The Chronicle 2014 - 2015 by The Glasgow Academy

Chronicle The Glasgow Academy

2014-2015

Chronicle The Glasgow Academy

Autumn 2015 Number 335 Editor: Emma Ross with Alison Campbell

Cover photo : World Champions Gavin Horsburgh and Josh Armstrong in Rio de Janeiro.

From the Rector

What a remarkable year we have enjoyed! The Glasgow Academy was Scotland’s top coeducational school at National 5 in terms of pass rate (98.2%) in 2015. It was second in Scotland at Higher in terms of percentage of entries awarded A grades (67.5%). The 2015 Higher results were our best ever: we presented more candidates than ever before and they gained a record 90% A or B grades and a record pass rate of 96.13% (the top pass rate and the top A grade rate in Glasgow). A record 42 pupils gained 5 or more A grades: a third more than our previous best. Jasmine Li has 8 Highers (and she, Sharan Maiya and Calum Wray now have 20 A grades between them). At National 5 our A grade rate rose significantly to 75.5%, whilst our Advanced Higher pass rate of 91.3% was a significant improvement too. Our most popular club now is Engineering Club, but our Chemistry research club caused particular excitement when it discovered a new compound whilst studying crystallisation. According to the Glasgow University website, ‘The infra-red spectrum did not match any previously known compounds and X-ray crystallography at Glasgow University revealed

the material to be a new polymorph of anhydrous calcium formate, an additive in cements and a food preservative known as E238.’ The website quoted the University’s Dr Price: “’To me it is really quite shocking, but very satisfying, that we can still discover such important new things about apparently simple well-known materials.’ This in-school discovery forms the basis of a Nuffield summer placement in the University School of Chemistry, to refine experiments to better understand the conditions under which the phase is formed. We again represented Scotland in the Chemistry Top of the Bench UK finals and in the UK Mathematics Trust Team Maths Challenge, at both Junior and Senior levels. As a result of his performance in the Intermediate Mathematical Olympiad Ritobrata Mukhopadhyay was one of just two pupils in Scotland invited to attend the UK Mathematical Summer school for the UK’s most talented young mathematicians. We competed as the only Scottish school in the World final of the Jaguar Cars Maths in Motion competition and won the 2014 National Christmas Race. Following our >

From the Rector success in the Jaguar Challenge, we are now one of just three UK centres of excellence, through whom training and support of other schools will be run. Five Academy pupils won international medals rowing for Great Britain, including two golds at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to two World Champions, we had six British Internationalists, six Scottish Internationalists, two British and Home International Champions, six National Schools Champions and won 26 Scottish titles. We also raced, for the first time, at Henley Royal Regatta, setting a new course record in the Fawley Challenge Cup, beating the Australians from Sydney Rowing Club. Gavin Horsburgh and Josh Armstrong became World Champions by taking Gold in the junior men’s quads final at the World Junior Rowing Championships in Rio, beating long-time leaders Germany in 6:05.36. Their win was a first-ever men’s quad title for Great Britain. Alex Rankin also represented Great Britain in Rio, in the women’s four final won by the United States. At the Coupe de La Jeunesse in Hungary Holly Wicklow won three silver medals for Great Britain, in pairs and the eight. Becky Neilson and India Somerside won gold for Great Britain at the GB France match for the second year running and our inspirational rowing coach Iain Somerside was selected as Great Britain coach in Hungary. Prior to setting a new record at Henley, our boys (Gavin, Josh, Seb Glen and Callum Urquhart) won Marlow regatta, posting the fastest time of all junior quads. Callum and Seb won the British junior double sculls title and the following week the same event at the Home International Championships, repeating the feat achieved by Callum’s brother Ross and Ronan Murphy in 2011. All five Academy Athletes rowing at the British Championships won medals: India Somerside and Becky Neilson took silver in Women’s J16 pairs and Sam Abernethy took bronze in J16 pairs. At the National Schools Regatta in Nottingham Glasgow Academy were the fourth most successful club in the UK, winning three golds in Championship Pairs and Doubles. Captain of Rugby, Andrew Simmers, was selected for the Scotland Under 18 squad, where he quickly became the number 1 choice for the Home Nations competition at Easter. Mr Smith, our Head of rugby and former Scotland Under 20A Head coach, was awarded SRU Coach of the Year 2015 at Murrayfield, coaching league-winning Heriot’s and the Scotland Club XV, which included our rugby coach/PE teacher Graham Wilson: both aim to bring some of these experiences and successes to our rugby programme. Our S2s did their bit by winning Edinburgh Academy rugby sevens. In hockey, our S1s won the West District tournament for the third year running, our S2s the Hutchesons’ tournament and our 1st XI the BP Cup Plate. Eight girls played in District hockey teams and five were Inter-District Champions.

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Melissa Sleigh retained her Dry Tooling British Championship U18 title, whilst brother Douglas repeated Tim Miller’s achievement last year by winning the British U18 men’s title. Fraser Middleton retained his title as Scottish Schools ski cross champion. Our Senior Boys gained an emphatic victory in the overall team competitions at the Glasgow Schools Athletics Championships. Our S2 boys and girls won the Independent Schools Athletics League and our Senior boys and S2 girls won Glasgow Schools Cross-country. Academy pupils also won seven of the team competitions at the Glasgow Schools Primary and Secondary Crosscountry Championships: our runners did particularly well in the primary age categories, with Academy teams taking five of the six available team trophies. In shooting, we had our most successful Bisley ever: our Ashburton Four team lost by only 1 point and we finished 2nd in the Schools’ Pair and 3rd in the London Scottish Vase. Angus Frood was crowned U15 ISGA Scottish Champion and our U15 side had a clean sweep at the St Leonards National Championships. At the Young Enterprise Glasgow Area Finals, our company won the award for Best Presentation. The Senior School production of ‘Chicago’ was widely acclaimed and S1-3 gave an energetic performance of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. We enjoyed a series of joyous Prep School performances across our sites and our Music tour to New York was highly successful, including a workshop with a professional singer in the Broadway cast of ‘Chicago’ and a performance in the Cathedral Church of St John the Divine. The Saunders Centre opened on time for the start of session 2015-16, and has been much admired. The squeals of delight from Prep children watching 3D projection of Maths teaching films show that the vast PTA-funded 3D screen is going down a storm. An exceptional range of facilities were improved over summer 2015 in the most extensive construction and refurbishment programme we have ever undertaken. We have another two new Astros at Windyedge. At Kelvinbridge we have a new dance studio, new medical centre, new drama studios, new rowing suite, new Outdoor Education centre, new locker and bag storage area, new individual showers and four refurbished changing rooms rather than two. We have also refurbished our War memorial. Over £28,000 was raised for a range of charities chosen by pupils and public benefit was served through a wide range of our staff activities. The Academy featured as one of the Telegraph 10 best-value UK schools.

EXCELLENCE AND OPPORTUNITIES

Meet our Internationalists

Sam Abernethy Rowing Scotland HIR J18 eight

Susan Al-Haddad Hockey Scotland U18

Josh Armstrong Rowing GB Junior Men’s Quads World Champion

Alexandra Black Shooting Scotland Small-bore

Bryn Doherty Tetrathlon Scotland U12

Seb Glen Rowing Scotland HIR J18 Double Scull

Gavin Horsburgh Rowing GB Junior Men’s Quads World Champion

Anna Manuel Tetrathlon Scotland U12

Jack McCready Rugby Scotland U16

Flynn McLean Tetrathlon Scotland U12

Lewis McLean Equestrian Scotland Junior Showjumping Team

Fraser Middleton Delancy British U18 Ski Squad

Kit Morris Rowing Scotland HIR WJ18 four

Becky Neilson Rowing GB France women’s pair

Joanna Neilson Equestrian 3-day Eventing Scotland U18

Alex Rankin Rowing GB women’s four

Andrew Simmers Rugby Scotland U18

India Somerside Rowing GB France women’s pair

Callum Urquhart Rowing Scotland HIR J18 Double Scull

Holly Wicklow Rowing GB Coupe de la Jeunesse

Philippa Williamson Tetrathlon Scotland U12

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Charities and community involvement Two weeks before Cyclone Pam hit the archipelago of Vanuatu it suffered an earthquake measuring 6·5, which was followed by a volcano erupting again for the first time in 100 years. To then suffer a severe category 5 tropical cyclone must have been devastating and the immediate response to appeals by pupils was to organise a non-uniform day the following week. This raised £3,022 and is typical of the consideration for others exhibited throughout the school. Not all our activities have been in response to such dramatic events so far away, but all have been equally valued. The total of charitable donations, from all pupils and staff, for this session is £28,625. At Dairsie, the children in P4 chose to support Yorkhill Children’s Hospital and as a result of their efforts, and the generosity of friends and family, they were able to donate £1,300. Children in Need was supported to the tune of £1,782 by jogging around Newlands Bowling Club; by ‘seeing’ red and buying cakes they were able to donate £150 to the Red Nose Day funds; in excess of 40 presents were gifted to the Glasgow Care Foundation for needy children in Glasgow at Christmas time; a hoard of harvest produce was donated to the Lodging House Mission and the pupils responded to the Nepal Earthquake Fund by raising £150. As well as all this, we were able to give money to a local cancer charity for children, when books were purchased from the Travelling Book Fair. In keeping with tradition, the annual Jump Rope at TGA Milngavie raised quite a few heart beats and £430 for the British Heart Foundation. In November, all the pupils had red and yellow spots all over, not an infectious disease but an event in support of BBC’s Children in Need, and this event raised almost £100. Fun was in plentiful supply at the ‘Fill your boots’ Fun Day, which was held in aid of the RNLI; £126 was raised for Comic Relief by selling red noses

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and donations for organised playground games and pupils dressing in costume from another country to support Book Aid. Fairtrade bananas and hot chocolate were sold at our One World Shop during the Fairtrade Fortnight. Among other charities supported was Glasgow City Mission, which received a donation of tins/packets of food and toiletries. Pupils at Kelvinbridge Prep were involved in several new and imaginative events to raise money for charity this year. The Jewellery Club raised £551 for the Scottish Poppy Appeal by making poppies and £110 for PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) by making paper bracelets. The Enterprise Club designed and sold TGA USBs, ran a stall at the PTA Christmas Fayre, worked with the catering department to bake Fairtrade products, held a Fairtrade stall for children during Fairtrade Fortnight, organised the foreign currency collection during money week and made and sold a range of themed products at the school show. After funding all of their own projects, their business ended the year with a profit of £707, which they elected to donate to the Oxfam Ebola Crisis Fund. Everyone has been involved - at one end of the school the Kindergarten raised £92 for Children in Need and at the other the Prep 7 sale raised £2,776 for Children 1st and the entire school raised £1,082 for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal. In the Senior School two events were particularly successful: the now annual Santa Dash involved 143 representatives from the Academy running 5 kilometres through the streets of Glasgow, raising £3,667 for the Beatson Cancer Charity, and the English Department’s S1 Readathon raised the fantastic sum of £2,454; this year the money raised helps seriously ill children by supporting four UK charities: ReadWell, Roald Dahl’s Marvellous Children’s Charity, Together for Short Lives and CLIC Sargent. £70 was collected for SCIAF’s “wee blue box” appeal during Lent and Morrison’s M Factor event raised £381 to support

the education of children in an Orphanage in Iten, Kenya. The school choir raised £320 for the Ronald McDonald charity singing carols at Christmas in St Enoch Square. S3 pupils sold handmade cars, washed cars, made juice, sold popcorn and ‘Posed for Poverty’ to raise £663 for Salt and Light, a bus Ministry working on the streets of Glasgow with vulnerable men and women, many of whom have addictions. Our S3 Business Management class took part in a month-long enterprise, ‘Micro-Tyco’, to raise money for the WildHearts Foundation. This is an organisation which funds microloans and provides business training to people in developing countries, 90% of whom are women. One of our teams held a FIFA tournament over a number of lunchtimes and raised £85. As always Academy staff were involved in numerous activities; Mrs Kirkhope ran a 10K in aid of Parkinson’s UK, Hope and Homes for Children was supported with a sponsored walk organised by Mrs Muirhead, money raised at the Staff Quiz Night was donated to the Stroke Association and six ladies from the Prep School participated in Cancer Research’s Pretty Muddy Challenge in Bellahouston Park. In addition to the above, many organisations were supported with donations in kind. A collection of 300 large bags of quality food, a response from the whole school community across all three sites, was donated to ‘Loaves and Fishes’ in East Kilbride and the Maryhill Food Bank. After a presentation by Mary’s Meals the S1 pupils collected 108 backpacks with clothes, a toy and school equipment, to be sent to a child in Tanzania. A vanload of unwanted books was delivered to Better World books in Dunfermline for onward shipment to Africa. On a cold, wet December night a small band of Sixth Years, disguised as elves, snowmen and cuddly bears helped with door-to-door collections on the St Margaret’s Hospice Christmas Bus. AL Evans

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Chairman’s Report I am delighted to report that the Academy is in excellent shape and the school roll continues to be very healthy. Demand for places remains high and in the Prep School this year we are adding a further P6 class to meet demand and slightly reduce class sizes. Academic attainment is first class and the range of educational and co-curricular activities we are now able to offer makes us the school of choice for many families. Last year I reported that we had just commenced construction of the new Science and Technology building. As I write this in August this iconic new building has just been handed over by the contractors to the school. Now I know I may be biased but doesn’t the new building look stunning? Internally the quality of fit out and feeling of light and space is readily apparent and of course the facilities are not just for science and food technology: the multi-purpose auditorium as the central feature in the new building will provide something for every pupil. The project was funded by a mix of bank borrowings and donations. Donations from our community now total just short of £2m, well beyond our expectations, and have enabled the project to be delivered. I would like to express my sincere thanks to all those who have given financial support. We have named the building the Saunders Centre in honour of Lt Colonel Frank Saunders who died in 2013. Frank was a former pupil who left in 1923 and retained a great interest in the school, being a regular visitor right up to his 105th birthday. At that time he decided to bequeath virtually his whole estate (c£750,000), to the building appeal because he knew his legacy would make a positive, life-changing difference to generations of Academy pupils: a truly remarkable gift from a truly remarkable man. I would particularly like to thank our Governor in charge of the SciTech Project, Bryan Duncan, Bill Kerr, General Manager, and indeed the whole professional team for the exceptional commitment, enthusiasm and skill they have brought to the project. They have done a fantastic job. Over summer 2015, as well as the normal maintenance works, we commenced refurbishment of the vacated buildings. The first phase has refitted the former Chemistry Building to deliver two drama suites, an Outdoor Education centre, and bag and locker storage. The former Biology building has been refitted to give us a dance studio, weights room and fitness suite. The old Physics building has become our new medical centre and rowing studio. At Anniesland two astro pitches have been replaced. The school is able to adopt a continuous improvement policy in respect of our facilities due to strong cash flows. We are certainly not complacent about this and a relentless drive for improvement in everything we do is central to our philosophy.

