Busy Bee 2018 - 2019

2018–19

It is our hope that the Busy Bee records not only the important events of this academic year, but also reflects the essence of the Prep School. Central to this is the excellent relationship between teacher and child that facilitates achievement and enjoyment.

At Fettes Prep, knowledge is given and received with good humour, which we are proud to illustrate in this year’s edition.

Adam Edwards Headmaster, Fettes Prep School

A Note from the Editor Welcome to the Busy Bee 2019!

We have had another incredibly fun-filled and action-packed year in the Prep School and we hope that this year’s edition of the Busy Bee reflects this. We are not able to cover absolutely everything but, once again, we have packed in as many events and activities as possible.

We launched our brand new website this year, which is an excellent place to catch up with all of the news stories from our adventures, both in and out of the classroom! Please see below all the ways of keeping in touch with us: www.fettes.com www.fettes.com/FettesPrep www.twitter.com/Fettes_College www.flickr.com/Fettes_College www.facebook.com/FettesCollegeFettesPrep www.instagram.com/fettes.college

Enjoy!

LEARNING

Outdoor Learning Garden Produce We welcome any opportunity to get out and about on our beautiful campus. M Form and 1st Form were delighted with the produce from their raised beds.

Garden Geography Field Trip Kindrogan, set in the rolling hills of Perthshire, is less than two hours away from Fettes, where a world of nature awaits. This is 2nd Form’s opportunity to experience three days of immersive geography. They learn how to measure river flow, monitor temperature, discover local wildlife and navigate at night.

Pentlands T Form hopped into the minibuses to head for the Pentland Hills where they enjoyed a combined Science and Geography adventure.

PSHE and Outdoor Learning Day

Nature

In October, the entire school spent a day taking part in a PSHE programme including outdoor learning. Activities ranged from outdoor lessons, shelter building, orienteering and beachcombing.

S Form’s English lesson, on the personification of nature, was a huge hit.

Pyramus and Thisbe Where else would be more appropriate to stage our version of Pyramus and Thisbe but outside in the sunshine.

Striding Arches S Form headed out in the pouring rain to place their Andy Goldsworthy inspired ‘Striding Arches’ around the grounds of Fettes.

Out and About Learning Auld Reekie

Edinburgh

M Form visited Edinburgh’s Old Town to learn a little of the hidden history of our beautiful city.

Dynamic Earth What better way to orientate all of our new pupils than a trip to Dynamic Earth?

Here we discovered more about each other, Edinburgh, Scotland and the Universe!

Hopetoun House In Edinburgh there is a lot of Victorian history right on our doorstep. P Form had a hands-on experience of life ‘downstairs’ at Hopetoun House during the Victorian period.

M Forms’ History topic was the Egyptians, so they couldn’t wait to see the new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland and were amazed to be handling some ancient artefacts.

Egyptians

National Museum of Scotland

Stirling Castle Our guide told us about life at Stirling Castle in the 14th Century from the hot, dark dungeon kitchen to the luxury of the royal chambers.

We also had fun trying on chain mail and getting up close to some dangerous looking weapons.

Victorian Classroom P Form visited the History of Education Centre in Edinburgh. Dressing up in period clothing, they entered the classroom to experience a taste of Victorian style education!

In the Classroom Classroom Fun Whatever we are studying, there is plenty of fun learning taking place in our classrooms!

Drama Drama Our Drama lessons led to two very successful mini productions of Goodnight Mister Tom and Matilda, which we enjoyed sharing with our school friends and families.

Fettes History Our youngest pupils went to meet archivist, Mr Marshall, who took them through the fascinating history of Fettes.

Fettes

Costume Making Creating our own costumes for A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a team effort; though painstaking at times, it was ultimately very rewarding.

French Breakfast T Form always look forward to this event. It is a wonderful start to the day and such a tasty way to practise our French vocabulary!

S’il vous plaÎt

Magnificent Maths We love Maths lessons at Fettes.

Here we are experiencing a Kahoot Maths challenge, practising compass skills and collecting some of our gold and silver certificates at the Scottish Mathematical Challenge Awards.

Super science Super Science Whether it is P Form learning about sound waves with the Rubens Tube, 1st Form making matchstick rockets, Mr Hall entertaining us with his demonstrations, or a visit from Zoolab, there has been so much fun learning in a fantastic year of Science.

