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Daniel Stewart’s & Melville College Former Pupils Club
Class of 2020 An update from Jeff Marsh about the class of 2020 – who left SMC in unique circumstances. Perhaps only FPs whose time at Daniel Stewart’s or Melville College ended during the world wars can truly empathise with the newest recruits to their ranks, the Class of 2020, whose final year of active schooling was brought to an abrupt halt by the national lockdown initiated by the COVID-19 global pandemic. One week, dissertations were being completed and the climax of the sporting season being prepared for as normal with the distant promise (after exams) of the end-of-year traditional events – the Leavers’ Ceremony, the 24 hour dash to Alton Towers theme park and back, the Leavers’ Ball and of course the final school day and Prizegiving. The next week, it was announced that schools were to close, exams were to be cancelled, as would, ultimately, the inevitable cancellation of all those endof-SMC rites of passage.
That final week saw a mass year group football match up at MES, a post-it note memory wall, the traditional ladsonly final school lunch (see attached pictures) and a cheerful determination to make the most of the situation. As lockdown began, the red blazer team swung into action, entertaining the year group with a series of amusing video presentations, concerts (this being an exceptionally talented year group from a musical as well as a sporting perspective) and intellectual and physical challenges to keep spirits high. Sixth Form Tutors guided the boys through their final decision-making for the future, and all too soon it was time for the online Leavers’ Ceremony, an opportunity to mark that final week of official schooling with the school hymn, the torch ceremony, and a welcome to the FP community from Alasdair Seale, is spite of the continuing lockdown.
Showing the same resilience which had taken them to the Schools’ Rugby Cup in a memorable Murrayfield final against Watson’s, the national schools’ hockey final and an unbeaten record at football, the Class of 2020 shrugged off these disappointments and left at the end of the year knowing that their contribution to the school was equally as great as those who had enjoyed the good fortune of seeing their final year through to the end.
Little did those going off to university realise at that stage what awaited them in the autumn, campus lockdowns with freshers confined to their rooms under the watchful eye of security guards, but with a solid education behind them and with the school motto and ESMS Nine Values as their guiding principles, they again bore the additional challenges with good humour and can look forward to a brighter future.
Some have already made their mark, with school captain Joe Ewing performing well in televised middle-distance running events prior to taking up his scholarship to Harvard in 2021, and Kieran Ngwenya making his SPFL Premier League debut for Aberdeen FC before the year was out. Peter Molloy began his degree in Modern and Mediaeval Languages at the University of Cambridge, whilst the ancient universities of Durham, St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the colleges of the University of London all featured more prominently than usual in the list of destinations of the leavers of a notably academic cohort. More boys than usual also opted to take an impromptu gap year, to protect their future university experience, whilst those who had hoped to serve our Australasian partner schools as Gap Tutors instead found themselves patrolling more familiar playgrounds here at ESMS. Already notable as the first group of students to enjoy Sixth Form under the enthusiastic leadership of new Director of Sixth Form Mrs Frances McCrudden, the Class of 2020’s final year was memorable for many more reasons than they could have imagined, but their stoicism and collegiality will help them to make a major contribution to both the FP Club and the wider community.
