newslinesTHEGLASGOW ACADEMY

Founded 1845

Number 66 September/October 2012

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We were delighted to welcome former pupil, Laura Bartlett, to The Academy at the beginning of September. In one of her first engagements since returning from London 2012, she talked to an adoring audience of P5, P6 and P7 pupils, showed off her medal and answered dozens of their questions.

Laura’s magnificent

medal…In answer to the girl who asked, ‘Will we be seeing you at the Olympics in Brazil?’ Laura paused for a long time before saying, ‘Well, I’m going to do a normal job for the next wee while anyway. Three years is a long time to be playing hockey every day without a break.’

Jillian’s our OlympianCarrying the Olympic flame is as close as most of us are going get to selection for the Great Britain team! Many congratulations to Jillian Hamilton, who was given the honour of carrying the Olympic flame through Bridge of Allan on 13 June.

Jillian, who now studies medicine at Aberdeen University, was nominated by the care home for which she worked at weekends during her fifth and sixth years.

After the run, Jillian commented: ‘It was a great experience. The crowds lining the route made it seem just like the Games itself!’

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For the third consecutive year, The Academy was proud to put on a performance of one of the classical masterpieces of Greek drama; this year it was the most famous of them all, Oedipus the King. Once again this production was the joint venture of the Drama and Classics departments, but special credit must go to Mr Neil Millar, the Head if Drama, for his innovative vision and direction.

Written in 5th century BC by the Athenian playwright Sophocles, Oedipus, celebrated in its own day by the philosopher and scientist Aristotle for its flawless plot structure, is a very difficult play to perform – even for professional actors. The complex web of old crimes and hidden guilt is revealed through apparently

innocent dialogue at a startling rate and the actors have to take great care to carry the audience along with them in what grows to an emotional torrent by the final curtain.

A cast of nineteen pupils from S1 to S6 rose beyond what would be expected of school children to provide considerable emotional intensity as the tragedy unfolded to its terrifying climax. Perhaps surprisingly, the staging of Jocasta’s death, which made this production stand out as innovative to some modern eyes, deliberately reflected genuine practice in the ancient Greek theatre, itself in no way a naturalistic form of drama, where a device called the mechane would lower characters on to the stage from on high.

Oedipus 2012

Many hands – and many voices – make much music!On Friday 15 June we had our first ever whole school concert which involved pupils from P4 up to S6 – over 200 of them! Ensembles from both schools performed together and the standard of performance was very high. The evening finished with two pieces of music sung by the combined choirs. A superb evening of music!

Tommaso Porta, William Brooke, Ben Walsh, Adam Kidd and Gillan Coats successfully auditioned for a place on the Scottish Opera Connect Course which runs from August 2012 to March 2013.

At the audition they sang two classical songs, had a short drama workshop and also completed musical awareness tests. The auditions were held in front of the Head of Music of Scottish Opera, Scottish Opera Chorus Master and Head of Drama. The boys are now part of a very exciting course which culminates in performances with the Scottish Opera Orchestra. This will enhance their vocal work and give them the chance to work in a professional environment and hopefully discover the joy of the operatic repertoire.

Scottish Opera course

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Glasgow’s Planning Committee have unanimously approved plans for a state-of-the-art Science and Technology Building on the site of tenement blocks owned by The Academy opposite our main building at Kelvinbridge.

Jonathan Finlay, Deputy Chairman of the planning committee, called the proposed development ‘an extremely fine building’ and another member of the committee described the design as ‘inspirational’.

In welcoming the decision, Peter Brodie, The Academy’s Rector, said: ‘The Science and Technology Building will cover 37,000 square-feet over four floors. The ground floor will incorporate a 175-seat auditorium, a food technology department that will build on the considerable success of our current courses, and a meeting and hospitality area. The three floors above will provide 15 large Science labs, including three Advanced Higher research labs.

‘The building incorporates ideas generated by our children and it will transform their education. It will also allow us to make improvements elsewhere on our campus and provide inspiring facilities for generations of pupils. We believe that this development, which plays a major role in achieving our 2020 Vision, will help ensure that Glasgow Academy continues to achieve a growing reputation for excellence.’

Planners give approval for ‘inspirational’ new building

‘The Glasgow Academy’ on FacebookAlongside our website, we have developed a presence on Facebook. This should provide a valuable extra source of information for pupils, parents and FPs – as well as those who would just like to find out a little more about the school.