Poetry T Form took the opportunity to write acrostic poems about topics that are close to their hearts.

On World Poetry Day, we each used a page from an old book and highlighted words to make our very own poems.

Poetry

CO-CURRICULAR We decided that the best start to our exploration of Rome would be an evening gelato and where better to have this than the famous Trevi Fountain?

Gelato

Rome

Thirty-four excited T Formers set off for Rome in March.

After a sound night’s sleep, our first stop was a look at the golden ceiling of the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. We then went on to the Colosseum and Forum.

Our first morning wowed us all; we could feel the history in these astonishing locations.

It was soon time for a lunch stop and, as we were in Rome, it simply had to be pizza!

Ostia Antica’s name comes from the Latin word ostium, meaning mouth, because during ancient times the city was located at the mouth of the River Tiber. Sitting in the ancient amphitheatre, we scanned the ruins of Ostia, letting our imaginations take us back 2,000 years.

We saw the Bridge of Angels and walked through the Piazza Navona, stopping to look at the Egyptian obelisk on our way to the Pantheon. Built thousands of years ago, the Pantheon still has the largest unsupported dome in the world.

On our last day, we were able to squeeze in a visit to the Spanish Steps before leaving for the journey home. What an amazing experience we had, with stories and memories that will last a lifetime.

Ciao!

We were awestruck by the wonders of Vatican City and specifically St Peter’s Basilica, built between 1506 and 1626. There was an amazing proliferation of gold, marble, statues and altars, and we really enjoyed spotting the Barberini bees.

Ski Trip

The ingredients for a good ski trip are lots of fresh snow and good weather and this year we had both! Apart from the white out on day one, our skiers experienced perfect conditions.

Our merry group of children were of mixed age and the majority had skied before, some to a very high level.

Perfect

Most of the beginners had experienced a little skiing at Hillend and quickly found their feet on the long winding blue runs, whilst the others enjoyed the fast reds and steep black runs. By the end of the week all but the beginners group had tackled the glacier run.

Each day, after a fantastic breakfast, the children headed to the slopes located immediately opposite the hotel.

More skiing followed after lunch before we headed on to other activities. During our time at Passo Tonale we swam, had a movie night, ice-skated, enjoyed a pizza night, sleigh boarded and had a presentation evening.

Dinner each evening was a three-course feast and the hotel served delicious hot chocolate, which was very welcome.

The children made tremendous progress and we were very proud of their achievements.

A week of fresh air, good food and good company was a fabulous way to spend half-term.

Passo Tonale

Choir Tour

Forty-three excited singers and six teachers boarded the plane to Bordeaux on the 1st July to embark upon the third Fettes Prep School Choir Tour.

After a good night’s sleep, it was off to Aqualand Water Park where the children had a wonderful time whizzing down contorted gravity defying slides at great speed! Following lunch, we visited the awe inspiring Dune du Pilat - the largest sand dune in Europe. The sheer scale of the dune stopped us all in our tracks and the view of lush green forests on one side and the sparkling azure blue Atlantic Ocean on the other, was simply spectacular.

Our next stop was a trip to Bordeaux and our first concert. The day after the performance, we headed to the picture postcard village of Saint-Émilion for a picnic and some souvenir shopping.

We also had the opportunity to visit the beautiful town of Bergerac, the location for our second concert.

Our final day started with a swim and games at a lake, followed by a threecourse lunch in Bordeaux and a boat trip on the Garonne River, giving us another perspective on this wonderful city.

Bordeaux

The children had plenty of opportunities to practise their French and our delightful tour guide, Angélique, gave us a number of fascinating insights as we travelled around.

We arrived back to the Prep School buzzing with stories of our exciting adventures in France. Merci à tous!

Trips Closer To Home

End of Year Adventures The end of the school year is a reflective and celebratory time for us as work draws to a close for our Busy Bees and the 2nd Form enjoy a final hurrah together before setting their sights on life ahead in the Senior School.

East Links Country Park This is a chance for M and P Forms to let off steam and run around as much as they like.

East Links

CO-CURRICULAR

Pitlochry Nae Limits and Fordell Firs S Form had a great time rafting with Nae Limits near Pitlochry before spending a day and night at Fordell Firs Scout Camp.