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Investment in the school of course is only partly about buildings and facilities. It is the investment in people that really makes the difference. And that is why at the Academy we place so much emphasis on attracting and retaining the very best teachers and the very best support staff. I know how difficult it is to get a job at the Academy: the process and scrutiny is quite intense! And so I would like to thank our staff for the quite magnificent job that they do to educate and nurture our children. Led by our inspirational Rector and his superb senior team, they set the standard of excellence in everything we do. The Academy is a school with great tradition and heritage: that is important and will always remain so, but it is what we do now and in the future that will differentiate us. At the Academy whatever you achieve is important, valued and truly appreciated. I’d also like to express my considerable thanks to all my Board colleagues for their support during the year. The time and effort they put in is really appreciated. We have a broad mix of skills and individuals and the Board keep me right on most things! I would also like to mention the contribution made by our parents to the school community and particularly through the PTA. Our sincere thanks go to chair David Rome and his team for all that they have done and continue to do for the school. The amount that has been raised this year for school equipment is quite remarkable and very much appreciated. And finally and most importantly I would just like to thank every girl and boy at the Academy for the part you have played both individually and collectively in the life of the school. We hope that leavers will keep in touch with each other and with us: I assure them that a warm welcome will always await them if they can attend events and reunions. Graham Scott

42 pupils celebrate their 5 or more A grades at Higher

SENIOR SCHOOL

Lakeside was a fantastic way to start our Sixth Year experience. Once we arrived at the centre on the banks of Lake Windermere, we were put into groups which were quite deliberately organised to make us get to know some people in our year group whom we may not have spoken to very often. Indeed, Lakeside served as an excellent way to bring everyone together and to get us to work under pressure. Alternating the team leader through every challenge helped us learn about others’ weaknesses, learn first-hand the qualities required to be a successful leader and how, as a team, we could harness each other’s strengths to complete the challenges successfully. From tangrams to zip-wires and adventure courses, there was no challenge that could be disliked. One memorable challenge was to teach the groups to pay close attention to instructions. The amusing part was seeing which groups ended up singing and dancing to the Time Warp; fortunately, my group had the chance to witness the admirable and amusing attempt of a Temple group! On the evening of the last night, the tension peaked at an auction of scrapyard materials for the grand finale: a monumental inter-house chain reaction. The inter-house chain reaction was a fabulous way of finishing the trip. Although the trip may have roused everyone’s competitive spirit, the construction of the chain reaction created an unforgettable atmosphere of a united front. The beginning of the chain reaction was not as successful as we all hoped and everyone laughed and enjoyed the failure of Temple’s and Morrison’s sections; Arthur and Fraser achieved a flawless design, which allowed for the epic release of the balloons. Lakeside was an unforgettable experience that allowed everyone to leave with something new: teamwork skills, friendship or memories. If I had the opportunity to go on this awesome trip again, I would be more than happy to do so. I would recommend everyone to attend this residential course as it is an excellent experience and there is no better way of starting the last year of Senior School. Felicia Ma

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Duke of Edinburgh’s Award The Duke of Edinburgh Award keeps on going from strength to strength. The participation rate has risen to 95 students taking part in the Bronze award and 44 students working towards their Silver Award. The Gold Award has 39 individuals using their final two years in the Academy to complete the remit set by the Award. At all levels, students will agree that they are pushed beyond their comfort levels. Whether it is coordinating a volunteering programme, seeking out new skills or spending two nights out in the wild Scottish weather, each of the students is required to act both effectively and independently to succeed. This year has seen a few changes in the programme. The Bronze crew have seen the successful partnership with Lochgoilhead centre, the new providers for the practice and qualifying expeditions. The excellent staff at the centre have given all of the students an exceptional experience in outdoor skills. They visited the school earlier in March so as best to prepare the groups for what was to come their way and have since then put them in the best position so that they might navigate their own way through the woods, moors, hills and burns of the Trossachs. There have, of course, been mixed successes with the navigation routes that each group has achieved and a few groups may have been way-laid more than once, but we’ll chalk that up as a learning curve. It all puts them in better stead for the Silver expedition, where they now have the opportunity to take part in a cycling, canoeing or hill walking expedition. Each brings with it a new set of challenges, not least the requirement that they must transport an additional day’s worth of food. This does seem to have weeded out the unnecessary

tubes of Pringles from their rucksacks. The weather for the Silver groups has been, to date, a mixed affair, but stunning scenery that the Callander region enjoys made up for it. Besides, however wet the weather might have been, it was only the canoe group who met strong winds that caused boats to roll (although I am assured that this was all planned as part of the training). 2015-16 looks set to be another successful year and we are on track for qualifying each of the students who began their Award. The Gold group are already planning their exciting new expedition routes, be it canoeing down the Spey or climbing Scotland’s most central munros. There is every indication that the commitment and huge progress our pupils are making with their Awards means that The Glasgow Academy could soon be the very top school in Scotland for taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. D MacLean

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GOLD AWARD EXPEDITION Four days. Four days of rain and midges and wet feet and hard ground. Of ticks and heavy bags and blisters and boil-in-the-bag food. Four days. Seventy-seven hours. Four thousand six-hundred and twenty(ish) minutes. Sounds like hell, or some kind of twisted purgatory, doesn’t it? And yet… no tears, no quitting, only mild complaining and, admittedly, a little bit of frustration. Our Gold DofE may not have been ideal (definitely didn’t feel like the middle of June with all that rain) but despite this, it was an “experience”. The truth is that with a group of good friends, an upbeat attitude, a smug instructor and some near-death experiences to lighten the mood, our expedition was - what I would call - a success. Day one began at a seemingly relentless pace along the road to Tomdoun, and with only one or two points of doubt about the path, the day passed without incident. In fact, having found no suitable campsite, and having covered the distance far faster than we thought, we decided to press on another few kilometres before setting up camp near a river, with a handy bridge nearby to cook on. Dinner was straightforward and the bridge provided some wind that gave us some relief from the building midges (more on this later). After dinner saw some light entertainment in the form of our own wonderful renditions of Fleetwood Mac, dedicated to Nina, who gave up going to see them to be on DofE with us. Dancing in midge nets to “You Make Loving Fun” made the evening fly past. The morning of day two - it felt as though every midge in Scotland had converged around our tents. With Ali gone without a word to anyone, we saw his sense in leaving the midges behind and followed suit without stopping for breakfast until we were clear of the woods. We then headed up the valley, reaching quite a height and admiring the deer silhouetted on the skyline before making our way to Kinbreak bothy - the first of the bothies on our route for lunchtime. We met Ali there and demonstrated great restraint at his boast of being there for three hours already. After a large hot lunch and a heated discussion of the collective noun for the “frenzy” of midges, we started on our aim and checked out the condition of the bothy, clearing up the shelves and taking the lightest of the rubbish that we could carry away. We left the bothy with a fantastic drawing in its bothy book and headed over the saddle that we had originally planned to do day three. As usual, Felicia fell in a bog and I fell over several times (none of them harmful). We set up camp at Stratham and headed to bed before any more midges gathered. The morning of day three was somewhat frustrating after a wrong turn and a twenty-minute walk in the wrong direction. After fixing our mistake, we reached A’Chuil bothy in time for a late lunch, where we met Ali and Hannah. After clearing up a little more, and putting another fab drawing in the bothy book, we headed off towards Sourlies. There were a few doubts of the path on the way, but we made it up to the top of the valley, and followed what could charitably be called a path, but which felt like more of a streambed. This part of the day was probably the

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hardest and we were at our lowest point as we made our way to a gorge that was increasingly steep. We missed the river crossing marked on the map and instead had to cross at the “Gorge of Death”. On the other side, the giggles hit and we spent the break eating Kendall mint cake and laughing at our near-death experience (we may or may not have exaggerated). Finally finding a solid path, we pounded down towards Sourlies with renewed energy and made it in time for dinner in the bothy, which was occupied with walkers we met again in Inverie the next day. Dinner was less successful than previously after Katie tried to use Loch Nevis water for her dinner, before she realised it was salty. Then Nina spilt the chicken curry sauce and all the while we lived in fear of Felicia and her dark thoughts. Still no tears, as a pact was made that Ali would be the first to cry. Before bed, we showed Ali the bodies of the thousands of midges caught in a pouch in my tent and he spent the next twenty minutes scooping them into an empty bottle as an ornament to take home. After that, we headed to bed for an early rise the next morning. Filled with the “last day” energy we headed off early, encountering difficulty five minutes from Sourlies, when the path was cut off by high tide. We detoured up and over and met a marsh on the other side. By this time, with soaking feet, we barely bothered to avoid the marshy parts and met Ali at a bridge before heading up the big saddle of the day. Together, and fairly quickly, we climbed the 500m saddle, making it to the top half an hour before we hoped to get there. The downhill was a relief to me and we pounded down it at a fairly quick pace, while Ali taught me a trick for having better balance (by this point, I had lost count of my number of falls and had no dry knees to my trousers). Rather than stop for lunch, we elected to keep going for Inverie, slowing the pace for Anna and her sore ankle. We made it to Inverie in time to see the 2 o’clock ferry leave, but decided to get the 3 o’clock one and have a rest in the café - Ali very kindly bought us all a hot chocolate before we hobbled our way onto the ferry and home. All things considered, our Gold DofE expedition was a oncein-a lifetime experience - something I will only do once in my lifetime. While I am not keen to repeat the experience anytime soon, I am glad to have done it. Megan Auld

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LAKES ROCK CLIMBING TRIP After checking out the weather, the Lake District was the obvious choice, so we went for it. This crazy weekend started with some much needed fish and chips after a long journey down! After wolfing down our dinner, we set up our tents as we decided it was a good plan to get some kip for the big days ahead. Apart from some noisy neighbours (that left Miss G a tad grumpy) we were ready for the adventure. This trip only had three 6th years on it, but it meant that we were able to learn a lot. Miss Goolden took us multipitch climbing (where the cliff is so long that multiple rope lengths must be used to reach the top). This was a first-time experience for all of us - how exciting. We struggled up all six pitches, cramming ourselves in behind trees and hovering on tiny ledges. It was AMAZING! We finely reached the top after climbing until we could no longer feel our poor wee fingers, but when we finally had the chance to look back at what we had achieved the feeling was incredible: a rush of satisfaction and adrenaline ran through my body! Throughout that day we continued to cruise up some delicious routes. And when we reached the top the views just seemed

One particularly sunny Friday afternoon in September last year, Melissa, Douglas, Miss Goolden and I were frantically packing the small minibus for a weekend away. Having all just returned from the adventure-filled and sun-soaked expedition to Lofoten, where all pupils were bitten with the climbing bug, we were keen to improve our skills. Our destination? The Lake District. We set off in the minibus which was full of good tunes, climbing gear and a lack of climbing shoes (which Douglas would only realize the next morning). On our arrival, a fishy meal was found and a large shop was done at Booths for our flavoursome menu. With darkness now surrounding us, we headed for a small campsite to rest our weary heads. But, as no outdoor education trip can be without excitement (big or small) on every journey, we reunited a lost dog with its owner on our way. Finally a campsite was found, our tents erected and some sleep was found. Our first day of climbing was a huge, exhausting success on White Ghyll, a nearby climbing hub. We began following Miss Goolden up a three-pitched climb which had stunning views over the ribbon lake Thirlmere. This climb had an amazing angular platform which was actually very difficult to bypass, and hilarity ensued watching everyone attempt it. The second climb, after a snacky lunch, headed up a corner crack which then traversed

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to get more and more spectacular. That day was truly insane. I was so proud of what our wee team had achieved: we rocked! After a superb breakfast, and when we could no longer eat another crumb of pancake, we were off to another crag. Here we were learning to ‘trad’ climb (when you place your own gear on a blank piece of rock). This is where I led my very first HVS (Hard Very Severe - a grade for a route). It was very sketchy and, if I’m honest, I wasn’t always in control, but this just meant that when I reached the top it meant even more that I had got there and it allowed me to believe that I could do anything! The day was packed full of many more climbs and when we finally felt that we couldn’t hold on to one more piece of rock, we headed for the bus, where all three of us slept like babies the whole way home. These amazing trips are packed full of adventures. They are life-changing and are a great escape from the hectic life of school. The days are full of learning, eating and giggling. What a way to spend the weekend. Melissa Sleigh

across to an old, weathered tree to finish. This was one of my favourite climbs of the weekend as the varied climbing was so interesting. Melissa then led a final climb, and I seconded. This was a very tricky route in which Mel did so well to lead and I did so well to attempt to scramble up slowly behind her. Dinner - fajitas, an Outdoor Ed favourite - was had in a random layby due to the quickly decreasing light before we headed to a lovely quiet campsite. Some hot chocolate was made as we chatted around the warm gas stove before we headed to bed. We all woke that final morning to a very dewy field and an energising breakfast, and soon headed out to a new crag which was a 40-minute walk up a gully. The climb that we were attempting was three-pitched and very steep: it looked fantastic. The four us thoroughly enjoyed the surrounding scenery, the challenging climb and the great chat. Douglas, however, was not enjoying his sister’s climbing shoes, which gave him impressive blisters. Ouch! Once off the climb, Miss G realized we had left an expensive bit of gear still in the rock! We soon spotted it and Miss G and I ran up the path to abseil her down to collect the gear. It was quickly saved, and we headed back down the gully for the long drive home. Emily Whyte

T S E W H T R N ADVENTURE

The September ‘North West Dash’ was one of my favourite outdoor trips I have gone on. The weekend started with the five of us going on the trip meeting to decide where we would go. We decided to head up past Ullapool to the foot of Stac Pollaidh.

My favourite part of the trip was on the third day. After camping on an island in the middle of a loch, we had to get our canoes from one loch to the next. This was a crazy experience involving having to move the canoes down a fast-flowing river before we unpacked them and began carrying our drybags to the top of the next lochan. This not only allowed us to experience something new, but also improved our teamwork skills. Anyone who is wanting to get involved with some of the opportunities on offer in The Glasgow Academy should consider going on this weekend away. Scott Duﬃeld

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S6 ADVENTURES THE INACCESSIBLE PINNACLE

3 S6 pupils. 1 Miss Goolden. Exams remaining (for us anyway): 0. Destination: Skye. The Dream: The Inaccessible Pinnacle. A group of four crazy people - Megan, Anthony, Miss Goolden and I - decided on an S6 adventure which we began in Skye. Others were going to be joining us after they had completed their exams and so we had a few days to ourselves and decided it would be amazing to climb the Inaccessible Pinnacle... After a long drive to Skye, and thereafter a lie-in, we awoke to the Cuillen Ridge rising into the clouds behind us and a lovely sandy, soft beach just a footstep away. At this point, the midges were hiding and a porridge breakfast was cooking. Yum! There was a black mark on this morning, however, that came in the form of a weather report. The bad news: that today was the only relatively nice day for the next four days! Now this meant that if we wanted to do the Inaccessible Pinnacle, then it would have to be now. Right now. Quickly a lunch was made and bags packed and we headed to the start of our path that led upwards to the Cuillen Ridge. It looked stunning and foreboding all at once. It was around noon that we began our ascent, which was a crazy enough. Our pace, though, was strong and we made good headway. After a short lunch stop though, it looked as if we would not make it. The remaining sun was hidden behind dark, looming clouds which soon opened the heavens. A wind had also now picked up. My peers, slightly unprepared for this munro, were finding the bouldery path slightly daunting and the rain dampened our spirits. We trundled on, however... and FINALLY we found the Cuillen Ridge, and above us a large, dark pinnacle reaching into the clouds. No photo could prepare me for just how dramatic this scene was. The thought

of climbing this mass quickly brought my head out the clouds and pumped the adrenaline around my body. Megan and Anthony decided against the climb and Miss G and I climbed to the base of this ‘mahoosive’ rock. We were surrounded by cloud, and so I could not see the dramatic drop below me into Loch Coruisk and, if I had, my bravery may have just slunk back down to the campsite! Miss G scampered up the route before me, leaving a trail of rope and gear that were meant to save my life if I fell. Then, with numb feet and cold fingers, I began my ascent. The wind had also picked up and we were not sheltered in any way. Surprisingly, however, the route was very easy and was more of a scramble than a climb (Miss G had chosen to go up the East Ridge rather than the West) and it did not take us long to conquer the Pinnacle! WooHoo! Now the descent began. Miss G and I abseiled off the Pinnacle and met the others waiting for us. They were feeling the chill of standing still and were keen to make a good pace downhill. We headed along the ridge before finding a different path for the descent. At some points this was very steep and the path of stones would slip beneath your feet. Soon we came to a plateau of the ridge and the clouds cleared enough for us to have a very special view out towards The Minch (area of sea) and also up Glenfinnan Glen. To finally reach the road, we had another descent down which we scree ran. So instead of it taking maybe one hour and a half, we were at the bottom within fifteen minutes! Soon we were back at the campsite with a special ‘from scratch’ curry on the go. And it’s fair to say...we ate the lot. Emily Whyte

