. Aspart of their studies, this June we set up an oral history project for the firsttime. Academicals who had been at school during the war – and had evenserved in the forces – visited us to share their experiences. Small groups ofpupils had to think of questions and then undertook interviews with theAcademicals.

Fascinating experiences emerged such as the fact that there were trenchesunder what are currently the tennis courts. Reminiscences about school life,rations and the Clydebank blitz all added to the knowledge of the pupils.More importantly, they learned that History is not just about books. Realpeople experienced real events and it is important to remember their lives –especially in 2009, the year of the 65th anniversary of D-Day. The pupilsgained a real insight into events and undertook genuine historical research.We were privileged that the Academicals took the time to visit and share withus something of their past.

Simon Wood

Prep School DuxCongratulations to Anna Dunlop, Dux ofthe Prep School (pictured here with herlittle sister). The speaker at this year'sPrep Prize-giving was Professor ElizabethTreasure, a former pupil of WestbourneSchool for Girls.

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Chemistry Clubdisplay winsAwardAt the Young Engineers and Science ClubsTechnology Challenge in June, theChemistry Club received first prize of£500 for their exhibition displaying thework they have done this year in projectsas diverse as solar-powered boats andfire-breathing dragons. In total 24 pupilshave achieved their BA CREST Awardsthis year (compared with three last year)and the Challenge gave them the chanceto show off their work to a wideraudience.

Microbes andMedicines dayWith the recent scares over Swine Flu,the S1 Microbes and Medicines day couldnot have come at a better time. DrChristine Peters, Specialist Registrar inMicrobiology at the Southern GeneralHospital, engaged the pupils throughoutthe day and conveyed a wealth ofinformation to them about bacterial andviral infections and their prevention. Thescenario was that Dr Peters was verybusy with the various Swine Flu cases atthe hospital, so had brought ten patientsamples with her for the pupils todiagnose and prescribe a treatment onher behalf. This the pupils did veryeffectively, diagnosing 8 of the 10suspected cases correctly. The afternoonwas spent designing a poster and a localradio bulletin to let people know abouthow Swine Flu spreads throughout thepopulation and to allay public fears.Although it was the first of its kind, theexperience was so successful that DrPeters is keen to introduce similarMicrobiology days into other Glasgowschools.

Teachers make a differenceSir Matthew McIver was the guest speaker at Senior Prize-giving this year. Heimpressed many of his listeners with his account of how one of his primaryschool teachers – a Miss Mackenzie – had changed his life for the better.

Congratulations to Haixi Yan, the SeniorDux medallist for 2009. Haixi, whoachieved 7 Higher ‘A’ Grade passes lastyear, hopes to study medicine atCambridge in October.

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Scottish RowingChampionships At the Scottish Rowing Championships inMay, we had our most successfulChampionships to date winning 6 goldmedals and a number of second places.

Emily Colley qualified for the Scottishjunior team and – in winning 4 goldmedals – was the most successful juniorwoman of the weekend.

Gold medallists:Emily Colley Junior 2x

Junior 4x Junior 16 2x Junior 16 1x

Alison Beattie Junior 13 2x Junior 13 1x

Chloe Wilson Junior 13 2x

In addition,Alison Beattie, Chloe Wilson,Kimberley Somerside, Lydia Harrison andIndia Somerside were second in Junior 134x and Taylor Sime, Chris Haughey, DavidElder, Ross Swanson and KimberleySomerside were placed second in S1 4x.

CricketThe Primary 7 ‘A’ Team finished theseason with a fine victory – by sevenwickets! – over Hutchesons’Grammar School.

This means that the boys have goneundefeated throughout their time inthe Prep School, a tremendousachievement. Well done, boys!

GolfAll smiles:The golf team – featuring anumber of this year’s leavers – insunny mood after successfullyretaining the Keith Deighton Quaichon an equally sunny afternoon atKillermont in Bearsden. Missing fromthe golf team line-up is S1 pupil JamesWilson, the Junior Match PlayChampion, who – although only 13 –has been among the most consistentlysuccessful members of the team.

Game, set and matchOur tennis-playing girls who have won The High School of Glasgow TennisTournament for the fourth consecutive year! Many congratulations to (left to right)Zara Reid and Lucy Aitchison (S5); Nina Petric-Gray and Georgina Sellyn (S3); andMolly Cunningham and Bethany Gallagher (S1).

Thank you!We would like to thank everyone who has

contributed to this year’s Regular Giving

fund. As a result of your generosity, we have

been able to buy another five new ‘Ergo’

rowing machines this year.

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The After School Care service received an ‘Excellent’ resultwhen it was inspected recently by the Care Commission. Theinspectors were very impressed, especially by the well-mannered, articulate enthusiasm of the children for the service.We are extremely proud of the staff team who have beenworking very hard in our new dedicated space to ensure that

KelvinbridgeNurseryOne year on and the new flexibleNursery service at Kelvinbridge has nowcompleted its first session. It has been asuccessful year during which the Nurserychildren have enjoyed trips to the ScienceCentre, the Transport Museum and havehad visitors including ‘Gladigator’ andSanta. They have all been very happy inNursery and the staff wish all 20 childrenwell as they now move into Kindergartenin August 2009.

Even though the school term has finished,our flexible Nursery service will – ofcourse – be open all summer.

Sun shines on DairsieWhile all our other sports days fell foul of the weather,children at Dairsie had a lovely afternoon for their SportsDay.

we achieved an excellent report. We must also thank theparents who kindly completed and returned the CareCommission questionnaires.