1st Form Camp

Aberfolye

The 1st Form Camp at Aberfolye is a two-day, action-packed adventure with plenty of team work exercises built in.

Foxlake

It’s hard to beat a day with friends on Yellowcraigs beach.

Foxlake On an extremely wet day, 2nd Form headed to Foxlake, a perfect place to have fun in the rain!

Yellowcraigs

Yellowcraigs Beach

CO-CURRICULAR

Activities Art and Design

Badminton

Fencing

Football/Rugby

Multi Activities

Skiing

Golf

Ski Race Training

Parkour

Snowboarding

Tennis

Dance

Hockey

Netball

Lacrosse

Circus Skills

Chess Club

Croquet

Cricket

Cooking

Board Games

Basketball

Drum On

Jewellery Making/Craft

Performing Arts

Sphero

Volleyball

Climbing

Fives

Jordan Singers

Judo

Shooting

Riding

Swimming

Stopmogo

Table Tennis

Yoga

Art and Design

Climbing

In our Art and Design activity we have spent time making unique journals that we will always treasure.

We make full use of our fantastic climbing wall but also head to Ratho for indoor climbing.

Cookery Club Cookery club is extremely popular and many of us have learnt to cook healthy and delicious meals in the Arran House kitchen.

Drama Club The Drama Club activity session is always a raucous occasion. Here we are improvising with puppets.

Dry Slope Skiing Skiing at Hillend is just a short minibus ride away and a great way to develop both our skiing and racing skills.

Riding Just a short journey takes us to Lasswade Riding Centre where setting off for a weekly evening ride is an adventure.

Water Sports Sailing, windsurfing and paddle boarding at Port Edgar is exhilarating, whatever the weather.

Active!

CO-CURRICULAR

Helping Others

As usual, there have been many opportunities for the Fettes Prep community to raise funds for a variety of charities.

Charity Disco and Fettes Runs Our fundraising weekend kicked off with a ‘Sporting Heroes’ disco on the Saturday night, followed by the Fettes Runs on Sunday morning. Both events were held in support of the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, raising funds for vital research into the cause and treatment of Motor Neuron Disease.

We were delighted that our fundraising efforts toped the £7,000 mark.

Macmillan T Form organised a wonderful coffee afternoon in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. From producing beautiful still life drawings for auction, to designing the literature and dressing the Prep Assembly Hall, the stage was perfectly set for this fund raising extravaganza from which we raised over £1,300.

Macmillan

Red Nose Red Nose Day We always enjoy wearing a red nose and were very happy to do so again this year. Each of us gave a £1 donation to Comic Relief.

Parents’ Social This year’s chosen charity was ‘Hearts and Minds’, raising funds for their Clowndoctors service. The Clowndoctors go into hospitals and care homes, spreading laughter and joy along the way.

We chose the theme of ‘The Greatest Showman’ for the evening and as usual, our guests rose to the dressing up challenge!

Thanks to the hard work from our parent helpers and some very generous support on the night, we raised over £8,500.

Roald Dahl Day Who doesn’t love Roald Dahl stories?

All of the Prep community, including the adults, enjoy dressing up as our favourite characters and this year we raised over £320 for the Roald Dahl Foundation.

Roald Dahl

The Arts

Autumn Term 2nd Form created large Claes Oldenburg inspired soft sculptures.

Soft sculpture

This was another busy year in our Art Room with the highlight for many being the clay work we have been producing using our fabulous new kiln!

Day of the Dead

Oceanic art

T Form made these beautiful clay sugar skulls for Mexican Day of the Dead.

1st Form spent the term honing their painting skills on Oceanic Art canvases.

Spring Term M Form produced a lovely mixed media group project on Chinese dragons P Form got their hands dirty making textured clay fish.

Dragons 1st Form worked on their pots inspired by Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Tree of Life’.

S Form practised the skill of ‘waulking’ by felting wool to Gaelic songs.

Summer Term After studying ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ in English lessons, and in homage to Katsushika Hokusai, S Form produced their very own Great Waves whilst learning a bit of Japanese from Mrs Flett.

2nd Form turned their hand to 3D work again, looking at the work of ceramicist Kate Malone.

M Form created fabulous bug art.

Bug art

1st Form experimented with different printing styles.

THE ARTS

Drama A Christmas Carol M and P Forms’ annual production was a festive performance of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, held in the beautiful College Chapel.