Scotland is a country of powerful landscapes, dramatic scenery and iconic view. And yet, living in its largest city can often make you forget the beauty of its wilderness. So, in order to remind some of the S6 city slickers of this, Miss Goolden, our esteemed outdoor education coordinator, organised a trip for any S6 willing to spend some time exploring the country they live in. Dramatically entitled “Explore West”, we were taken on a journey up the west coast of Scotland, all the way to Skye, all the while endeavouring on adventures and eating fine food. When the first group left with canoes in-tow, from school, there were only four of us, including Miss G (the others being Emily, Anthony and myself), therefore promising that the trip would be exactly what we wanted to make of it. We headed north to Inverness, where we had the most entertaining shopping experience of my life and I was educated on Miss Goolden’s life philosophy that being in the great outdoors didn’t mean skimping on the food options. With boxes laden with every kind of foodstuff, from veggies to bacon to chocolates to a whole cheese selection (some of us needed an education on cheese), we headed down Loch Ness and continued our journey towards Skye and the Cuillin mountain range. Despite there only being four of us, the conversation never wavered. We searched for a suitable place to camp on our route, but with the rain starting, the ground seemed always too wet to camp on. We elected to make it to a campsite below the Cuillin, and reached it so late that we could only see enough to pitch a tent with a torch, clamber into our sleeping bags and drift off to the quiet hush of the sea. Waking the next morning (at a positively lazy time of 10am), we debated our activity for the day over a hot breakfast and under the dominating presence of Scotland’s most dramatic mountains. Deciding that the weather would most likely not hold, we bundled into the bus and over to the start of our first climb. The Inaccessible Pinnacle, or InPin, sits at the top of a Munro, and though there were times when it did truly seem inaccessible, it became the task for the day. We made excellent time to the top (considering half the group were fairly new to the type of terrain) and after scrambling over loose-ish rock (don’t worry, we were in the safe hands of Miss Goolden), we made it to the top to a view of…. Nothing. Except cloud. And rain. Not that it mattered, for the sense of accomplishment was still the same. At the top, while Miss G and Emily raced off to climb the Pin itself, Anthony and I sat quite happily under a group shelter, waiting with cameras for what proved to be a

very misty photo opportunity. We then headed back down the “quick way” which involved something called scree running which was simultaneously exhilarating and also terrifying – there was a theme developing. Dinner that evening was something to behold, with a chicken curry appearing from the mound of fresh food in the van. The next morning proved the previous day’s weather prediction to be correct, with a near constant downpouring all morning. After a bacon breakfast, we decided on a waterbased activity, since we would get wet either way. We headed back down the valley to Skye’s fairy pools, one of their famous, though not all that well known to most Scots, attractions. We headed to the pools with swimsuits in hand and watched as tourists gasped at men in wetsuits jumping into the cold pools on a rainy May day. They would then give very funny looks at the crazy people from Glasgow Academy jumping into the turquoise water in just their swimsuits. After much hilarity and as little time spent in the water as possible, we were (amazingly) much warmer. With such an eventful morning, lunch comprised sandwiches and a lesson on each part of the cheese selection. Heading south from Skye after that, we eventually found a campsite and headed to bed before the rain came on again. It was a pity that the weather restricted our activities, but you can’t have everything. And if you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. The third day comprised us heading home again (slowly) and as we passed through the famous Glen Coe, Miss G pulled over again for another “wild swim” in the Coe itself (another hair-raising but hilarious experience, and at least she got photographic proof this time). The rest of that day saw us heading to Emily’s grandparents’ house on the west coast, as they had kindly allowed us to stay there. That evening, dinner was spectacular (amazing how much easier cooking is on a real stove) and the weather seemed kind. That night saw the last day of our trip over, and though it was perhaps not ideal weather, there was nothing else to complain about. A refreshing outdoor experience away from our busy modern lives saw us all turn into crazy people jumping into freezing water on a rainy day in Scotland. The trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience (I will only be doing that once in my life). But in all seriousness, the trip was something spectacular, all made possible by some determined S6 and a fantastic Outdoor Ed. teacher. We are lucky to have Miss G and all her expertise that allows us to do such amazing things. What a way to end school! Megan Auld

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S1 & S2 WEEKEND

BARCELONA EXCHANGE The Barcelona exchange was an experience that I will never forget; it was one of the best weeks of my life. After arriving in Alella, it only took an hour or so before I felt right at home, thanks to my exchange partner Mica and her family who were very welcoming. I enjoyed all the activities we participated in: from visiting the famous las Ramblas and beautiful cathedrals such as la Sagrada Familia, to spending time with Mica, learning the Spanish customs and experiencing what life is like for a Spanish girl my age. Since coming back from Barcelona I have noticed that not only my speaking, but also my listening, has improved due to hearing Spanish dialect repeatedly for a week. Throughout the week I grew closer and closer to my exchange family and I was surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) upset to leave. I had no idea that upon participating in the exchange, I would become so attached to someone I had known for such a little period of time. I would thoroughly recommend the exchange to anyone, no matter what your Spanish ability is, because on your return you will find that you have not only improved your Spanish skills, but have also developed as a person and made lifelong friends that will never be forgotten. Ashley Bell

NEW YORKOCTOBERMUSIC TOUR 2014 The tour is one of the highlights in the Music department’s year. Following on from extremely successful tours to Barcelona, London, and Valkenburg, this session’s destination was New York. This tour saw nearly 70 S1 to S6 pupils travel to the USA for a week of concerts and sight-seeing. After an early start of 5am, we headed for Edinburgh Airport to begin the long flight to John F Kennedy Airport in New York. After many hours of travel, we arrived at our hotel for the week, which was conveniently located on 41st Street, just a short walk from Times Square and Broadway. This tour saw the group perform at five different venues during the course of the week. Our first venue was the Lutheran Church of St Peter on Lexington Avenue. The pupils were fortunate enough to sing as part of their Sunday morning service. Following the service, they were rewarded with pizza and a chance to perform some instrumental pieces to the congregation. Tuesday saw the group travel out to St Paul’s Chapel. Manhattan’s only remaining church built before the War of Independence, it is a Georgian gem that miraculously survived the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. It is now known as the Church of 9/11 and serves as a shrine for many who lost their lives that day. This moving concert of choral music ended with piper Ruairidh Hood playing from high up in the gallery at the west end

of the church. This was a moment that many of the staff, pupils and audience members found especially moving. Other concerts included a lunchtime performance at Grace Church (one of New York’s premier church venues) and the Isabella Community Center. Our final concert of the week was at the Cathedral of St John the Divine. The choir gave a recital of pieces and once more Ruairidh finished off the concert with his piping. As always, no tour is complete without the day-to-day excursions to places of interest. Whilst in New York, we had the pleasure of seeing Chicago (an excellent opportunity for those due to perform this in the following November) and Matilda on Broadway. There was a visit to the ‘Top of the Rock’ at the Rockefeller Center, a ‘Meet The Artist’ workshop with one of the cast members of Chicago (a particular highlight for Mrs Young), a tour of the famous Radio City Music Hall and a behind-the-scenes tour of Macy’s Department Store. We also got to dine at Bubba Gump Shrimp Restaurant, Ellen’s Stardust Diner, and last but by no means least: breakfast every day at McDonalds. Our thanks go to the Academy staff who assisted the Music Department on this trip. Without them it would not have been possible, or half as much fun! T Mills

AUSTRIA SKI TRIP In February, 88 pupils and 11 members of staff set off for the Sportwelt region of Austria for the ski trip. The first day was very snowy, but with perfect conditions underfoot everyone soldiered on complete with balaclavas and the confidence that the fantastic instructors knew where they were going! The evening excursion was to an indoor waterpark, where the highlight was a loop-the-loop slide. Day two was also blizzard conditions, but with ski legs now feeling confident, the groups pushed on. The instructors are always impressed by the ability of so many of our pupils, but it is fantastic when complete learners come along to try skiing for the first time. Molly Graham and Max Yvan worked hard to improve their skiing during the week and by the final day they were able to link turns on the same slopes as their friends: well done. The rest of the week was wall-to-wall sunshine and - as a result of the volume of snow that had fallen - fabulous piste conditions. The top groups took on a mammoth five-valley challenge on day 3, with other groups honing their skills in the resorts of Alpendorf, Wagrain and Flachau too. A new cable car spanning the valley allowed the groups to hop about the mountains and everyone enjoyed challenging slopes, games, jumps and some skiing through the trees. Ski groups are based on ability, so lots of the groups had pupils from S2 to S6 skiing together, which is great. One evening we visited a pool hall, which also offered karaoke, so Leon Hay and Ben Taylor stole the show with

their harmonies. We also spent an evening snow-tubing, which involved being dragged to the top of a lift in an over-sized rubber tyre and shooting down a steep-sided tunnel of snow. Mr Menzies’ quiz night was less physical, but just as competitive as some of the ski racing! The final day heralded what has now become tradition: fancy dress. A veritable zoo of onesie animals (including Simon McAlpine-Scott’s giraffe), a bunch of bananas, superheroes (notably Cailean “superman” Maciver and Jordan “the flash” Wilson), kilts, penguin and Saltire morph suits…Despite the impediment of various dragon’s tails, capes, etc. everyone enjoyed the final day’s sunny skiing and ski races. The top groups had two races, with Jennifer Turner (S2) achieving the best total time: well done! We were treated to the best snow conditions Europe could offer, in beautiful sunshine and across three or more resorts. It was a great final ski trip for some sixth years who first went to Austria in S2 and an introduction to others, who might want to try California in 2017. K Graham

S2 INTERDISCIPLINARY

TRIP TO MADRID From the 3rd to the 8th June 2015, a group of 40 S2 pupils and 8 teachers from Modern Languages, Geography, Hospitality, English, Music, History and Modern Studies went on an educational trip to Madrid, travelling directly from Edinburgh to Madrid.

The trip was a great success and an amazing experience and we got to see a lot of the detail of Madrid’s food, culture and history. We visited some very famous museums, including the Prado and the Reina Sofía, where we saw some impressive paintings by Picasso, including “Guernica”. The Royal Palace was extensive and very gold! Many of the rooms existed only to show off the wealth of the Spanish Royal Family and had no particular purpose. We also visited Las Ventas bullring, which was very interesting, as was the interactive tour of the Bernabeu football stadium, a magnificent structure, where we also got to walk round the field and see the trophies that they won and you could get your picture taken with your favourite Real Madrid football player! It was easy to imagine the competitiveness and liveliness of the crowd and the intense play of the football teams. It would be great to go back and watch a game there. We got to try out traditional Spanish foods, like paella and patatas bravas, as well as new and unusual Spanish foods at the

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Mercado de San Miguel. We also cooked some for ourselves at a cookery school, including tortilla española, gambas al ajillo and the not-so-popular soup called “salmorejo”! The best part was the Madrid Zoo where we saw the Dolphin show, which was amazing! We loved seeing all the animals at the zoo, having a day out in the sun and eating ice cream every day. It was very hot, but we all got used to it. Another favourite activity was the visit to the Retiro park as we all got to sit down and relax for a while and do what we chose, enjoying the sun or shade! The park was full of people and it was a great atmosphere. It was a really fun trip and many of us would love to go back with family or friends and enjoy the beautiful city with them too. Compiled from individual reports by Megan Allan, Calum Barr, Emma Brown, Kirsten Cannon, Alice Crighton, Eve Denholm, Hamish Falconer, Mary Prempeh, Nadia Reilly, Alyson Samwells, Fayz Siddiqui

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PARIS 2015 PARIS 2015 A group of 43 pupils and 6 members of staff touched down in Paris on 30th April. The pupils were engaged with French culture throughout their sojourn in the capital. They were interested in the architectural styles of Notre Dame and the Sacré Coeur and showed respect at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier at L’Arc de Triomphe. We managed to rectify the mistaken assumption that Leonardo DiCaprio had painted the Mona Lisa! The children used the opportunity to speak French in shops, restaurants and on public transport. Three boys strengthened the “Auld Alliance” by entering into discussions with French children about eating snails. One boy expressed his satisfaction with the linguistic benefits of the trip when he said, “I am feeling a lot more confident about my French Speaking Assessment since I have been in Paris.” One girl had dialogues with people of 13 different nationalities, using both French and Spanish. The TGA fashion accessory wristbands supplied by Dr Kerr were greatly appreciated by both pupils and staff alike. All teachers participating on the trip worked tirelessly to ensure that the children enjoyed themselves. The result was that all pupils and staff had a marvellous time and did full justice to all activities on offer. Parc Astérix proved more popular than Eurodisney, and Montmartre is always a winner! CM Blair

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RAasAY In September 2014 almost all S2 pupils went on the annual Raasay trip to the Isle of Raasay, just off the coast of Skye. The pupils went on the trip in Houses, with Temple House and Morrison House going first and Fraser House and Arthur House in the second group. Going in Houses allowed the pupils to really get to know their tutor groups, their tutors and their Heads of Houses. This outdoor activities trip gives pupils the opportunity to not only strengthen existing friendships but also create new ones. During their stay, pupils had the chance to experience a range of new and exciting activities such as Sailing, Rock Climbing, Archery, Kayaking and Coasteering. One of the most popular activities was Coasteering, where pupils scramble round the coastline and jump into the sea. They also had the chance to conquer their fears and do an exhilarating Pier Jump. Some brave teachers even gave this a go too! The Raasay Trip is always an extremely popular trip with pupils, and is one they often still talk about in S6. As well as thoroughly enjoying themselves, most pupils (and staff) surprise themselves on the trip and realise that they are capable of doing things that they perhaps wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have thought they could. Pupils also have the chance to really bond as a group, and work on their communication skills and team work. Raasay has become one of the highlights of the year for me: the variety of activities, quality of instruction offered from Raasay House and the beautiful surroundings make this trip one which is enjoyed by everyone. We were even lucky enough to get some lovely weather this year! We are now looking ahead to the Raasay 2015 trip and I know that the current S1 pupils are very much looking forward to this as they move into S2. JF Cuthbert

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Chicago

November 2014 saw a little slice of Broadway come to the Cargill Hall, with the staging of our highly-acclaimed production of ‘Chicago’. The Glasgow Academy is proud of its reputation of staging performances which go above and beyond what could ever be expected of a school show, and this spectacular production lived up to these high expectations. Our Director and Head of Drama, Mr Waltham, paid tribute to the numerous Academy staff and creative industry professionals involved, labelling the production team the best he had ever worked with. This team was headed by our Musical Director, Mr Mills, and a new professional choreographer, Amy Taylor, whilst also incorporating the talents of Miss Merton as an acting coach, Miss Ramsay as Costume Designer and Mrs Wishart leading the significant technical demands.

