Life, the Universe and Everything

I interviewed Mrs McGrath before a weekend of celebrations to commemorate her retirement, to explore her experience at this school and future plans. I had the pleasure of having her as my UCAS tutor. She was a devoted and passionate teacher so writing this was a pleasure.

Mrs McGrath graduated from St Andrews University in 1974 with joint honours in French and Russian and started work at the High School in August 1980 as Assistant Principal Teacher of Modern Languages. Over the years her role evolved and for the last 20 years she has overseen the senior pupils' journey to university, in addition to coaching the debating teams.

What are your fondest memories?

I suppose debating has been the pinnacle. Watching a pupil standing up in the Cambridge Chamber and absolutely owning that arena is so invigorating. Feeling like they are finally getting it and realising their potential is wonderful. I also loved my class of six ‘crash’ Higher Russian pupils in 1999.

The amazing young people – many of whom have kept in touch and shared their stellar careers! Winning Cambridge in 2003; watching one of our FPs chairing a debate as President of the Oxford Union; three World Champions in Scotland teams; two of our FPs topping Euros tabs as student debaters and having made so many friends across the world.

Convening the World Schools Debating Championship in Dundee in 2011 (three years of hard work) where for 10 days the city hosted 420 guests from 48 countries and on the middle Sunday everyone came to the school for a day’s debating.

2007 saw quite an adventure. An otherwise very successful team lost the Mace semi-final to our friends from Grove and I promised the Grove coach that if they won the Scottish final, which they did, I would fly to London to cheer them on. Two hours before he was due to pick me up the phone rang, “ESU headquarters in Mayfair have mislaid their gavels and might the High School be prepared to lend one?” Thus, our thistletopped one made its way to the House of Lords. That evening also afforded me my Facebook avatar and I can casually refer to the picture and say ‘Oh yes, that was me making a speech in the House of Lords…’

You were awarded the BEM in December 2019 in recognition of your services to Scottish Schools Debating – what did that feel like?

I opened the envelope – the words swam before my eyes – I looked up at the photo of my late husband on the kitchen wall and burst into tears. I phoned my son, who got a fright because I was crying so much, I couldn’t get the words out!

How did you start to be involved in debating at the school?

At Harris Academy I was invited to take charge of teams competing in the Press and Journal tournament. This eventually took me to a debate at the High School in October 1979 where I was absolutely blown away by the performance of the F4 boys. A year later I was standing in front of a Higher French class containing two of them. A third is attending my retirement do –he’s now a QC.

How has the university application process changed over the years in your eyes?

I wrote my very first references for two pupils applying to Oxford in 2000. One is now a barrister, the other a solicitor in London. It’s now more competitive but I think we have improved our ways of working and supporting pupils.

How might the school continue to prepare pupils for the application process?

The school does a good job actually! There’s a whole range of support systems led by different teachers in the school and an array of resources on Firefly. The important thing is persuading pupils to have the desire and determination to undertake relevant activities and work experience.

What advice do you have for new pupils on how they should be preparing for university?

It’s not just about grades. It’s also about demonstrating the passion you have for your subject. A Head of Admissions at Oxford called it ‘Sunday Afternoon Syndrome’; what you do on Sunday after you’ve practised music, played sport or gone to your job on Saturday. Do you read about your subject? If you want to be an engineer, do you make things? If you’re fascinated by history, do you go to exhibitions? I tried to make sure that pupils were excited about their envisaged career and I hugely enjoyed my UCAS responsibilities.

What does an ideal day for Mrs McGrath look like?

In retirement? Maybe a morning of drinking coffee and reading newspapers (particularly political commentary) and doing the cryptic crossword. Then some gardening or walking around the park listening to podcasts, with an evening spent with friends, food, wine and lots of political arguing.

What are your plans for retirement?

I have loved everything about debating. But I have reached the stage where if I don’t stop now, I won’t get to do the other things.

I’ve got stacks of books I want to read and plan to travel in the summer and write in the winter, even though that sounds frightfully pretentious. I’ve been around the world debating, from Peru to Singapore, Western Canada to Bangkok, so now I want to travel the UK with Pauline (my beloved Volvo) provided I can afford the diesel! There are so many places I have never been; Devon and Cornwall, the Western Isles, industrial heritage museums in the north of England. I want to go back to Ireland and just wander about looking at things.

For 31 years I have done a Christmas letter, a ‘warts and all’ approach to record our family’s year. I try to make it vaguely amusing and chatty. The first two decades were typed, but now they are illustrated in full colour. I have around 7,000 prints, all carefully ordered, corresponding negatives and all the texts, including really old ones transferred from the Acorn computer! The plan is to buy the best quality scanner I can afford and insert photos into the first twenty years. I’ll have the result professionally printed into a book, one for each of my sons and one for me. I’m not going to edit the writing as it might be interesting to see how that has evolved over the years.

I have a vague notion of putting together a memoir, partly based on the best bits of the letters and partly from debating anecdotes, things I’ve encountered and people I’ve met. Maybe people outside of my immediate friends and family will be interested – or maybe they won’t. It’ll be worth a try.

What stands out when you look back on your 42 years at HSD?

‘42’ for my generation is the answer to ‘Life, the Universe, and Everything' (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). For all those years the school was my life and my universe, but behind that has been my everything; my late husband Rick and the family that we built together and our two sons that are my strength and of whom I’m immensely proud. One is an HGV Class 1 truck driver like his father, the other an academic mathematician turned cyber geek, who relishes his demanding intellectual work.

When my very first UCAS candidate left school to go and do Law at Oxford, her parents very kindly presented Rick and me with a pair of crystal champagne flutes. One is engraved with a pheasant – the other, a capercaillie. Underneath each bird is a gavel, and in between, one glass bears my initials, and the other Rick’s. This was in acknowledgement of all the weekends and evenings and weeks of holiday when I had taken their clever daughter to as many debating competitions as possible, on her path to twice representing Scotland and becoming a world champion. Behind all the commitment, joy and satisfaction we derived from that was Rick, looking after our sons. I have treasured memories of our marriage as a partnership of two perhaps unlikely people who made a team; we supported and complemented each other, and my life has been immeasurably enriched by the privilege of having been his wife.

The story that I have related to generations of F5s about to start their UCAS applications, is to think about standing in the shower on a Monday morning. Are you excited for the week ahead, planning out what you are going to achieve; or are you counting how many days it is until Friday? I am absolutely convinced that enjoying and taking pride in your job drives a great deal of contentment, complemented you hope by a happy family life. What I’d wish for everyone is to be able to look back on life with a sense of satisfaction that actually, you might not have made too bad a job of it in the end.

Rebecca Hamilton (Class of 2022)