The children worked hard throughout the rehearsal process, learning lines, songs and movement. We thoroughly enjoyed their performance, meeting a host of wonderful characters including three different Scrooges!

Scrooge

This was a very special note to end the term with its key message of loving kindness resonating throughout.

Ghosts Dickens

Midsummer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream The 1st and 2nd Form pupils worked incredibly hard to produce a superbly chaotic version of Shakespeare’s traditional comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

In addition to the 2nd Form students focusing on mastering Shakespearean verse and prose, the 1st Form pupils became part of an additional world in the play, commenting on the Shakespearean action.

Shakespeare Dream

Oberon and Titania

Our interpretation included the wonderfully amateur Trudy Theatre Company, hosting travelling Shakespeare actors. Also on stage were show-band The Dreamers and the Chatsworth School pupils, who added a lovely balance of juvenile humour to help the audience interpret the action.

The production was a brilliant bonding experience for the pupils, whilst enhancing the performance skills of everyone involved in this vibrant performance!

THE ARTS

Music

Autumn, Spring and Summer Concerts Our end of term concerts provide an uplifting, energetic and joyous end to each term with a wide range of ensembles and styles of music on show. The singers in our new Prep School Choral Society, a parent and staff choir, have added another dimension to the concerts, giving a true Fettes Prep community spirit to these occasions.

Competitions Our Piano, Instrumental and Singing Competitions have seen more entries than ever this year with some very high quality music-making.

All the visiting adjudicators have been thoroughly impressed with the extremely high standard of performances.

Form Concerts

Form Concert

Informal form concerts offer every young musician in the Prep School the opportunity of playing or singing to an audience. It has been inspiring to witness the large number of performers putting themselves forward over the course of the academic year.

Woodwind Workshops In January, our Prep School instrumentalists were treated to a whole day of workshops with the ebullient, inspiring duo of Julie Wright and Nick Foster. Our young musicians were put through their paces with a series of energetic workshops throughout the day, culminating in an engaging, actionpacked concert of ensemble music for parents. Another musical highlight!

Over 55 Prep School candidates sat music exams this year with 100% pass rate and 98% Merit and Distinctions awarded. Congratulations to all for maintaining the high standards we have all come to expect.

Youth Choir

ABRSM and Trinity Music Examinations

National Youth Choir of Scotland Two of our pupils represented Fettes Prep this year in the National Girls’ and Boys’ choirs. Iona and Samuel sang in high profile concerts across Scotland; very well done to both for their talent and commitment.

Prep Schools’ Orchestra Day Over 120 young musicians from prep schools all over Scotland joined us in April to take part in our annual Prep Schools’ Orchestra Day. As always, this was a day of musical fun and camaraderie. The young players enjoyed perfecting the pieces and getting to know one another with some exciting outdoor activities in the mix. The day concluded with a wonderful concert of uplifting pieces played with dedication and panache!

Choir Tour to Bordeaux We were very excited to be singing in France on our Choir Tour to Bordeaux.

Our first concert was in the beautiful church of Abbatiale Saint-Croix in Bordeaux, where we sang our hearts out to a large and appreciative audience.

Our second performance was held in the equally beautiful town of Bergerac, at the Eglise Notre Dame de Bergerac. The afternoon rehearsal took place in the cool of the church but with temperatures climbing to over 36 degrees Celsius, we all began to feel the heat! Despite the conditions, we gave our our best to an audience of over 250 people.

Bravo!

A special bravo was extended to the soloists and pipers who performed with such aplomb in both concerts.

LIFE

School Life

Burns Supper Our traditional ceilidh rounded off an evening of fabulous music, amusing speeches and delicious food.

Christmas Dinner Every year the amazing catering team, led by Mr Wood, produce a Christmas dinner to remember.

Prizegiving There is always a surprise or two at our Prizegiving ceremony. This year Greig Laidlaw was our brilliant guest speaker and Maillie and Dara were challenged by Mr Edwards to a race!

Remembrance Wherever we are, we stop to remember those lost in conflict, and being up at Glenshee on the 2nd Form Leadership weekend is no exception.

Summer Party Our summer party evening marks the end of exams and the drawing to a close of the school year. It is a chance for us to get together, dance, spring around on the bouncy castles and enjoy a barbeque in the evening sunshine.