INTENSE As with our production of ‘Evita’ last year, we were again able to commission a custom-built set, designed and constructed by a local company, which transformed the Cargill Hall into a wash of red and black, incorporating the iconic Chicago skyline, placing the band onstage in the very centre of the set and surrounding the audience with atmospherically up-lit cages which came to life during iconic numbers such as the memorable ‘Cell Block Tango’.

Intense rehearsals took place throughout September November, though this itself was not without its own drama as our leading actress, Iona Murray, was forced to withdraw from the show through injury at the very last minute. With only twelve days’ notice, Alex Jackson stepped into the role of Velma and delivered an incredible performance which will live long in our memory.

SHOW-STOPPING Other show-stopping moments included Morven Brown’s powerful rendition of ‘When You’re Good To Mama’, Leon Hay’s charismatic Billy Flynn in a sea of sequins and feathers proclaiming ‘All I Care About Is Love’, Sean McGettigan’s fantastic Mary Sunshine, Abdullah Sattar’s heart-breaking ‘Mr Cellophane’ and the truly beautiful ‘Class’. As the confetti cannons finally rained down on Ciara Ewing’s Roxie, and the sell-out audience around her, it was clear our cast and crew had produced a show to be truly proud of. ‘All That Jazz’ will live long in The Glasgow Academy memory. G Waltham

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LESSONS FROM AUSCHWITZ A group of over 200 students, aged between 16 and 18, from around Glasgow took part in a course with the Holocaust Educational Trust, entitled ‘Lessons From Auschwitz’. The aim of the course was to educate those with the capability to make a difference in the future.

The course was in four parts, three of which took place as a unit involving all participating students being brought together to witness unique aspects of Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Part one of the course took the shape of a seminar where an incredible man, Ziggy Shipper, granted us the opportunity to listen to his account of what occurred during his captivity within Auschwitz-Birkenau, as a fourteen-year-old child. His words wrenched at the hearts of each individual, and although vivid, surely did not translate his true reality into our own, as that terror will never be within our capability to truly comprehend. The second part of the course was one which will forever haunt all those who experienced it, as it involved spending a day in Poland, visiting a Jewish pre-war cemetery, which was based in the town of Auschwitz, as well as both camps which are still standing. The cemetery was where we first visited. When we walked through the gates, it was both shocking and incredibly saddening to see the state of the place. The grass was vastly overgrown, the graves vandalised, and every corner of the site was unkempt to a deeply disturbing level. We were later informed that the graves were placed with guesswork, as when the Nazis had invaded the city, they had removed the gravestones, and used them to build a road, which left the positioning of the bodies undocumented, meaning that when people tried to rematch the stones with their body after liberation, it was little less than impossible. Later in the day we arrived at Auschwitz I. The buildings contained within the grounds were nothing extraordinary. This is perhaps due to the fact that they were not built for the purpose which they had taken on during the holocaust, but had instead been built originally as army barracks, which meant that they failed to retain the menace which they had once radiated. With Auschwitz, there is a general misconception that the camps which came under the title were all used solely for mass extermination. This is not entirely true. Although a devastatingly large number of lives were lost within all camps, Auschwitz I was not a designated extermination camp (that duty fell to Birkenau). This camp, instead, was for prisoners who were healthy, and strong enough to work. The conditions within the camp were

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therefore enough to sustain life, although barely, which was reflected in what remains of the original setups of the rooms. The entire site was of a calibre different from anything we could have imagined. Our final destination was the second Auschwitz camp Birkenau. The first thing we did at this camp was venture atop the main guard tower, which sat in the centre of the imposing building and which acted as the main site of entry whilst the camp was in use. It had a bird’s-eye view of the camp, which allowed an alarming spectacle to seize the viewer - the grounds which had once encaged so many millions before their demise were so horrifically expansive that no land within a 180’ view escaped the barbed wire enclosure. Most of the buildings which had once housed inmates now sat as crumbled ruins, etching the shapes of prevailing foundations – the way in which they had been found when the camp was liberated. A row of barracks had been restored, or rather rebuilt, to act as examples of what the conditions within this camp would have been like. This camp held within it 4 gas chambers, all of which were blown up by the SS before liberation in an attempt to hide evidence of their actions. The rubble left behind remains where it has been for almost seven decades, so distinguishing the size of the gas chambers is very easy, and they are frighteningly large. They could fit 2000 people in at a time, and it took merely minutes to suffocate the individuals inside. No stories or words from people will ever truly match the sight you see, and the quietness you hear. Finally, we returned to Scotland, and regrouped once more to recount and discuss the time we had spent in Poland. A room with over 200 students aged between 16-17 years fell silent straight away. Clearly this trip, a once in a lifetime trip, had affected us all in different ways, and would be one trip that would never leave us. We have now been given the task, as LFA Ambassadors, to teach the other students in our school about the experience and we both relish the challenge and look forward to sharing our knowledge with the school. Sophie MacNair and Zachary Sheeran

GEOBUS AT THE ACADEMY In December all S1 students took part in the Geobus day, which is run by St Andrews University. Students completed 5 workshops to help learn about Geology. Take a look at our best bits! Lewisian Gneiss under the microscopes This lesson involved using the microscopes and was great fun. Under the microscopes we could see that we were not just looking at rocks, but a whole lot more than meets the eye. We examined different metamorphic rocks under the microscope looking at their mineral content, structure and colours. We studied Lewisian Gneiss, Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s oldest rocks, which are over three billion years old and we were able to identify biotite and feldspar that were visible on the slides.

Continental Drift During the Continental Drift workshop we learned about Alfred Wegner (pronounced Vegner) who was the first person to come up with the theory of continental drift. Sadly he died before he had any proof or evidence of his theory, but today we can see how some areas of the planet are like bits of a jigsaw and the same rock types and fossils can be found in different countries or continents that look like they would fit together. We learned how the continents move due to the magma rising up and down and moving the plates with it (this process is called convection currents). We constructed lava lamps out of plastic bottles and vitamin tablets amongst other things to see how the lava moves under the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crust.

Volcanoes In the volcano lesson we were taught that igneous rock is rock that has been melted and is formed from what was lava or magma. There are two kinds of igneous rock, extrusive (that lives outside the volcano) and intrusive (that comes from inside of the volcano). We also did three different experiments; we erupted a very small volcano to see how it erupts, we injected strawberry sauce into clear jelly to see how the lava moves around inside the volcano and we burst tennis ball-sized balloons under heaps of flour to see how calderas are formed. Calderas are large craters formed when the top of a volcano collapses. A famous caldera in Scotland is the Glen Coe Caldera.

Mountains In the mountain workshop we learned how fold mountains are created when two continental plates press against each other. We created our own mountains by layering pink and yellow salt dough and pushing the ends of the finished shape together. We were also shown three of the main mountain ranges in Scotland which had experienced these forces, The Torridon Hills, The southern uplands and the Cairngorms.

Thank you Geobus Many of us had never done any work on Geology before, but even those who had learnt something new. The experiments were fun and most of the things we learned about were really interesting. Overall it was a fantastic learning experience. Marlow Crick and Freya Huntley

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Clubs and societies Thales Engineering Club

This is now one of the most popular clubs within the school with around forty pupils attending each week to work on their own choice of project with STEM Ambassadors Mark Andrew (Thales UK) and Paul Yarr (Clyde Space). Key projects this year have been the Rampaging Chariots, Greenpower car, Junior Saltire Award, What’s Watt Challenge, remote control car race track, modified skate board and various electronic kits.

Robotics Club The Scottish Robotic Games will be the focus of this year’s Royal Academy of Engineering Collaborative Project and several schools are being funded to attend the event with the Glasgow Academy. Pupils from Turnbull High School, Johnstone High School and Kings’ Park Secondary School came to the Glasgow Academy on 1st April with their robots.

The pupils worked in mixed school groups to put together and race a Rampaging Chariot. Peter Bennett, Mark Andrew and Roger and Kath Hill (all key to the annual Scottish Robotic Games at Selex ES) made this event possible and Jasmine Li, Filip Petrov and David Ta-Hsin Wu were also invaluable mentors at this event.

Beaver Computational Thinking Challenge

Chemistry Olympiad

This year, for the first time, pupils from Glasgow Academy took part in the “Beaver” Computational Thinking Challenge (Bebras UK). This is an international event, organised in the UK by Oxford University, and offers students a series of online challenges designed to introduce computer science and to test and develop skills in computational and logical thinking.

The following students have gained awards in the National Chemistry Olympiad 2015: Philip Cai: Gold David Wu: Silver Jasmine Li: Silver Filip Petrov: Bronze

S1 and S2 pupils joined over 18000 other UK school children online in the “Intermediate” category. S3 pupils were amongst 6600 in the “Higher” category and S5 and S6 pupils joined 2200 others in the “Elite” group. Although nobody scored full marks in their category, we did have some great results with Sophie Li (S1), Ruiyang He (S3), Sharan Maiya (S5) and Philip Cai (S6) achieving Best in School in each group. We were also awarded 26 Distinction certificates in the “Intermediate” category, 16 in the “Higher” category and 4 in the “Elite” category. Congratulations to all who took part!

This is an exceptional achievement for all pupils. Only a few students across the country gain a gold award so well done, Philip. Jasmine has achieved a silver without studying Advanced Higher material, and more notably, Filip achieved a Bronze award 2 years early, without studying Higher or Advanced Higher Chemistry!

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Engineering On 5th June, the atmosphere was electric as six pupils from S1 had the privilege to be invited to the Scottish Council for Development and Industry’s (SCDI) Celebration of Engineering and Science to represent The Glasgow Academy, at The Glasgow Science Centre. We enjoyed getting the opportunity to showcase our engineering projects to an expert panel of judges including ex-BBC presenter, Physicist & Meteorologist, Dr Heather ‘The Weather’ Reid OBE. We also got to compete for exciting prizes and take part in fun, hands-on and against-the-clock STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) Challenges. During the day, we participated in STEM Challenges set up by organisations such as Thales, Total and their PIG pipe cleaning system, BT and BP. In each challenge there was something new to learn. We learnt more about reflection of light using different mirrors, PIG cleaning systems, BP’s business, how we get energy when it isn’t windy, how to connect phone wires together, controlling robots and much more.

On 5th June the six S1 pupils that made up the engineering team took the minibus to the science centre for the annual Celebration of Engineering and Science that was being held there. We had brought some of our projects, including an alarm clock, an internal combustion engine and a Go-Kart. These were to be presented to the judges at 11:45. After deciding what to say we headed round for a look at some of the other schools’ projects. It was a great day and a unique opportunity for us to see some of the other clubs’ work and get some inspiration. Ethan Sarvesvaran

The award-ceremony was then held in the IMAX and the prizes were presented by Fergus Ewing MSP, Minister for Business, Energy & Tourism and Heather ‘The Weather’ Reid OBE. During the award ceremony, Fergus Ewing delivered a speech and said “Science and technology are essential drivers of the Scottish economy and vital to driving this Government’s aim of sustainable economic growth. It is therefore of the utmost importance to encourage young people to engage with, participate in, and consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.” This speech inspired us to continue engineering and we all look forward to participate in this event again, next year. Ava Bell and Meghan Ray

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Clubs and societies (continued) Games Lab Games Lab meets at lunchtime, on a Friday, in the Computing Science department. It’s a popular club with S1 and S2 and we are pleased to say that we have a fair mix of both girls and boys attending. Club members are engaged in a variety of projects of their choice. Creating X-Box-compatible games in Kodu is popular, as is coding in Scratch and stop-frame animation in Pivot. In recent months our 5th Year Tech Team, Éirinn, Douglas and Arran, have been working to help us get Raspberry Pi computers up and running, and we have been able to install and play Minecraft using these. We hope to launch a new series of Raspberry Pi-based activities and projects next session. J McDonald

Research Club The Research Club have worked hard on a collaborative project on crystal growing with the University of Glasgow. The aim of the project was to create a new compound that nobody has made before. Early tests from Dr Price at Glasgow University indicate that the Research Club achieved this in a short space of time. The project will be on-going next year. Well done to Jasmine Li, David Wu, Philip Cai and Filip Petrov.

Drama Club Drama Club continues to have a large group of keen actors from S1-S3, who have been enhancing their drama skills every Tuesday lunchtime with Miss Merton and Mrs Wishart. Activities this year have included drama games, improvisation workshops and performances of short devised dramas. In December, pupils worked on extracts from an adaptation of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’; the festive performances were great fun! In the Summer term, S3 pupils prepared to direct the S1 and S2 pupils in extracts from ‘Our Day Out’ by Willy Russell. From auditions to casting, running rehearsals to costume choices, our S3 directors successfully directed two brilliant extracts which were performed in the drama studio to an audience of friends and staff. Congratulations to all of the pupils involved but a special mention must go to Alastair McLeod, Finlay Biok, Michael Koene and Fraser Morris for their excellent direction and overall contribution as loyal members of Drama Club.

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S6 Young Enterprise Chameleon is a company producing high quality build your own construction kits which children can assemble and then decorate to their own speciﬁcations. We have Make-a-Mansion and Super-Sports’-Stadium ranges. The name Chameleon actually came about after someone had heard Boy George’s song Karma Chameleon on the radio. The philosophy was that because a chameleon can change its appearance, then that was exactly what our products did. They were transformed from pieces of card into a super-structure – and so the name stuck! Our Kid-Construct range is to help re-claim children’s childhoods by showing them how much fun handson hobbies can be and so divert them from their preoccupation with screenonly gadgets. These kits not only help promote artistic skills but also encompass the skills of logic and concentration. We had a rollercoaster ride during the year due to production setbacks. The laser-cutting machine, because it operates at such high temperatures, leaves black marks at the edges of the card so these had to be removed manually with a special type of rubber. Also, a calibration issue developed with the machine and it was hors de combat for about a week. After the New Year, we realised that our production process was too slow to fulfil our outstanding orders and for the survival of our product. We decided to take a more in-

depth look again at out-sourcing companies that would manufacture the models for us. The major difference this time was that, instead of using the telephone, we decided to go and actually visit in person. This proved much more fruitful and we managed to negotiate reasonably competitive rates. This was a real learning curve for us and showed us that face-to-face contact pays off. Having the opportunity to see around the firms’ sites was also incisive. We decided to use the company Flux Laser Studio. However, The YE Christmas Trade Fair at The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall loomed over us like a dark cloud and the day of reckoning soon arrived. This constituted the first stage of the competition. We were reasonably pleased with how things went. We sold 5 doll’s houses and 3 stadiums. We also sold 3 boxes of the self-assembly doll’s house furniture which complemented the house. We had sourced this online at a competitive price. On the football stadium at the stall we had miniature >

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S6 Young Enterprise (continued)

Subbuteo Rangers and Celtic players. These gave a real authenticity to the product. However, we decided not to sell these as children would have their own preference which teams they wanted and they could easily source them online for themselves. We took on board the comments from the judges – especially their recommendation that as well as having a leaflet of assembly instructions in the box we should make a video and post it on You-Tube. Young Enterprise has been a memorable experience for us all. We all sat the YE Examination in February. Being tolerant of each other’s suggestions and the art of listening are traits which we have struggled with. We started with 17 and finished with 17. A few dropped out along the way but replacements were waiting in the wings. It has been fast, furious and fun. At the Young Enterprise Glasgow Area Board Finals and Awards Evening held on 1st April at Glasgow University, The Academy’s company Chameleon won the award for Best Presentation. Our speakers were Emily Whyte, Greg Dunlop and Cameron Russell and our fabulous PowerPoint was designed by Andrew Sinclair. They performed brilliantly! We were 2nd in the Trade Fair category and 2nd in the Company Report element and we were close runners-up to the High School of Glasgow for the award of Company of the Year. So, overall, it was a very successful night for The Academy and for “Chameleon”. The company members wish to express their sincere thanks to Mrs Drummond, our Link Teacher, Mr George Arkless, our Business Adviser, and Mr Fraser, of TGA Art Department, for their unstinting support, advice and willingness to give so freely of their time to make this such a memorable and rewarding experience for us. The Young Enterprise Team

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Creative Writing Well done to Shoumita Bardhan, whose poem was chosen as ‘one of the best’ in the Young Writers Pet Poetry Competition.