Here are the results:

Quality of Care and Support 6 (Excellent)Quality of Environment 6 (Excellent)Quality of Staffing 5 (Very Good)Quality of Management and Leadership 5 (Very Good)

How good is After School Care?

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Money Week in the Prep School is allabout learning how money is used inthe real world. This year, for example,the Head of Risk Business Banking atBank of Scotland came to talk to P6classes about ‘Planning a Holiday’, theStrategic Planning Director ofWiseman Dairies discussed ‘Milkcosts’ with P3 and P4 – and P5 pupilsfound out a little of what it is like tobe poor in South America. In acomplex role-play game, P5 pupilswere set to work in ‘families’ makingtrainers for the export market againsta background of fluctuating exchangerates, loan sharks and other factorsbeyond their control. The main thingthe pupils discovered was that, nomatter how hard you work, you’restill as poor at the end of the ‘game’as you were at the start – a soberingthought.

One of the visitors to Money Weekwas Gaetano Chionsini, an Italianbanker, who was brought along by JimLally, Director of the Scottish Centrefor Financial Education. After his visit,Mr Lally commented, ‘We were veryimpressed by the young people whowere highly motivated and the staffwho were totally professional ineverything that they did.’

SurvivorsVolcano Survival Challenge Day at thebeginning of June had groups of P7 pupilsstranded on a mountain hut on MountEtna when they were caught in a majoreruption. Still, this group appear to beenjoying the experience during whichthey had to design and wear their ownmask as well as giving advice to localresidents by means of a communicationtower they constructed using spaghettiand jelly babies!

South Americansweatshop inPrep School!

Healthier optionson the menuCongratulations to Glasgow Academy’sCatering Department on achieving aHealthyliving Award for 2009. The Awardis given in recognition of The Academy’scommitment to reducing the amount offat, salt and sugar in the food we serve toour pupils. Another of the benefits is thatit will be easier in future for children toidentify healthy options on the menu asthey will be clearly identified with a greenapple logo. Stephen Gaughan, ourCatering Manager, is now a qualifiedHealthyliving assessor.

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Learning for lifeIona Gordon (left) and CatrionaMcKimmie were finalists in theLearning for Life Values Postercompetition. They are pictured inthe Garden Lobby of the ScottishParliament after receiving theiraward.

Who killed the Deputy Rector?On Monday 22 June, Mr MacLeod, the Deputy Rector, allowed himself to bemurdered – all in the cause of S2 science.

After Mr Macleod’s‘body’ was discoveredoutside his office earlyin the morning, anumber of pupil teamswere drafted in toassess the forensicevidence – and therewas lots of it as variouscrime scenes had beencordoned off around theschool – and present their findings. Several members of the teaching staff were‘in the frame’ as the evidence seemed to point in their direction, and the S2teams – each helped by a pupil mentor from S5 – had to try to prove theirinnocence, or guilt, with reference to fingerprints, soil samples, ink, footprints orother available evidence. After assembling their case, each group had to presenttheir findings in a courtroom setting.

We are grateful to a number of visitors from outside agencies who gave uptheir time to be involved, including Keith Morgan, from Shinton Consulting, whoacted as judge, Sarah Brown and Linda Thomson (Science and EngineeringAmbassadors) and Jane Gallagher (Researcher in Residence) from theUniversity of Strathclyde who played the part of forensic scientists for the day.

All in all, it made for great fun and great science!

Recording artistsPrep school pupils took part in a professionalrecording session in June. P3.2 acted as backingsingers for a CD called ‘Rattle and Shake’ which isbeing produced by the Sticky Kids recording labeland will be available in the autumn.

8 newslines The Glasgow Academy is an educational charity registered in Scotland – charity number SCO15638

For the first time, the PTA organised aCharity Ladies’ Lunch which was held inthe West End Hilton on a lovely sunnyafternoon in June. Over 130 parents, staffand friends had a thoroughly enjoyableafternoon, eating, drinking and chattingand – as the result of three silentauctions and prize draw – raised over£3000. Niall Scott, chairman of the MarkScott Foundation, spoke about theFoundation’s work with young people incentral Scotland and the PTA agreed todivide the money raised between theFoundation and PTA funds.

A date for your diary: Next term sees thesecond PTA charity fashion show which isto be held in the Cargill Hall, on Thursday12 November.

The PTA committee who organised the event

How much is a desk worth?After 33 years at The Academy, Mr Vic Hadcroft is retiring – and his desksare calling it a day too. Since he has long been a supporter of Yorkhillhospital, we decided to auction his desks for the charity. Desks which havebeen here for generations fetched up to £150 each – and almost £1000was raised for Yorkhill.

ChineseconnectionMr Watson and Ms Arenas are movingon to pastures new. Although they areboth heading for China, Mr Watsonand his wife are cycling there whileMrs Arenas is going by a moreconventional mode of transport!

Well-known ‘faces’ atTalent Show It’s not every day that you see Mr Evans break-dancing in the staff Common Room with DrSowden and Mr Richmond, but they must havebeen practising because the three of them put onan excellent act at the Senior Talent Show inJune. Sadly, they didn’t win…

PTA Ladies’ Lunch enjoyed by all

Q.Why are dads always left in charge of the barbecue?

A. Because they’re such excellent cooks – as these

dads at the Atholl PTA barbecue proved!