World Book Day World Book Day is a particularly exciting day as we are able to dress up, read to each other and pick up a book token to help us buy our next book! We even had a competition this year to discover titles on the staff bookshelves.

LIFE

Boarders Together Start of Year Barbeque and Beach Trip We spent our first Sunday of the new school year on the beautiful Gullane Beach, playing in the sea, searching the rock pools, making sand sculptures and, of course, eating ice cream!

Bowling Bowling certainly brings out our competitive instinct, so it is always fun to head into town and try our luck with the pins.

Bowling

Easter Weekend Fun Rolling Easter eggs is a long held tradition, as is our ‘eggsciting’ Easter Egg Hunt!

Easter

Kelpies Falkirk Wheel and Kelpies We visited the feat of engineering that is the Falkirk Wheel, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal. Having seen this in action, we walked along the canal to the famous and very beautiful 30 metre high Kelpies.

Isle of May This was our first trip to the Isle of May and we enjoyed the boat ride as well as the opportunity to see the wildlife on the island.

Paintballing Paintballing is an extremely popular outing as it gives us the chance to play in teams, run around and compete against each other to capture the flag!

Ratho Climbing We are lucky enough to have the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena right on our doorstep; with the world’s largest indoor climbing wall and numerous other testing features, we are never short of a challenge.

Ratho climbing

End of Year Meals What a lovely way to end our year.

We reminisced, celebrated our successes, and agreed that we were all looking forward to the long summer ahead.

LIFE

Arran House Action and Adventure Autumn Challenge Arran headed to highland Perthshire and the shores of Loch Faskally for this Challenge. Having set up camp, and eaten delicious fish and chips we settled down for the night. The overnight storm put paid to our river gorging plans but the full River Tay provided plenty of fun for a fabulous white-water rafting experience.

River Tay Spring Challenge Our Spring Challenge was a footballfocussed weekend. We kicked off with an evening of ten-pin bowling, followed the next day by a tour of Anfield, a quick stop off at Penny Lane and time at the Manchester City Fan Zone. In the afternoon, we watched Manchester City beat Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium.

Summer challenge Summer Challenge We were delighted to be visiting the Isle of Arran for this challenge. After arriving and pitching our tents, we ate supper and enjoyed a stone skimming competition. Our walk started early on Sunday with a relentless climb from sea level to the 874m summit of Goat Fell, the highest point on Arran. The views made all of our efforts worthwhile.

LIFE

Arran House Closer to Home Fun in House

We are always very busy during the week, so time to relax in house is much appreciated. Amongst other activities, you might find us playing chess, making pancakes or baking for Christmas.

Go-karting Torcal came out as the winner of this year’s go-karting competition.

Go-karts

Escape Room

Chess

This was our first House outing to an Escape Room and luckily, we managed to make our way out!

Head of House and Prefects Thank you to Head of House, Oleksandr, and our team of Prefects; Angus, Dara, Torcal and Magnus have done an outstanding job this year.

Play!

Outside Games We have plenty of space to play in our 100 acre campus and make the most of it at any opportunity we get.

LIFE

Iona House Action and Adventure Autumn Iona Adventure We spent the first day of our Autumn Adventure at the National Museum of Scotland where we explored the interactive side of the museum and admired the costume collection. Our second day was a wild white-water rafting experience on a very full River Tay.

Spring Iona Adventure Our Spring Adventure took us to the historic city of York. The ghost tour was suitably scary, we were fascinated by the Anglo Saxon and Viking history at the Jorvik Centre and we enjoyed every minute at York’s Chocolate Story, where we sampled a lot of chocolate!

Alnwick Summer Iona Adventure We are all huge fans of Harry Potter so when we discovered Alnwick Castle was our destination and a broomstick flying lesson awaited, we were ecstatic! Our next stop was to the famous castle gardens and then camping overnight before spending Sunday at Beamish, the Living Museum of the North.

LIFE

Iona House Closer to Home

Go-karting We went back to Xtreme Karting for another go at racing around their track but the result was the same as last time! Georgia is still the super speediest of us all!

Race!

Halloween We set off across the Jordans in our spooky outfits to scare the College girls. Luckily, they had plenty of treats waiting and we didn’t have to play too many tricks!

Head of House and Prefects Our Head of House, Iona, and Prefects Elise, Favour, Isabella and Victoria have done a wonderful job this year and have been superb role models.