The Silver Leopard Cinnamon rosettes embedded in silver, Her movements as fluid as rippling water. Blue eyes as promising as the celestial skies, The shadows of sorrow dance in their light. She leapt from ledge to ledge, Fear chased her with a slavering ambition of hounds. She paused and stared into the depths of the night. The lights of the dead souls gleamed above. The sickle moon was stained with the blue of sorrow, Her liquid-diamond tears showered the sky Like burning, hot, white sparks. Solitary and lonely her figure was etched against the slopes. Mauve tones deepened and carved the landscape. Each mountain in sight took form of her sorrows. In the crooked features of a peak, A litter of cubs were born, but Death had stilled their heart. With the harsh gradient against her she toiled on. The peaky, white-faced moonshine flitted across the peaks. Darkness wrapped around her like ribbon around a reel. With the patience of a watchdog, she had conquered the peak! The moon’s expression transformed into a beaming smile. The stars burned brighter with the glory of victory. The queen looked upon her kingdom. The mountains rose like chessmen on a board of black and white. Her melancholy madness had slipped away like the night. A serene blissfulness was cast upon her. In the ripples of pearly moonshine she stood, The silver leopard of the night!

Shoumita Bardhan

ECO GROUP

The Senior School Eco Group have had a very busy, positive and successful session; we have working hard towards the renewal of our Green Flag, which will take place before Easter 2016. This will involve the Eco Groups from Kindergarten, Nursery, Junior and Senior School from the Kelvinbridge campus, as well as the Eco Groups from Dairsie and TGA Milngavie working together in order to achieve the Green Flag for the entire TGA community. Having just completed two years of hard work on the topics ‘Litter’, ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘School Grounds’ for our last Green Flag, we have spent the last year and a half working on our new topics of ‘Food and the Environment’ and ‘Transport’, as well as continuing on with our focus on ‘Litter’.

We have been using the time since our last assessment well; we have come up with many great ideas and are enjoying the challenge of trying to implement them with the TGA community and beyond. Action plans have been created for each topic and, as some of these were shortterm actions, they have been already completed and ticked off. Some of the achievements to date include promoting recycling during the month of September, using the slogan ‘Remember, remember to recycle this September’. We collected used batteries, old reading glasses, redundant mobile phones, as well as promoting a book swap for staff and pupils, in order to reuse waste and recycle properly. The reading glasses we collected were sent to less fortunate countries. We also collected Christmas cards and recycled them with Marks and Spencer’s, in partnership with the Woodland Trust. For every 1000 cards recycled, a new tree was planted. We invited a guest speaker from Scotwaste to our assembly who discussed the importance of recycling. During March, we took part in ‘Waste Week 2015’ for the fourth consecutive year. Activities were carried out during tutor time and in our Houses, as well as collecting textiles for the Rag Bag scheme. We collected 90kg of textiles and raised £47 in total, and gave our unwanted items a new lease of life in other less fortunate countries. The Eco Group are also getting very good at baking cakes and have raised some funds that we have donated to a variety of local charities. In bird-related news, we have been very excited that a pair of Blue Tits have inhabited our new bird box. This box has a live-feed camera inbuilt and, on returning from the Easter

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holidays, we discovered the pair had built a substantial nest to home six eggs. We now have six hungry chicks and two busy parents foraging for insects to help them grow strong enough to fledge. Some of our more medium to long term actions are already in progress and we have had plenty of discussion on how we wish to tackle them. These ideas include creating a recipe book based on the mantra ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ which will be full of ideas, suggestions and recipes so that leftovers don’t go to waste. We are also taking part in the 90kg rice challenge, which will help raise funds for those who grow the rice. We are also going to work closely with the school catering services to encourage more ecofriendly use of food wastage and to promote local food sources. Furthermore, we have a Transport Tuesday planned where Whole-school activities will be carried out to raise awareness of the impact of transport on the environment and people’s health. Lastly, we are very much looking forward to the new build opening so we can encourage TGA to become even more eco-aware; it already has many eco-friendly features and we are looking forward to seeing these in action. We are looking forward to thinking of new ways to tackle our actions as well as working with a variety of staff members and pupils to help make sure that every student at TGA is working together to make sure our school is Eco-friendly! LF Murphy

Maths in Motion Challenge This year the school entered a competition called Cars Maths in Motion Challenge, which is sponsored by Jaguar. An enthusiastic group of first and second years met every Wednesday after school and applied the mathematics that they learn in lessons by becoming young F1 engineers and designing and creating virtual cars. The challenge is all done on software which allows students to use a series of set-up screens to prepare a virtual car which is then entered into a race against other cars. In their virtual garages they calculate percentages and timings, they measure angles and judge distances and they also develop sophisticated decision making skills throughout the process of car set-up. Once the cars are ready they race against each other in an exciting and competitive race. Each week we would use real F1 circuit plans and the students would look at weather forecasts, tyre choices, fuel requirement and pit-stop strategies to get the cars raceready. The software gives the students instant feedback about their car and so the decisions they make throughout the set-up directly affect how fast and reliable they will be in the final race, just like in the real sport of Formula 1. Throughout the year there are also a series of Races that the students can enter. In December last year we entered a car into the International Christmas Race and we won, beating hundreds of schools from all across the world. The car we entered on behalf of the school was designed by Joe Ellis in S1. In that car Joe had the balance just right between being fast and reliable, but also a little bit on the risky/daring side. It was a fantastic start and gave all the group confidence and motivation to improve performances and work as a team to design better and better cars. Their names started appearing more frequently on the International Leader Board for fastest lap-times. During the winter months, at the start of this year, the students entered a series of races to try and qualify for

the World Final of the challenge. They entered cars into evermore competitive races and finally achieved 7th in the World Semi-final to qualify for their first final. The World Final took place on Wednesday 24th June at the Heritage Motor Centre in Warwickshire, England, home of Jaguar Land Rover. Aisha Rasul in S2 and Lucas Anderson in S1 represented the school admirably. We were one of only three teams who had travelled from another country to compete in the final, although the other two teams from Perth, Australia and Beijing, China had travelled considerably further than us. First there was a teacher’s race. Miss Russell’s car had only qualified in 23rd position on the grid, so things weren’t looking too good. In the end the car did fairly well and finished a respectable 14th. Then it was time for the main event. There was a lot of tension in the air and hopes were high as their car had qualified in a good grid position. Lucas and Aisha’s car started really strongly. For the first half of the race they were consistently in one of the top three positions and led the race for quite a few laps. However, during the third pit-stop window the car was overtaken and didn’t perform as well in the wet as it had done in the dry. By the end of the race they finished in 9th position; an extremely good effort, and they were particularly pleased that their car had been inside the top 10 for the majority of the race. All the students that have taken part in the challenge and attended the after-school sessions this year should be extremely proud of themselves as it has been a fantastic first year. Maths in Motion Challenge is open to all students in S1-4 and we meet in the Computing Department every Wednesday from 3.50 until 5.30pm. We would love to have some new members next year. You do not have to have any knowledge of Formula 1 to take part and would be made very welcome. Come along and give it a go. Aisha Rasul and K Russell

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English Rose Henderson Essay Prize Each year the English Department award the Rose Henderson Essay Prize to the best S5 Reflective Essay, produced as part of the Higher English Folio. This year’s winner is Joanna Philip.

Adam’s Ale

The girls screamed in horror – how could this be happening? What had they done to deserve such cruel attention from fate? Hours of hard work mercilessly destroyed as they fled across the playground. It had begun to rain. Slowly but surely the incessant drops of water created havoc in perfectly-styled ringlets and hairspray-saturated locks. Reaching a shelter, the floodgates of discontent opened and bitter complaints came pouring out. How unfair it was! How pathetically typical of a summer day in June! Swiftly, the barbed comments turned and started to rampage towards the sole girl who had not fled the sudden downpour. She stood, seemingly mesmerized, schoolbag slowly drowning at her feet, her palms upraised, embracing the tears of heaven. I could feel the cool droplets kissing my face, like a thousand comforting caresses: reassuring, encouraging, cleansing. The beautiful ear-ringing silence as the raindrops cocooned me in their essence. Each single drop representing a thought, a hope, a memory. The beauty of the rain far outweighs any momentary joy brought by a glimpse of sunshine in my life. I adore the rain. From a young age I remember being fascinated by water. I believe the rain to be far more beautiful than the sun, yet it is so often ignored and unappreciated. The simple complexity of water is a wonder to behold – it is more alive than the sun, more emotional, and many underestimate its power and grace. People place a far greater share of fleeting happiness on the sun, because it’s warm and happy, and rain is seen as sad and depressing. This should not be the case. What about the liquid sunshine effect – which requires both elements – when raindrops shatter, split and reform into the stunning opalescent rainbows which never fail to give us hope and warm our hearts? The dew that falls when every blade of grass looks like it is encrusted with diamonds and the dew that collects on a spider-web in the early morning, beautiful enough to adorn the hair of a princess. The mesmeric water has long evoked a deep-seated emotion in humanity, inspiring us. We rely on water, yet to us it remains unfathomable. Nothing illustrated this more clearly than when I visited the Victoria Falls. It was a cold, misty morning and we rose early in the hopes of catching the sunrise across the Zambezi. As we approached the river, the thunderous anthem of freefalling water lured us on. Still screened by trees, we were processed through the little Visitor Centre as VIPs, signing the special book as living relatives of the great David Livingstone - something which had always held a special place of pride in my heart. The approach was tantalizing, some form of magnetic force pulling me on. Finally, I rounded a bend and there it was – this breathtakingly majestic cascade of liquid crystal. I was stunned into a rapturous silence. The roar of this captivating wonder was akin to a wild animal warning you to beware – you are entering its territory now. The surging waters of the Zambezi were alive with eddies and swirls as they approached the lip of rock that led to the yawning, never-ending chasm beneath.

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As the Brobdingnagian body of water seethed over the edge, speeding towards the centre of the earth, a million tiny water particles were sprayed into the air. Rainbows were everywhere. These drops twisted and contorted into a psychedelic display of bewitching beauty. At the bottom of the falls started the deadly gorge, carved out over years by the sheer unstoppable force of the water. The danger-infused rapids and everpresent carnivores made the river rafting a real adrenaline kick. Thrill seekers were drawn to the Zambezi rapids like a moth to flame. Never before had I appreciated the power of water as an unstoppable force of nature that we can never truly master. Added to the amazing wonders of waterfalls, icebergs and oceans we have my personal favourite: the never-ending watercycle. The only reliable constant in a world of rapid change. Water evaporates from the sea, forms clouds, condenses, rains over the land, gathers in streams and rivers, which eventually flow back to the sea. The cycle is repeated. I find rain to be one of the most awe-inspiring aspects of water. The rain that falls around me has such a deep, rich history. The same droplets now refreshing my face could have been part of the life-giving monsoons in India; a child in the paddy-fields could have looked up and smiled as they began to fall. These same raindrops could have been in the icy sea watching the Titanic as she sank. The same droplets pouring down on the Somme, witnesses to the atrocities of war. These very drops could have fallen at the dawn of creation, on that very first morning, on a young, fresh and perfect world; and still they endure. Of all the eras that have been and gone, empires risen and fallen, wars won and lost, the rain is constant, water doesn’t change – like energy, it is never really created or destroyed. Everlasting, immortal. Water not only brings life, it is life: a living entity that allows us to exist. Water was here before the first man took his first breath, and will endure when man is no more. Water is immortal, it cannot be lessened or destroyed, it is an everlasting constancy. The sun will one day die, flickering out like a lamp run out of oil, but the water - deprived of warmth will simply morph into a new state. Like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, it will change into a plethora of ice crystals, strong and as beautiful as ever. Suddenly, the girl is startled out of her reverie. The rain shower has passed, the clouds begin to move off to the west, and, as the sun shines through, a huge rainbow arches over the school. The girl crooks a smile, overwhelmed with a euphoric sense of freedom – she had been utterly transported away from the drudgery of the school that caused her so much heartache and misery. She turns and skips to class, passing the shelter where the other girls are still drying out their curls and fixing their excessive coiffures. She returns their disgusted looks and accusatory glares with a simple, secretive smile. Allowing herself one last glance at the enchanting demonstration of natural beauty she steps inside, pondering whether her love of water might not make for a good reflective essay.

Speaking with style Every year, the English Department hold the ‘Speaking with Style’ competition. The winner of the S4-6 prize is printed here; the theme this year was ‘The Age of Innocence’. Our S1-3 winners were Hannah Madden, Shoumita Bardhan and Iain Fletcher.

The Age of Innocence Picture this: the whole family is together in the living room. Grandpa’s in his favourite chair, housecoat on, cigar in hand and a glass of whisky on the table. And he’s right in the middle of another typical rant: “Back in my day we never had to worry about Facebook and global warming and government surveillance! It was much simpler back in the good old days. It was ‘The Age of Innocence’”. Come on, not this again! Listen, old man, it wasn’t the age of innocence it was your age of innocence! ‘The good old days’ are a myth. No one ever thought they were especially good at the time. In fact, I’ll say it now, there is no such thing as ‘The Age of Innocence’. It does not exist. The ‘good old days’ really weren’t as innocent and perfect as they’re made out to be. In fact, it was Grandpa’s very innocence in his youth which led to him being shielded from the whole set of problems which belonged to his era. He was all but oblivious to the racism, the sexism and the looming threat of nuclear war! The whole idea of the ‘good old days’ is so over-rated! And speaking of things which are over-rated – innocence. Innocence at its core is just plain stupidity and is frankly useless. Besides, there’s a very fine line between innocence and ignorance. One can lead to the other. With the development of pride in the later childhood years, the outposts of innocence diminish and become replaced with ignorance – which is a choice. For an adult to try and hold onto their innocence, it becomes an act of ignorance. I guess innocence is not knowing that you don’t know while ignorance is choosing not to know. You know what I mean? Take my five-year-old cousin for

example, his career ambition is to be a superhero when he grows up. At my age, I don’t have that kind of liberty. It’s likely that when I say the word innocence you picture a young vulnerable child. But I say, innocence is not in fact limited to the younger generations. Old folk are some of the most innocent people you will ever meet, especially when it comes to technology. To see this in action, all you have to do is hand over your smartphone to your Grandpa and watch him stabbing away at the screen with his bony finger. As if doing it repeatedly is going to help, like a fly that keeps buzzing into the window thinking, “Maybe this time I’ll escape!” Or I’m sure we all remember the time we had to explain how to send an email. I’m having flashbacks of standing by helplessly as he took a solid five minutes to type a single sentence; then being left dumbstruck when he inquired as to how exactly those words would leave his computer and travel half way around the world. But when you think about it, his questioning is exactly the same as innocent childhood curiosity. It’s just that I didn’t have a clue about the answer. Well, here’s a final thought. We are all born innocent. Innocence is a necessary and I could even say beneficial quality to have in this early stage of life. Innocence is knowing there is bad in the world but still believing that good will always prevail. So maybe I was wrong about innocence being so over-rated. Maybe we should be thankful for it. It’s a gift. Yes, innocence is a gift with an expiry date. It’s just like W.B.Yeats wrote, “The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” Sharan Maiya

From left to right: Winner Sharan Maiya, S1-3 winners Hannah Madden, Shoumita Bardhan and Iain Fletcher.