Financial Times Top 10 SchoolsGlasgow Academy is placed fifth in the country in this year’s FT Top 10 Independent Schools in Scotland – and is one of only two Glasgow schools to be included on the list. The ranking is based on schools’ performance in Advanced Highers. Last year, The Academy had 74 candidates taking an average of 2.2 AH subjects. They achieved an overall A/B rate of 76%.

As well as being an excellent academic qualification, Advanced Highers are of particular advantage to those going on to study at universities like Oxford and Cambridge. No fewer than seven Academy pupils secured their Oxbridge places on the basis of their AH results. They are Madeleine Airlie (English), Cambridge; Peter Charles (Geography), Cambridge; Lily Mortimer (Law), Cambridge; Christopher Simpson (Law), Cambridge; Leanne Massie (Natural Sciences – Biological), Cambridge; Catriona Murray (Natural Sciences – Physical), Cambridge; Robyn Phillips (Biological Sciences), Oxford.

As they embark on the next stage of their education, we wish all our leavers every success. We are sure they deserve it.

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Heather’s in the National Portrait Gallery!Last term, Kindergarten pupil Heather McLeod came third out of 6,000 entries in the Tesco Bank Art Competition for Schools. Heather won a fantastic art set and had a lovely day out in Edinburgh visiting the National Gallery of Scotland and the National Portrait Gallery where Heather’s picture is hanging until October before going on tour. Heather’s mum and Mrs Oliver were allowed to come too! As part of the prize, her class had a workshop in the National Gallery of Scotland where children’s author and illustrator, James Mayhew, drew personalised illustrations on the children’s books. Very well done, Heather!

Rocket DayOn Friday 22 June all of the S1 pupils took part in a Rocket Day organised by the Chemistry Department. Each team completed a number of tasks, including testing and making a batch of rocket fuel from sugar and potassium nitrate, researching an aspect of space exploration and building their own rocket.

The pupils then prepared their space suit, poster and rocket for the grand launch, which went ahead despite the torrential rain and thunder. The winning team then launched Professor Cole-Hamilton’s commercial rocket, which ended up on the roof of the main building, with the camera from the Thales engineers still attached to it! Despite the weather, a good day was had by all.

Pupils making fuel from sugar and potassium nitrate during Rocket Day

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Picture Book winnerS5 pupil Anna Rickards has won the first prize in the 2012 ReadingZone Picture Book Competition (Secondary Category) for creating, writing, animating and designing her own children’s picture book – Bea and the Marshmallow Menace. Commenting on her win English teacher, Mrs Young, said, ‘Anna is a hugely-talented girl and this is a book worthy of proper publication. As first place winner this will mean a free author/illustrator visit to the school, as well as sets of picture books and a subscription to StoryBox magazine! Anna herself will also get 50 printed copies of Bea and the Marshmallow Menace.’

Author and illustrator Nick Sharratt, who judged the competition, comments: ‘Bea and the Marshmallow Menace just had to be the winner in its category. It excelled in every department with a terrific plot, sensational artwork and a witty text that’s a complete pleasure to read. The pacing is spot-on as are the design and layout. An all-round triumph.’

Heather with children’s author, James Mayhew

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Calum Wray on his way to a Silver medal in the Scottish Schools Under 15 Hurdles event at Grangemouth Stadium in June.

Cricketers hit

‘em for six!Our cricketers had as good

a season as the summer

weather would allow, winning

The Academy’s own Six-a-side

Competition along the way.

Meanwhile, Lyle Hill – who hit

179 not out in the first game

of the season – enjoyed hitting

out in the game against the

MCC.

Rowing makes a splash!With 33 wins this year, Academy rowers have had their most successful rowing season to date. We have eleven Scottish Champions, nine Scottish Schools Champions and seven Scottish Schools Cup Winners.

Well done, rowers!

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When The Milngavie and Bearsden Herald announced a new essay competition last term open to all P5-7 pupils in the area, it received literally hundreds of entries. The competition, run in partnership with the Rotary Club of Allander, asked children to start off their composition with the words, ‘If I was to take part in the 2012 Olympics this year my aim would be to...’