Prefects

Hens One of the routines we all love to participate in is looking after our three gorgeous hens, Gus, Nutella and Speckle! We have worked hard to make an exciting and colourful run for them.

Honeypot Ceramics Everyone in Iona enjoys being creative. Here we are decorating pottery, which made beautiful Christmas presents, and creating journals in the Art Room.

Party House Party We celebrated Mrs McGrath’s news that she is expecting twins.

We are looking forward to Mrs McGrath visiting us next term with her little bundles of joy.

Sport

Athletics

Go! Seventy-four pupils took part in the IAPS athletics event.

The team won twenty-three gold, eleven silver and twelve bronze medals in the individual events. They also won the Savills Relay Cup, taking first place in four relays and second in two. Marianna broke the Under 12 girls’ long jump record and our Under 14 boys and Under 12 girls both broke relay records.

Dara, Jayden and Zac qualified for the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships with Jayden and Dara winning bronze medals in their age category. Xavax made a fourth in the team who competed in the Scottish Secondary Schools Relay Championships, where they won a bronze medal. Dashka, Georgia, Isabella and Marianna, our Under 12 team, competed in the Scottish Primary Schools Relay Championships, finishing a very creditable fourth in the final.

Cross Country

Our pupils took part in three interschool races and, of course, our own House cross-country event.

The highlight of the season was the Scottish Prep Schools Cross Country Championships.

Thirty-two pupils took part and all enjoyed the challenging mini sand dunes and forest sections on the course. Finnian and Kitty placed highest in their respective Under 9 races, with Kitty coming third. Dashka won the Under 11 girls’ race, and Lochie and George took first and second places respectively in the Under 11 boys’ race.

The Under 11 boys’ team were third in the event.

Lily and Megan were in the top 20 of the Under 13 girls’ race. Brodie, who led from the start, sadly fell half way round, injuring himself, and losing the chance of victory in the Under 13 boys’ event.

Netball

The netball term got off to a great start with our international coach, Trish Wilcox, inspiring staff in a coaching skills session.

The Under 13 A team competed in the Ardvreck Tournament and IAPS Regional Tournament at Uppingham. The girls enjoyed both experiences and learnt a great deal from them. The Under 13 C team were undefeated, closing out some closely contested matches. The Under 12 group had a great season, losing just one game and showing considerable promise for next year.

The Under 11 A team had a good season, losing just two matches and were runners up at the Ardvreck tournament while the Under 10 A team had an undefeated season and the Under 9s enjoyed their fixtures.

Ava, Iona, Isabella and Pippa were selected for the Dandylions who defeated highly competitive and tough WOSPS teams.

Attack

Rounders

Full rounder Bad weather put paid to a number of fixtures this term but when we did get going, the Under 13s put in some brilliant fielding performances.

Sadly, they had less success with the bat, with the exception of the parents and staff versus pupils match at the end of the season!

Ava, Kinvara, Iona, Ione and Isabella represented winning Dandylions teams.

The Under 11s were more successful, with the A team enjoying an unbeaten season.

The Under 10 and 9 teams continued to enjoy their rounders and their raucous celebrations of full rounders regularly rang out over the Youngs pitches.

Cricket This term saw the introduction of the Girls’ Cricket Programme and eighteen eager 1st and 2nd Formers signed up.

The girls won two out of four fixtures; a pleasing result given that most of them had never played cricket before. The term ended on a high with two teams successfully competing in the Under 12 Loretto Cricket Tournament where they finished second and third. The girls were a joy to coach and it was so rewarding to see them learning new skills and making such impressive improvements. Captain of the team, Lily, was awarded the first ever Girls’ Cricket colours.

Unfortunately the weather took its toll on this season’s fixtures but, in a World Cup year, there was no shortage of enthusiasm.

The players themselves commented on their improvements and the coaches have validated their insights! There are plenty of promising players working their way up the school and, with the addition of festivals and matches for our new girls’ teams, the game continues to grow at Fettes Prep.

The 1st XI won only two of its six matches despite often having bowled well, with skipper Louis taking 18 wickets at just 4.3 each. Runs were harder to find but our top scorer was Pippa who, along with Rosie, has been part of the East of Scotland Squad.

Boys’ Hockey

Season The Under 13 As showed a great deal of potential and some good skills over the season while the Under 13 B, C and D teams had some cracking games.