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Classics Hadrian’s Wall

At the end of May an intrepid band of 27 Latin pupils from S2 and S3 made a daring incursion across the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire, accompanied by four dashing and dynamic teachers. There was an early start from the school but we made good time and were advancing purposefully through the rolling hills of Brigantia by 1100. A cunning misdirection laid for us by the eponymous wall builder himself saw us travelling towards Hadrian’s Business Park rather than the more educationally useful sites in the area. However, once the auspices had been approved we struck onwards heroically and reached our first destination, the fort and vicus of Vindolanda, by 1130. Jupiter seemed in undecided mood as our party was harried by intermittent showers of varying force throughout the day. The first and most unpleasant of these assaulted us as we received our talk from one of the on-site archaeologists. Fortunately we were able to dash for the nearby cover of the visitor centre, where we saw the scale model of the entire site as it was in Roman times. The talk was a fascinating update on recent discoveries. We were very lucky to have arrived that week as they had just made some new discoveries: she was able to show us a Roman lady’s shoe, still caked in 2000-year-old mud, which she was carrying in a sealed plastic bag. It will next be seen in the museum after being professionally cleaned and treated to aid preservation. When the rain abated we were able to explore the remains of the fort and civilian village and complete the archaeological investigation tasks for our workbooks.

After lunch it was time to approach the Wall itself. We travelled there along the Stanegate: the original Roman road which has been appropriated by the A6. We climbed the hillside to one of the more dramatic sections of Wall, Waltown Crags. Much of the stone from the wall has long since been pilfered to build houses and farms in the surrounding area but in this inaccessible section it is still possible to see sections of the wall rising to around 8 feet. We were also able to investigate the ruins of a military turret on this section of the wall. Our last stop of the day was the Roman Army Museum. Here we were able to look at more finds from the forts along the wall in the museum displays and also to watch the exclusive CGI reconstruction of the Wall in the movie The Eagle’s Eye narrated by Brian Cox, which shows the wall, forts, and villages as they were in Roman times all along the length of the wall. Before we headed for home there was just chance for a Classics lesson from the holographic Roman teacher in the specially designed education room. Here pupils had the chance to experience what education was like in the Roman World, although the holographic teacher was considerably more pleasant than the typical old slugger we read about when Latin authors reminisce about their school days. We made good progress in our return to Caledonia and were thankful that Jupiter chose this time to unleash the worst weather of the day. A McKellar

Classics CICERO Competition Now in its 9th year, the CICERO Competition continues to extend across the world. It now involves countries on five continents (just waiting for South America to jump in next year!) At the end of March, four ambitious Academy Higher Latin pupils, Miles Ballantyne, James Clark, Priya Gill and Andriy Yeremeyev, travelled to George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh, along with Mr McKellar, Head of Classics and Philosophy, to take part in the Scottish Heat. Three competitions took place on the day. In the morning there was an individual cultural quiz where pupils were asked a series of challenging questions about their knowledge of the Classical Underworld, and about the many masterpieces of fine art which it has inspired through the renaissance to the present day. Then, before lunch, there was the team event where pupils were quizzed on their general knowledge of the classical world and on their Latin vocabulary. Following a relaxed lunch where our pupils had the chance to meet and chat with Classics pupils from all across the country, there

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was a translation challenge. This was a demanding piece of authentic Latin prose to be translated into English. This year it was an extract from a speech delivered in the Roman forum over 1800 years ago, arguing whether or not Christians deserved to be thrown to the lions! Once the competitions were out of the way, pupils had the chance to listen to a world-renowned scholar from the University of Edinburgh discuss Virgil, one of the authors of study in the Higher course. During this interactive talk on poetic composition Andriy and Miles were commended by the professor for their excellent use of extracts from Shakespeare and Virgil to create a “cento” poem. It takes a long time for a worldwide Classics quiz to be judged and at the moment we still await the results — with high hopes that Andriy’s innovative translating strategy will lead to ultimate success. A McKellar

Classics

Higher Classical Studies In November, the Higher Classical Studies class had the great fortune to work with author and director David Stuttard from the Actors of Dionysus Theatre Company based in London. The Actors of Dionysus specialise in productions of Classical Greek Drama. This is the second time that David has visited the Classics Department to work with Higher pupils studying

the play Medea by Euripides. David is a particular authority on the performance of this play, having directed his own critically acclaimed adaptation of it in London and on tour around the UK in 2013. A McKellar

Higher Philosophy Conferences In the winter term the Higher Philosophy class attended two conferences. At the start of November Kelvinside Academy was the host for a schools conference on differing aspects of Moral Philosophy. Pupils attended from all across the greater Glasgow area and were challenged and inspired by professional academics discussing Medical ethics, the ethics of the Business world and politics, and how a philosophical view of ethics differs from a religious one. At the end of November, Hutchesons’ Grammar School was the venue for a conference structured around the Higher syllabus. Pupils had the remarkable opportunity to hear lectures on each of the Units of study from three recognised authorities from the University of Glasgow Philosophy department. The question and answer portions of each session were particularly useful for deepening understanding of some of the most fascinating ideas which have been encountered in the course.

Gilbert Murray The University of Glasgow Gilbert Murray Essay Competition is an annual event open to all Classics pupils in Scotland. It is named after one of the most distinguished Professors of Greek to hold the chair in the Classics department of the University of Glasgow. Pupils compete in three age groups. This year the Academy’s Freya Hill (S2) won the prize for the S1-S2 age group for her imaginative reconstruction of the speech which Agamemnon would have used to persuade his fellow Greek kings to join him in the expedition against Troy. Nina Graham (S2) was awarded a certificate of commendation in the same age group for her graphic story of Hercules defeating the Nemean Lion. And Isha Mahmood (S6) was awarded a certificate from the judging panel for her dissertation on “The Representation of Dido and Aeneas in Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Heroides”: Dr Ruffel of the Glasgow University School of Classics singled it out for especial praise for its ambition of purpose and originality of approach. Freya Hill

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Creative arts...

Lauren Ferguson S5 Adina Iqbal S5

Freddie Der S5

Heather Allan S5

Andrew Halliday S5

Laura McCabe S5

Weiyi Peng S6

Fiona McGuigan S6

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Anna Dunlop S6

Rosa Spinney S6

Anna Dunlop S6

Nicola Pell S6

Weiyi Peng S6

Katie McCabe S6

Olivia Yeneka S4

Jamie Stewart S3

Robert McNaught S3

Daisy Duncan S4

James McNaught S3

Lola Johnson S4

Catriona Russell S3

Mairi Bruce S4

Owen McBurnie Balfour S5

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Creative arts... Ian Halliday S5

Puppet Project S1

Group Clock Project P7.3

Katrine Perrie S4

Emily Rawlins-Graham S4

Sophie Roden S4

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Dian Lin S4

Mark Wilson S4

Dian Lin S4

Rachel McArthur S2

Nadia Al-Haddad S1

Craig McKee S1

Eilish Day S1

Calum Stevens S3

Emily Duncan S3

Kay MacKenzie S3

Nina Boothby S3

Helena Alexander S3

Leanne Harle S3

Taylor Bradley S3

Timothy Chan S3

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Chemistry

The Glasgow Academy represented by Charlotte Abercrombie, Sophie Li, Adrianna Anguelova and Andreea Hagiu, came an impressive second place out of fifteen participating schools at the Salters’ Festival of Chemistry. The competition was held at the University of Glasgow’s Chemistry department. The ladies took part in a number of challenging investigations, working entirely on their own without help from teacher, to solve problems ranging from a murder mystery to putting out fires! They did a fantastic job, applying their knowledge and working together. They also had a real taste of working in a University Laboratory and observing the routine of graduate scientists. A good day for all!

TGA Winners - ‘Get Energised’ In October three teams of S4 pupils travelled to The Museum of Rural Life in East Kilbride to participate in the ‘Get Energised’ Workshop, sponsored by Scottish Power. The teams faced two challenges, each based on a different renewable energy type: wind, hydro, solar or marine. For example, one challenge was to decide the best position, orientation and angle of inclination of solar cells. This challenge involved building structures with Lego. Another challenge was to design and build a robust water generator. The challenges involved practical experiments, financial considerations and then a presentation to the judges - which was all rather daunting, especially as they were only given one hour for each challenge! All three teams did extremely well in their challenges, but the team comprising Filip Petrov, Thomas Wallace, Michael Fu and Ruairidh Russell were declared winners, out of a total of 20 teams. They were particularly complimented on, “…their knowledge of physics, their practical skills and especially for working as a team”. They each won a goody bag and also £50 worth of vouchers for the school to buy equipment at Mindsetsonline. They were presented with their prizes by Heather Reid, the former BBC meteorologist. H McMillan

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CHEMISTRY : NUFFIELD Working alongside research staff using some of the most advanced equipment available is not the sort of opportunity that arises every day and so, naturally, I felt privileged to be one of the few applicants who were successful in being awarded a Nuffield Placement. After being introduced to Dr Mark Murrie and his research group, I found out that I would be carrying out research regarding the synthesis and properties of single-molecule magnets, an area of chemistry that has gained great interest and recognition among the scientific community. Specifically, my project was about investigating new ways to synthesise a previously discovered heterometallic complex which displayed interesting magnetic properties. Carrying out reactions and analysing chemical products using specialised equipment was easily the most interesting part of the project. In particular, the Kappa diffractometer, used for analysis of crystals using X-rays, stood out especially for me as being unlike anything I had used before. The placement also gave me a great opportunity to practise and refine a number of laboratory skills and procedures, not to mention learning entirely new experimental techniques as well. The Celebration Event was another highlight of the placement. After working on a single project for over a month, seeing what other students had done during this time and talking to everyone about their own Nuffield Placements was a

refreshing change and an excellent way to finish off the whole experience. Overall, I feel that working with other university researchers and finding out more about the wider world of chemistry and other sciences was an incredibly worthwhile use of my time over the summer holidays. For anyone interested in science and technology who would like to find out more about what a career in science entails, the Nuffield Research Placement is definitely recommended. David Ta-Hsin Wu

S3 Geography - Chemistry Climate Change Event Interdisciplinary Learning is key to CfE and the National Five Geography and Chemistry courses were linked together in a very successful venture. The pupils began by learning about the evidence for a rise in carbon dioxide levels in Geography lessons and followed this up with Case Studies, whilst in Chemistry lessons they learnt how Society was perhaps to blame for the high carbon dioxide levels and what could be done to combat this. The work ended with an afternoon event on 23rd March where pupils worked in their houses to convince Stuart Lyon (Devilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Advocate STEM Ambassador) that Climate Change was caused by human activity and not a natural phenomenon. The most rewarding aspect was several pupils staying back to continue their discussions with Stuart at the end.

BA CREST AWARDS HAVE BEEN AWARDED TO... Bronze Aisha Rasul and Shoumita Bardhan for their battery fruit investigation, which came back with a special commendation for its high standard.

Currently being worked on: Bronze Kyle Sockalingum is investigating the vitamin C content of various fruit juices with Mrs Hunter.

Robert Brewer for his carbonating drinks investigation. Rick Mukhopadhyay for his research into toothpaste.

Silver Aisha Rasul and Freya Hill have been working with Mrs Hunter to develop a gas-propelled rocket device.

Gold David Ta-Hsin Wu for his Nuffield Placement report on the project he completed at Glasgow University.

Rick Mukhopadhyay has been working with his STEM Ambassador, dental nurse Lisa Rooney, to develop his Bronze CREST Award on toothpaste.

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Languages

Word Wizard 2015 This year many pupils from S1 -S3 competed in the annual SCILT Word Wizard competition in French and Spanish. The competition is like a spelling bee where pupils are told a word in English, they then must say the word in the target language and spell it correctly using the French or Spanish alphabet. For example: “Dog”…”El perro”…P E R R O. The aim is to spell as many words correctly as you can in one minute. The class rounds were very competitive and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed taking part. In March, the top few pupils in each category were selected to attend the National Semifinal which took place at Strathclyde University. The following pupils attended the Semi-final: Beginner French: Molly Scales and Sophie Manuel Intermediate French: David Buchanan and Harmony Hill Beginner Spanish: Rostislav Indyukova, Ignacy Boganov, Joe Ellis and Katie Ritchie Intermediate Spanish: Erin McIntyre, Alyson Samwells and Zainab Munir

All pupils performed extremely well and they should be proud of their achievements. Only five pupils were selected from each category from the whole day to make it through to the National Final which was held in May at the Scottish Parliament. Rostislav Indyukova, Joe Ellis, Erin McIntyre and Zainab Munir all spelled particularly well and made it through to the final! We have had success at the competition in previous years but this year was particularly exciting as all pupils came home with a trophy - in addition to this, we were the school that went home from the competition with the most prizes! The results are detailed below: 1st in Beginner Spanish: Rostislav Indyukova 2nd in Beginner Spanish: Joe Ellis 2nd in Intermediate Spanish: Zainab Munir 3rd in Intermediate Spanish: Erin McIntyre Congratulations to all word wizards who took part in the competition!

Spanish ¡Hola! At the beginning of April our Advanced Higher Spanish class had the opportunity to attend a lecture based around Spanish newspaper headlines, at Hutchesons’, given by the renowned former Lecturer in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Strathclyde University, John McIntyre. His experience and passion for the language translated into a highly engaging lecture, which furthered our knowledge of our Advanced Higher studies and encouraged the use of on-line newspapers as a learning resource. ¡Adiós!

¡Buenos días! In November, some of our Advanced Higher Spanish class took a trip to St Monica’s Primary School in Pollok. The P7 pupils there were hosting a Spanish week and we were lucky enough to be invited to teach them some basics of the language, including numbers, colours, Spanish speaking countries, and days of the week. It was a learning experience for us all, and it was very much enjoyed by both sides. ¡Gracias! Robyn Belch, Sebastian Glen and Scott Webster

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CCF

Contingent Commander The Glasgow Academy CCF continues to flourish, and the dedication shown by both the Senior NCOs and Officers continues to amaze me. Recruitment was at 90% and there was a significant increase in Navy numbers, which was particularly pleasing. You will read here of the many exciting opportunities that are afforded to all of our cadets - all of these fostering resilience, leadership and collaborative skills. The RAF section are now getting more regular flying, which is great for the cadets, and it was particularly pleasing to have all three Sections taking part in their respective camps during the summer holidays. Indeed, 120 cadets and 11 staff took part in various courses

over the summer. The Army section continues to have great success, the annual Military Skills competition and the Wellbeck Leadership Challenge being the highlights of the year. As I alluded to earlier, the Senior NCOs and Academy staff are vital in implementing our CCF programme; however, a special thanks must go to Colin Duff for his ‘tri-service’ commitment and willingness to help anyone who appears at the office door. Capt Mathewson

RN Section With numbers breaking into the early twenties for the first time in a while, and the addition of a qualified female officer to the Section, the outlook is cautiously promising for the RN section. As well as taking an active part in the Recruits’ Weekend, Field Day was spent at sea in the fleet tender Omagh, where the section undertook a variety of maritime tasks including coastal navigation, Rule of the Road and ship recognition. Four cadets represented the Academy at the CCF RN Northern Regatta held at Southport and, again, we were hosted to a day of climbing, bouldering and other pursuits by the Royal Marines at the Indoor Climbing Centre at Ratho. The Section had an excellent turn-out, representing the Academy, at the Bearsden and Milngavie Royal British Legion’s Remembrance Day service on Sunday 9th November. Six cadets attended the School of Leadership held at HMS Caledonia in February and it was refreshing

to note how “young” some of them were - a pointer for the future. Sub Lt Sally Walker attended Officers’ initial course at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth which allowed her to play a full part in the running and training of the section. Summer Field day was held at HMS Gannet (the last one before it goes into private hands in December) but the poor weather meant an early completion to flying serials so we ended up at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine. Cadets attended camps and courses during the Summer, ranging from First Aid to Yachting in South Queens ferry, Whale Island in Portsmouth and HMS Raleigh in Plymouth. Already planning is underway for the next session, with three Thursdays in Autumn being dedicated to sailing at East Kilbride, another visit to Ratho with RM, the Northern Area Regatta again being attended and a sea day - all before half term!