We are delighted to report that the first- and second-placed pupils – Judy Arbuckle and Matthew Robertson – were both in P7 at Glasgow Academy. Judy, a promising show jumper, hopes to be good enough one day to represent Great Britain on her pony, Welsh Wonder.

Commenting on their win, Sandy Mathewson, Depute of the Prep School, said: ‘Congratulations must go to Judith and Matthew. I am delighted that all The Academy’s innovative literacy initiatives are clearly having a positive impact on our pupils.’

Olympic hopeful wins essay competition

President of the Rotary Club of Allander, Dr Vincent Cuddihy, presenting Judy with her specially-engraved trophy. Judy and Matthew also received book tokens for their excellent work.

Everyone’s a winner!At the end of May, TGA Milngavie (Atholl) held a Mini Olympics that was the precursor to a great British summer of sport. (These three certainly look as if they’re having fun!)

Academy boys picked for SRU honoursCongratulations to Angus Neilson (S5), Andrew Simmers (S4) (below) and Andrew Craig (S4) who have been selected for the Scottish Rugby Union’s Pathway Programme at Under 16 level. They are all part of the Glasgow Squad which will train and compete for a place in the International squad later this year. Andrew Simmers has also been invited to join the SRU Academy. This is a huge achievement for Andrew and is a result of his talent, focus, drive and ambition. He is now working closely with the best that the SRU have to offer, which should help him push on to much greater things in the future.

Young Engineers winLast term, Éirinn Fitzgerald, Anna Swan, Jasmine Li, Cameron Ritchie, Alex de Koning and Douglas Parkinson (all then in S2) worked very hard at both Engineering and Electronics Clubs on the Young Engineers and Science Clubs’ Junior Saltire Award. The team submitted impressive blueprints and qualified for the final, winning £50 towards their materials. This saw them testing their wave generator at Strathclyde University’s test tank and taking part in the Technology Challenge at the Glasgow Science Centre in June. Although they were up against more experienced teams, their design was considered innovative for a newcomer entry. Meanwhile Filip Petrov (then S1) and Andrew Sinclair (then S3) took their aluminium robot, Ramu, to Scottish Robotic Games at Selex Galileo in Edinburgh. They were accompanied by Paul Yarr and Chris Watts from Thales who had helped them with the design. All had an excellent time at the event.

Ramu the robot (top right) takes a shot in goal at robot football

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‘Go Yellow 5k’In the company of around 3000 school children from all over the city, our P6 and P7 pupils took part in a sponsored walk around Bellahouston Park at the end of May. As well as enjoying the walk, our pupils raised £3582.05 in aid of the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice. Well done to everyone who took part and a huge ‘thank you’ to all the sponsors.

What we did this summer…The Academy’s Outdoor Education blog, which includes photos of our exciting expedition to Slovenia, is available at the following address:

http://glasgowacademyoutdoors.blogspot.co.uk

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Head Girl, Clemmie Mitchell, and Head Boy, Max Aitchison, are looking forward to a new session at Glasgow Academy. Having picked up a total of eleven Highers all at grade A (10 of them A1s), they could be described as fairly bright.

The sky’s the limit for Clemmie and Max…

Max is interested in politics and this year is studying English, History and Modern Studies at Advanced Higher level with the hope of reading Politics with International Relations at either Cambridge or Durham next year. Clemmie – who is studying four Advanced Highers in Physics, Chemistry,

Pure Maths and Mechanics – would ideally like to study Physics at Harvard before going on to be an astronaut!

They do, however, have a few other strings to their bow. Clemmie thoroughly enjoys Outdoor Education and is currently training for the Three Peaks Race in May. She believes that the training she’s had in both the Debating and Gavel (Public Speaking) Clubs over the years will stand her in good stead for her duties as Head Girl this year. As President of both societies, she wants to encourage increasing numbers of younger pupils to take part and keep up The Academy’s tradition of excellence in both debating and public speaking.

Max is very involved in the Fair Trade committee at school and is proud of its achievements over the last few years. As an athlete, he won Gold for Scotland at last year’s UK Youth Games in Sheffield.

We wish all our Sixth Year pupils every success in the coming year and in their plans for the future.

Don’t forget to write!Last year’s Head Girl, Karin Belch, and Head Boy, Cameron Jones, in traditional pose with the Indian Trophy after Senior Prize Giving, their shirts covered in equally-traditional messages written by well-wishers!