The Under 11 A team demonstrated huge courage in every game this season with all players making huge improvements. These were rewarded by third place in the IAPS qualifiers and second place at the Craigclowan hockey tournament. The Under 11 C team’s understanding and skills acquisition were equally impressive.

The Under 10 team exhibited great teamwork with a positive outcome in every game; their win at the Craigclowan Under 11 tournament was very special.

The Under 9s are a very enthusiastic bunch who are keen to learn new skills, which will be our focus next year.

Ten girls’ hockey teams played on Wednesday afternoons this season.

The Under 13 and Under 12 A teams lost just one game. The Under 13 As were runners up in the plate competition at the IAPS qualifier and reached the semi-final of the Fettes Under 13 tournament. Holly, Iona, Ione, Pippa (Capt.), Rosie and Selena played for victorious Dandylions teams. The Under 13 B team won all bar two games and the Under 13 Cs and Ds had numerous fixtures with local schools.

The Under 11 A team came third in both the IAPS and Cargilfield 7s and they enjoyed their annual tour to York and some competitive matches.

The Under 10 As lost only one game in the season and the B team had a record number of 11 fixtures!

The Under 9s played with great enthusiasm and enjoyed both their fixtures and festivals.

Hockey team

Girls’ Hockey

Rugby

Training

The senior rugby teams had a very enjoyable season.

Many of the 2nd Form stood out with their willingness to improve, an attitude the boys brought to every training session and game.

Five boys represented the Dandylions and the Under 13 As won the inaugural Fettes 7s.

Fettes rugby teams are always striving to play wide and fast and the Under 11 teams certainly endeavoured to produce this type of rugby as consistently as possible.

The Under 9s were one of the better sides on the circuit, helped by their competitive attitude and a desire to improve, whilst the Under 8 team enjoyed a season that was full of evasive running and passing.

Golf

Iona, Pippa and Yoyo headed down to Macdonald Hill Valley Golf Club, Witchurch, to compete in the IAPS Golf Championships.

The girls prepared for what they thought would be a drizzly day of golf but in fact faced a torrent of rain, with puddles littering the greens. They battled on through the first nine holes and Yoyo was in the top three by the morning break. Pippa and Iona were happy with their rounds and had picked up some valuable points. Yoyo ended the day in fifth place.

Twelve pupils participated at the Loretto Golf Championships and Felix came away with the Under 9 trophy.

We took nineteen pupils to the St Leonards Golf Championships at St Andrews, where Jonty and Felix came third in their competitions and Iona produced a fantastic net 58 on the Eden Course.

Championships

Skiing

The ski team relied on the dry slope at Hillend to get them through this season, with all of the races at Glenshee cancelled.

Our younger skiers benefitted from an early SSSA dual slalom at Hillend, whilst the experienced skiers travelled to the Snowdome, Braehead for their Championships.

Team spirit

In March, we took our biggest team yet to the IAPS Ski Championships in Italy and, having trained for most of the year together, there was terrific team spirit. Our mixed Under 13 team took silver in the mixed event, with Holly and Selena coming first and second respectively in the Under 13 girls’ category and our girls’ team won their event in the plate competition. This was the last Prep School race for eight of the team and they certainly went out on a high!

Swimming Swimming has been a success story this year, with an increased number of meets around Edinburgh.

Swimming gala

Winning places in the top three at many of these events indicates how hard pupils are working at their swimming. Integral to our success has been the large numbers of pupils attending early morning sessions throughout the year, alongside the timetabled lessons in Physical Education. Our whole school gala was the usual fabulous but extremely loud occasion, with valuable house points on offer.

Friends

Leavers

What an amazingly talented set of 2nd Formers we have had this year. They have contributed hugely to the school, from their performances in the play, actions on the sports field, outstanding art and musical versatility, to their achievements in the classroom. Thank you to all of our leavers, led so admirably by Lily and Nicholas and their team of Prefects. Good luck to you all with your journey in the Senior School and beyond.

Memories

Look how they’ve grown!

Thank you!

Thank you to the pupils and staff for all their help in compiling this issue of the Busy Bee. If you have any comments or suggestions, we would love to hear from you, so please email us at busybee@fettes.com

The Fettes Trust (Fettes College) is a registered Scottish charity No: SC017489