Army Section As ever, this has been a strong year for The Glasgow Academy CCF Army Section; recruiting numbers continued to be high and the Senior Cadets have, once again, proved to be enthusiastic, dedicated and an invaluable asset. Attendance on Thursdays remains high and the training is run by our Senior cadets, under the supervision of CSM Whyte. This session, the recruit programme has allowed members of all three Sections the opportunity to work together to learn basic military and important life skills. The programme was put together by our S6 NCOs and Corporals and Lance Corporals taught the lessons overseen by Cadet Training Team staff Sgt Shannon. We are pleased that so many of our S3 recruits have enjoyed the very successful programme, with two taking part in this year’s’ Wellbeck competition and gaining a very creditable second place.

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CCF RAF

In September the RAF section travelled to Ayr to watch the first Scottish Air Show for many years. We were treated to aerobatic displays by stunt planes and a Merlin helicopter, but the highlight was a thunderous performance by the Vulcan bomber.

This summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s field day included a visit with the RN section to HMS Gannet, to find out more about their search and rescue service. Unfortunately the weather restricted the number who flew, but everyone had a chance to get in the Sea king and speak to pilots and crew.

This year we have had lots of opportunities for flying the tutor aircraft at Glasgow airport. Every new recruit has flown at least once and most of the older cadets too.

This yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s summer camp is to RAF Wittering in Lincolnshire, where we will have the chance to experience life on a working base and meet cadets from another school.

Shooting Team During terms one and two, S4-S6 continued to hone their small-bore shooting skills in our indoor range. The team took part in several postal competitions, with three of our team members, Vladimir Kataev, Ellie Campbell and John Logan, winning their division. Additionally, Alexandra Black was selected to represent Scotland in an international shooting competition. This was no mean feat as only two teams of twelve firers were selected from all of the Scottish small-bore-shooting schools and civilian clubs. She did extremely well. After their own shooting sessions, S4-S6 had the opportunity to practise their coaching skills, talking some keen S3 pupils through the skills involved in small-bore shooting. This proved to be very successful and many of the S3s have opted to take shooting as their Games option

BAE and The RAF In September, S1 pupils were treated to an afternoon of science and engineering by BAE Systems and the RAF. The three presenters were funny, enthusiastic and demonstrated lots of cool science experiments, some on a huge scale. Pupils helped the presenters to support a ball on a column of air and produced smoke rings the size of dustbins, while learning about and understanding the physics behind what they were seeing. We were treated to a fantastic keyboard recital by Sean Wong, which lit up an enormous Faraday cage with patterns and colours. The pupils then had two challenges involving engineering and its application in weight-bearing structures and biology. There was a tower-building competition using spaghetti and marshmallows to create the highest tower, and a challenge to determine the best size and shape to make sycamore seeds that fly like the real thing. KJ Graham

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in S4 next year. There were also Saturday sessions that allowed for further practices. Term three saw the start of the outdoor, full-bore shooting season. Although range availability was non-existent during games time on Wednesday afternoons due to the closure of Castlelaw range for maintenance, the team proved to be extremely dedicated and worked round this, giving up their own time in order to make some sessions at a private civilian range. Additionally, two of our team members attended a two-day course hosted by Glasgow Academy, with our Commonwealth coach, Mr Mabon, teaching shooting skills to pupils from all shooting schools around Scotland. The team faced challenges at Bisley, our annual shooting competition in Surrey, but with a strong, carefully chosen team and a strategic plan we made it our best Bisley.

CCF

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F F O E K A B Val Thomson The 3rd annual

This June, as has now become tradition, P6S6 were invited to bring in their best baking masterpieces. This is a very special event which celebrates the life of Mrs Valerie Thomson, our former Home Economics teacher, and showcases the baking talent within our community.

The judges (eager staff and S6 volunteers) gathered in Home Economics for some serious taste testing. The standard and amount of entries were incredible, making for some very round judges! The following were awarded prizes.

1st Prize, and winner of the Valerie Thomson Bake-Off Trophy Molly Scales, S1, with her dark red-velvet layer cake and vanilla ganache. 2nd Prize Amelia Strachan-Brooks, P7, with her rainbow cake framed in chocolate and multi-coloured sweet toppings. 3rd Prizes Daria Martinolli, P6, with an inventive pink castle layer cake decorated with ice-cream cone turrets. Honor Chapman, P7, with a summer-fruit filled roulade (Genoese sponge cake) and no cracks! James Smith, S1, with a 4-layer malteaser cake. 4th Prize Patrick Wallace, S1, with an Alabama chocolate layer cake. Best Cake Modelling Anika Frame, P6.

Highly commended Thomas Wallace, S4, poppy seed and lemon drizzle muffins. Sophie Thomson, P7, with a layered summer fruit pavlova. Lorna Samwells, P7, with a sponge rainbow cake Outstanding effort and resilience Rosie McFadzean, P6 Best-ﬂavoured cake Darcie McCann, P7 Consistent cake maker Nicola Waite, P7 Staff winner Miss Ross

Thanks to all who entered this annual competition! We raised £100 that has been donated to the Brick by Brick appeal for the new hospice in Glasgow, providing end-of-life care for children and adults. Until next year…

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HOCKEY

I looked forward with enthusiasm to the prospect of another hockey season at the Academy. We started pre-season in August with a group of enthusiastic children and staff.

After the excitement of the Commonwealth Games, and the school pitch being used as one of the training venues, the school’s profile and Hockey had taken another positive step forward. The pupils adapted to the new water-based Astroturf last year very well, so the focus this year was to build on the fundamental skills learnt last season. Some more advanced technical skills could now be added to the programme as the pupils were very comfortable with how the surface played. The girls have a clear understanding of the ethos that the staff have worked hard to develop within the hockey club, and beyond, which has had an impact on the overall performances. This year it was important to maintain and build on these principles.

We have had another successful season, with the S1 winning the West District tournament for the third year in a row. The P7 A team were runners-up in our own Prep tournament, and the Seniors have also had a very exciting end to their season, culminating in beating Jordanhill 1-0 in a very hard-fought BP Plate final. The S2 A team won the Hutchesons’ Invitational tournament and the Prep 6s experienced their first taste of competitive hockey in the Craigholme Hockey Festival. All-in-all, it was another very good year. The staff will continue to work hard to maintain and hopefully even improve on this year’s results. Well done to everyone involved in what has been a busy and predominantly wet and cold season. I would like to thank all the staff, players, coaches, umpires, groundsmen and tea ladies for all their hard work throughout the season; it is very much appreciated. R Simpson

HOCKEY OVERVIEW

The entire school hockey club has continued to progress and succeed during this great season. The whole club have presented true commitment to fitness and training, willingness to learn new tactics, and created a brilliant hockey atmosphere throughout the school. This commitment afforded great results. Our P7 A team were runners-up at The Glasgow Academy tournament, and won the medal at the George Watson’s Prep tournament. Our S1 A team won the S1 West District Tournament, after a very exciting running penalty competition against the High School of Glasgow. The S2 A team won the Hutchesons’ Invitational Tournament to continue their dominating form. In the senior section the 1st XI and 2nd XI were semifinalists in their respective West District tournaments, with

the 1st XI winning the BP Plate after an exciting and tense match against Jordanhill. All of these achievements were well deserved and the whole school is proud of the efforts from all the players throughout the season. The Hockey club realise that tactics, basic-skills and a high level of fitness constitute the secret to achieving, and I am proud to report that every single person in the club worked their hardest to try to fulfil these qualities. The ‘zone’ is a very important part of the game of hockey and, if done correctly, it forces the opposition to do what we want. This is a skill that all teams have worked hard to master throughout the season. To complete the zone every single player needs to know where to stand and when: one mistake and the >

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HOCKEY OVERVIEW (continued) whole zone breaks down. Due to the playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; hard work and team work all of the teams showed a strong zone that opposite teams found particularly difficult to attack against.

hockey experience as enjoyable and successful as possible. We would not be the hockey players we are today without all of your help.

Starting the season just after the Commonwealth Games everyone was very motivated to play like our role models at the games. What was especially magical was that some of the international teams actually practised on our home ground, which made playing at Top Windyedge that little bit more unique. It was an honour to share a pitch which some of the greatest hockey players in the world had trained on.

Overall, I am proud to say the hockey club has been successful throughout the year. Every player shows true potential right from P7 to S6 and many of these players have the basic skills and understanding of the game to go all the way. I am very sad to be leaving school hockey this year; it has been a massive part of my life, but no doubt I will be hearing all about the success the school will have throughout the years. Good luck for next season and every season beyond that.

From the whole hockey team, I would like to thank all the hockey staff, umpires, officials and grounds men for all their hard work and commitment to make all of our school

Susan Al-Haddad

GIRLSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; HOCKEY TOURNAMENTS Teams

Tournament

Result

1st XI

West District Indoor Tournament

Knocked out in section

1st XI

West District Senior Tournament

Semi-finalists

1st XI

BP Cup

Plate winners

1st XI

West District 7s

Knocked out in section

2nd XI

West District 7s

Knocked out in section

2nd XI

West District Tournament

Semi-finalists

3rd Year A

S3 West District Tournament

Knocked out in section

2nd Year A

The Hutchesons' Tournament

Winners

1st Year A

S1 West District Tournament

Winners

P7 A

The Glasgow Academy Tournament

Runners-up

P7 A

The George Watson's Tournament

Winners of the Medal

HOCKEY RESULTS Teams

Played

Won

Lost

Drawn

1st XI

2nd XI

3rd XI

S3 A

S3 B

S3 C

S2 A

S2 B

S2 C

S1 A

S1 B

S1 C

P7 A

P7 B

P7 C

Boys' 1st XI

Boys' 2nd XI

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HOCKEY 1st XI This season there were many ups and downs for the 1st XI. During the first half of the season the team played a series of games and, after winning two or three rather important games, we made it to the BP Plate Final. We played the final at a neutral venue against Jordanhill School; it was an incredibly tense game and an early goal from Robyn Belch put us in the lead, but we were very aware we had not yet won the game. Everyone worked incredibly hard in the second half to keep the score line in our favour. Due to our hard work we went on to win 1-0 and secure the BP plate. As a team we have continued to develop the entire season; this was especially tricky after our long break over the winter due to the number of cancellations caused by bad weather. However, the team worked hard on their fitness and their skills during this time and we managed to get back into the swing of things quite quickly. Most of our team was made up of S5 and S6 players, with the help of two S4 players: Morna Sinclair in midfield, who had a strong hit and had excellent play up the left hand side of the pitch, and Jodie Judd, one of the strikers who always did her best to create an outcome in the ‘D’. Also a big well done to Olivia Yeneka (S4) who stepped up from the 2nd XI as a goalkeeper when needed; this can be a very intimidating role but Olivia always performed to a high standard during these times. We are all incredibly proud of the younger players who stepped up to the top level and performed to the best of their ability at every training session and every game, as well as the rest of the team. Robyn Belch and Heather Kilpatrick shared the vice-captaincy this season, and truly fulfilled their roles. Robyn was a great role-model for the younger girls, scoring a lot of the goals and always fighting for the ball! Well done, Robyn, for making the

1st XI

Under-18s West District team: we are all proud of you! Heather kept things in order with the strikers ensuring everyone knew what to do up front, and scoring many goals for the team. This year we had an absolutely solid defence and it was brilliant to see from the goal: Rosa Spinney, Chiara Giovanazzi, Emma Webster, Laura McCabe, and Alex Fletcher all communicating with each other and helping each other on the pitch. They all showed true camaraderie. In midfield Jennifer McNaught and Rosa Spinney created excellent play up the pitch, and made great linkage plays between the different lines. They were definitely core players of the team this season. With Claire Fitzpatrick, Heather Allan and Rachael Cannon up front the opposition found it tricky to defend against us. They always made a big effort to lead for the ball and work back to help defend when needed. Their breaks were also deadly to the opposition. This season our team has grown closer and closer. It’s not very often that every single individual works their hardest while also being as close as we were. We won’t be remembered as the team that won all the games; however, we will be remembered as the one that had a great team spirit. As a team we would also like to thank our coach Miss Simpson for all her efforts and support she has put into the team; we have learned a lot about fitness and tactics which have made us the team that we are. Susan Al-Haddad

2nd XI

HOCKEY 2nd XI This year the 2nd XI team was raring to go from the start! The camaraderie of the girls was very strong, providing us with important relationships that are required to go out and win games. The hockey this year from the team has been outstanding and the skill-level from the team was incredible. Despite starting the season well, we went through a bit of a rough patch as most teams do through the season, and faced some tough opposition as we occasionally play other schools’ 1st XI teams. Our goalkeeper, Olivia Yeneka, made some extraordinary saves throughout the season. We had a strong defence consisting of Carol Baxter, Karin Shaw, Lara Macaloney and not forgetting our sweeper Sarah McKee. They all worked well together and were a well-drilled unit.

