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The Chronicle 2020
Senior Report
senior SCHOOL REPORT
With the long summer holiday having seemingly flown by, it was business as usual when members of the school community - pupils, teaching staff and support staff - once again came together for the start of yet another academic year. It is perhaps true to say that “absence makes the heart grow fonder”, as everyone was glad to be amongst friends, colleagues and teachers again as we set out on our journey through the coming session and the inevitable routines, new challenges and fresh experiences that this would entail.
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he VI Senior year group of session 2019-20 began their final year of school life on a high note, with the annual Sixth Year Conference at the Marcliffe hotel setting the tone of aiming high, looking outwards, and being the best that you can be in every aspect of life, both at school and beyond. It is inevitable that these young women should approach the end of their school career with mixed emotions; their education at St Margaret’s has prepared and equipped them for their futures beyond the granite walls of 17 Albyn Place and they are ready to make that next step, but at the same time this year - one that is punctuated with “last” opportunities to experience the annual St Margaret’s routines - brings with it a certain sadness too. However, with much of the autumn term being focused on their applications to UCAS and their research of higher and further education courses, our VIS girls had plenty to distract them alongside the challenges presented by the rigour of Advanced Higher level study or new Higher courses.
IS Team Building St Margaret’s Day service in November and carol service on the final day of the autumn term.
Just as a year group prepares to aim for the last milestone in their school journey, for another year group the route map that will lead them to that same end point six years later is being opened. Making the transition from primary to secondary education is a significant one, but it is one that appeared to be made very seamlessly by the girls who entered senior school for the first time this year, and they quickly became integrated in all aspects of school life. The route map ahead for them promises varied and interesting encounters along the way: new routines, new teachers, new friends, new learning opportunities, new experiences, all of which will be built on as the journey continues over the years.
The new academic challenges that are part and parcel of the process of moving up a school year are tempered with so many other ways of becoming involved in school life, and of developing or enhancing skills and attributes outwith the teaching classrooms. Our staff are exceptionally generous in giving of their time to provide all manner of activities to cater for a wide range of talents and interests across all senior age groups. Participation in such extra-curricular activities only serves to increase the feeling of close community within our school setting and as ever we remained committed to promoting clubs and societies, as well as educational visits, fieldwork and conferences that allow our pupils to benefit from as wide a range of experiences as possible at every stage of their school career. Teaching staff, too, took up opportunities for furthering their own professional development via subjectspecific or more general pedagogical events, both externally and within staff discussion groups in school.
Of course, it is not just in I Senior that we are able to welcome new pupils to St Margaret’s and session 2019-20 was no exception, with girls in other year groups from II - VIS extending the hand of friendship to newcomers in their midst, the latter quickly settling into our close community network. As always, we aim to work in close partnership and cooperation with parents of girls at all ages and stages and really value the opportunities for our parent body to be able to share in the life of the school at some of our annual events, from parents’ evenings and curriculum information evenings, to the more formal, but joyful celebrations of school life, namely our annual
As we entered the spring term of 2020, little could have prepared us for what lay ahead in the later half of that term. January, February and early March passed as normal, namely in a blur of prelims for girls in IV to VI Senior, and a formal diet of year group exams for those in IIS and IIIS. This is inevitably a very busy time in the school calendar. Several weeks were devoted to the afore-mentioned exams and all the inherent revision for girls and marking for teachers associated with those girls in II, IV and V Senior were making important decisions around their preferred subject choices for the following year and all girls in the SQA exam-focused years were fully occupied with