The ball was often moved swiftly through the field by our dashing midfielders, Katie Brennan, Iona Robinson, Rebecca Gray, Abi Sproule and Isabella Ross. Goals would not have been scored, however, if we didn’t have our trusted strikers Chloe Thornton, Catriona Cuthbert, Carmen Brannan and Katie Thornton. I have really enjoyed being captain of the 2nd XI. The girls have made every match great fun, but also the amount of energy and determination that they put in at every moment made my job a lot easier. I feel extremely privileged to have spent my last year of hockey with such a fantastic team. Alexandra Mennie

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HOCKEY 3rd XI I have thoroughly enjoyed captaining the 3rd XI this year, and I truly hope all future 3rd XI players enjoy their senior hockey as much as I did. There was no shortage of support from vice captains this year as Catherine Mitchell, Nicola Pell, Sarah Campbell and Lucy Ferguson all took on the role and did a tremendous job. The team had many new additions this year, including Isabella Ross, Daisy Duncan and Jenny Gillespie who all improved greatly and contributed to much hilarity in the team! There were also a few new additions to the team from 5th year as Lara Pierotti, Alexandra Pierotti, Rachel Brown and Ciara Ewing all joined this year and all were brilliant attacking players in our toughest games. Joanna Neilson, Jasmine Li and Millie Collins played their second year in the 3rd XI, and the team could always count on them to play the ball up the pitch and set up a goal. A special mention must be made of Adina Iqbal who excelled greatly in her hockey ability this season and mastered taking free-hits outside the circle which helped us to score goals in many of our games, and of Alex Barber who certainly left a lasting impression on the team and Mrs FitzGerald due to her fierce competitiveness on the side-line. Rachel Forbes also contributed to the team coming along to play on a Saturday. We had the late additions of Anna Dunlop and Lydia Tcheir to the hockey team this year who both took up the sport after a two-year break and polished their skills and quickly became valued members of the team. Out of many memorable moments from this season I think the main highlight was the match we played against George Watson’s in Edinburgh. The team went out prepared for a tough match and, after numerous injuries, we went on to win 2 – 0 on grass, which was a wonderful result for the team. Another highlight of the season was when we played

in a 7s tournament against many 1st XI and 2nd XI teams at the George Heriot’s 7s. The team was raring to go after an energetic warm up and although we may not have won the tournament the team stepped up to play some great hockey. It was definitely a memorable day for all, and a momentous event in Glasgow Academy 3rd XI history. Finally I would like to thank Mrs FitzGerald for all of her coaching, support and advice throughout the year. The 3rd XI would not have been as successful or as entertaining as it was without her. She is undoubtedly the perfect coach for the team. I would also like to thank all the girls for their commitment to the team this year and wish them all the best for next year! Morgan Collins

HOCKEY 3rd year A The 3rd Year A team has had a season filled with ups and downs. After a mixed start to the season, the team finally settled in and won a thriller against Jordanhill (1-0) and also The High School of Glasgow (1-0). The team began to work well together and everyone’s skills developed. The fitness of the team improved each week and this began to show, helping us gain possession and out run the other teams. The quality of game play began to become very consistent and this made it hard for the opposition to get through us. As the season drew to an end there was a noticeable difference in everyone’s playing. Their confidence had grown, along with the determination to get a good result in our matches after all of our effort and training. This year the team lost out on a lot of matches due to the awful weather; however, we ended the year on a high at Marr, winning 2-0, and we have finished this year feeling proud. We would like to thank Miss Barr for her coaching and for keeping spirits high when our confidence in ourselves was lacking. Mr Ralph too, for teaching us new skills and making us become a lot more competent and determined. We have thoroughly enjoyed third year hockey, and can’t wait to move on to senior

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hockey next year. We are honoured to have played in this team with an amazing group of girls, and will remember this team for years to come. Thanks, girls. Nina Boothby, Amie McIntyre and Rosie Hutcheon

HOCKEY 3rd year B 2014-15 hockey for the B team has been an exciting and productive year. Each individual in the B team squad has their own talent on the pitch, which is what makes up the team. Some girls have progressed so much they have moved up to the A team but we still have a lovely squad of girls who are still developing as we go along. Throughout the year the weather was a major factor and caused a delay of up to three months from the hockey programme but we have still had our time to shine on the pitch and do as well as we can. We have not won every game throughout the year but if we did there would be no room for developments. S3 B team players are positive both on and off the pitch because we keep focused and are determined in our game play. Rather than letting the disappointing things drag us down, we keep our heads held high and work for what we want. Overall I think the team have been hard working and have tried their best throughout the season. I hope the girls will consider hockey as their choice next year, as they have the potential. Nicola Fordyce

HOCKEY 2nd year A All of the S2 teams have had a strong season, and as a whole we have not conceded many games. We have consolidated our skills and have enjoyed progressing as a unit. Throughout the season we have worked on many aspects of our game, such as our level of fitness and our skills, which have impacted on our Saturday morning matches and helped us to push ourselves to the final whistle, scoring many crucial last-minute goals.

We are all thankful for the help of all of our coaches in making us better hockey players, and especially to Miss McNaught for her early training sessions. Katie Prentice

The A team maintained their unbeaten run for the first half of the season but unfortunately lost 1-0 to The High School of Glasgow in a very close match. We came back fighting in the Hutchesons’ tournament. We secured a place in the semi-finals, playing The High School of Glasgow yet again, which resulted in running penalties. We happily got through to the finals against Hutchesons’ where we played some excellent hockey to win and go home with the gold medals. It was a thoroughly deserved win on the day which certainly reflected our consistent standard of play throughout the season.

HOCKEY 2nd year B The B team also had a strong season. They developed well as a team and improved their team and individual skills. They started off the season with a game against Dollar, resulting in a very convincing 3-1 win. They continued with this good form against Mary Erskine, winning 4-0, and maintained this level of play throughout the season. We were delighted to win against Marr on a difficult game on grass, a surface we are now not familiar with. Although the C team did not have as many matches, they won most of them convincingly. They were extremely pleased with their performance against St Aloysius’, which resulted in a 4-0 win. They feel that they have progressed as a unit and have encouraged each other as well as having a very enjoyable year. Lisa Gallacher and Harmony Hill

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HOCKEY 1st year A We started the year apprehensively as the jump from 8-a-side to 11-a-side was going to be very challenging. We were all excited about now playing on a full-size pitch. Our results initially were mixed and although we lost and drew some of our fixtures, we started to gain a great deal of confidence from the victories. There was a real feeling that we were starting to make great progress and this impacted very positively on our confidence both individually, and as a team. We worked hard to improve our fitness, footwork, and passing skills during training and the results of this could be seen on a Saturday morning. Some players improved and gained promotion to the A team because of their effort and determination. We were all keen to keep our positions in the A squad, so it motivated us to work with determination. When we returned to school in January, our focus was on the West District Tournament which took place in March. We were eager to keep improving but, unfortunately, the weather impacted on Saturdays and several of our matches were cancelled. Despite poor weather, we worked even harder and listened closely during our two Games afternoons. When the day finally arrived, all 16 of us were so excited! We knew that we had to keep calm and simply deal with each game as it was played. We reached the semi-final stage and were beginning to feel the pressure! After beating St Aloysius’ 1-0, we met The High School of Glasgow in the final. At full-time the score remained 0-0, so we had to start ‘running penalties’. Each

team took five penalties and still we were level! Miss Bannerman asked me as captain to take the first sudden death penalty. It was nerve-racking but fortunately, I scored. Our amazing GK, Eilish Day, saved High School’s attempt and suddenly we realised we had just become the S1 West District champions! It was a fantastic day with so many of our parents watching. We would like to thank Miss Bannerman, Miss McNaught and Mr McIntyre for their coaching all season. Especially Miss Bannerman, for her patience, time, effort and constant encouragement throughout the year. Aisha Saini

HOCKEY 1st year B This season has been a very successful and enjoyable one for the 1st Year B team. We worked well together and formed a close team bond. We worked really hard and tried to make the most of our twice-weekly training sessions. It definitely paid off during our Saturday matches! It was an exciting change, going from playing small-sided games on a half-pitch, to 11-a-side hockey on a full pitch. We even experienced playing on grass against Lomond and Mary Erskine. We knew we had to play a different type of hockey on grass and, although we lost both matches, the team enjoyed the games greatly. One of our highlights was beating Jordanhill 9-0 on both occasions we played them. In one of the matches, our centre striker Sophie Fisher managed to score in the first 25 seconds of the second half! It was also the first time Miss Bannerman had both her A and B teams winning 9-0 on the same morning - and she’s worked at the school a long time! Our 34 goals didn’t come without help from our parents. They supported us so well throughout the year, not just driving us to fixtures, but cheering us on from the side-lines! But most importantly, we need to thank our wonderful

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coaches Miss Bannerman, Mr McIntyre, Miss McNaught and Mrs FitzGerald. Overall, the team has done a great job! We can’t wait for next year and hope our success will continue. Julia Chapman

BOYS’ HOCKEY 1st XI

This season has been exceptional for the boys’ 1st XI, one of the most successful teams in the school this year. The season has had its ups and downs; however, we pulled through as a team and some of the boys showed remarkable character in order for the team to succeed. Throughout the season there was a solid back four, creating a strong foundation for the rest of the team. Notably Jack Morris, Andrew Sinclair and James Warne created an excellent short corner defence team, who were always willing to put their bodies on the line. Also credit to Euan Ramsay, who used his blistering pace and technique to give us a deadly counter-attacking threat down the right-hand-side. In the midfield, Greg Dunlop showed class slotting passes through the smallest of gaps. Chris Rae always showed strength and determination on the ball, never willing to give up. He was a vital asset to the team this year. His partnership with his brother Nicholas, who played up front, helped secure many victories. Will Prentice’s power strike managed to score many goals when it mattered, and he also helped to create endless chances in most games.

Upfront, we had Calum “Messi” Davidson, who accumulated many “man of the match” awards, as well as a large majority of the goals that were scored this season. He showed great skill and composure on the ball, allowing him to lead us to victory on multiple occasions. Jake Horne used his trademark flick skill to deceive many opposition players, helping us get in on goal. We cannot forget Adam Kidd, the star goalie who made some unbelievable saves which allowed us to stay within grasp of many games. He definitely has the potential to go far at a higher level. The highlight of the season was coming back to beat Hutchesons’ on our new water-based pitch in order to win the school’s very own cup. There was always strong competition for places on the team, which just goes to show how much Academy hockey has excelled in recent years. It has been a pleasure to Captain these boys and I hope they continue to play hockey wherever they go. Leon Hay

BOYS’ HOCKEY 2nd XI This season has been another great success for the Boys’ 2nd XI Hockey Team, despite coming out on the wrong side of many hard-fought matches. We started with a team of mainly inexperienced players, the majority of whom had never held a hockey stick before, but through a lot of hard work we have shown great development within the team; special mention goes to Iain Scott, our goalie for the season,

who stepped up at the beginning of the year. I would like to congratulate the whole team for their dedication this year, whether it is at Games on a Wednesday or a match on a Saturday, and I hope that we will be able to build upon our successes next season. Alasdair Forrest

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RUGBY Season 2 of my time at the Academy has seen improvements in many year groups across the School.

It is my firm belief that all year groups are now attempting to play a brand of rugby that is allowing all boys to get involved and asking real questions of our opposition. This will be a continuing theme going forward as we attempt to close the gap on those schools who are beating us. This may mean a few more defeats along the way as we try to pass ourselves out of danger, but it will also mean more complete players coming through to me at 1st XV level. This is something that we should all be very excited about.

The season started well for all teams with a clean-sweep against High School of Dundee. This was followed by a near clean-sweep against our local rivals High School of Glasgow, only 2 tries in the last 2 minutes against the 1st XV, preventing a historic day. We then ventured into a run of tough fixtures against the Edinburgh Schools, which as ever were long and tough mornings for most teams. However, a couple of real highlights have been the S2 A team’s win against Stewart’s Melville and the home and away wins for the S3A and B against Edinburgh Academy.

Credit should go to all players, as no matter the level they have faced the physical challenges head on all season. I continue to believe that all players are putting in the required commitment for their level and they should be applauded for that. I am now hopeful that a positive preseason, a tour for the seniors and camp for the junior years, will allow us to progress much quicker and be far better prepared for the start of the season. Our aim is to simply win game 1, and then see what journey this can take us on.

The post-Christmas fixtures were hit hard by the weather and we missed out on a number of matches. Once up and running again we had a good run of fixtures against a variety of opposition, including the return of an across-the-card Merchiston Castle fixture, and two fixtures for the 1st XV against touring sides from Argentina and Canada.

P Smith

RUGBY RESULTS Teams

Tournament

Result

1st XV

High School of Glasgow 7s

Group losers

1st XV

Hutchesons’ 7s

Semi-finalists

1st XV

Heriot’s 7s

1st round ko

U16

Heriot’s 7s

1st round ko

Carrick 7s

Abandoned

Edinburgh Academy 7s

Winners

Hutchesons’ 7s

Semi-finalists

St Columba’s Tournament

Cup winners

Stewart’s Melville Tournament

4th

Teams

Played

Won

Lost

Drawn

1st XV

2nd XV

U16

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RUGBY 1st XV It is fair to say that this year the 1st XV have had an up and down season, with some memorable wins and some tough losses. However, the season could not have started any better with a fantastic 22-10 win over last season’s Scottish Cup runners-up, The High School of Dundee, with Ryan Sweeney scoring two tries on his debut. Unfortunately we were unable to build on this in the following matches, where our completely dominant performance was undone by a lack of clinical finishing and two very late tries from the High School of Glasgow. Despite this string of losses, in the run-up to the October break we responded brilliantly with an excellent defensive performance in a 10-7 win against Hutchie, with the atrocious conditions playing their part in a tight game. Unfortunately we struggled to build momentum in the runup to Christmas as injuries made our already unexperienced squad even more so. However, we finished the year on a high with a strong 13-5 win over Kelvinside. After the Christmas break it seemed like we would play no rugby at all, with game after game falling to the typical Scottish winter weather. Once the season did restart, there was an outstanding “bodies on the line” defensive performance giving a Merchiston team, full of internationals, a run for their money. Although we faded in the second half we should be incredibly proud of the commitment and performance we put in, which paved the way for a strong finish to the season with resounding wins against Jordanhill, and St John’s School, Canada, where there were some fantastic tries scored. In the front row, Liam Hay, who played in almost every game, and Gillan Coats provided the base for a solid scrum, competing well above their weight against much bigger opposition. James Clark’s accurate throwing at the lineout allowed us to keep possession and build momentum in tight matches. Aidan Gallacher’s fantastic aerial skills often won us opposition ball at the lineout and made our own set piece even more secure. Aidan also scored arguably the individual try of the season using his trademark step and uncharacteristic pace to ghost past defenders and score from the halfway line. He was partnered in the second row by Max Hutcheon who demonstrated fantastic ball-carrying and tackling skills, while number 8, Ryan Sweeney, was another 5th year who didn’t take long to adapt to Senior rugby, scoring an abundance of tries and deservedly gaining selection for Glasgow Under 18. Cailean Maciver led by example with aggressive ball-carries and, due to my injuries, he was often asked to captain the team – a role he did brilliantly. There was a

constant battle for the 7 shirt throughout the season with Tom Speedie and Nick Sutherland vying for the jersey. Tom’s low chop tackles and Nick’s threat over the ball at the breakdown both greatly benefitted the team. At stand-off, Daniel Frame, who led an almost all 5th year backline, provided our outside backs with quick ball – something that greatly improved as the season went on, with Callum Taylor using his pace to benefit, scoring an abundance of tries down his left wing. At inside centre and fullback, Murray Drover and Joe Bouttell interchanged throughout the season, both performing well in their first games for the 1st XV. Joe scored probably the team try of the season against St John’s School, Canada, with the ball starting in our own half, going to the wings and then back inside for Joe to finish under the posts. At outside centre, Andrew Craig produced some crunching tackles and carving runs often finished off by Alistair Fordyce and Ben Chan. I know everyone will join me in thanking Mr Smith and Mr Gillies for all their hard work this season. There were games where we did not perform as well as we know we could have, but they did a fantastic job of helping us improve as a team and getting us focused for the next game. To the 5th years: best of luck next season. Most of you will have 1st XV experience and the lessons learned from this year will only stand you in good stead for next year. To the 6th years in both the 1sts and 2nds, it has been a pleasure playing with you for the last nine years; best of luck in whatever you are doing in the next stage of your life. Andrew Simmers

RUGBY 2nd XV

After another exciting year, the 2nds have proven again the benefits of team unity. When faced with quality opponents, there was never a complaint or doubt within the ranks and we dealt with each challenge stoically and maturely with maximum effort. Each game was a very enjoyable experience, with yet again legendary stories to be discussed after every fixture. With some stand-out performers from Fifth Year, I do hope they stick at it and enjoy another enthralling year of rugby. Also, may I commend the commitment from the team each and every early morning and also the excellent coaching and advice we received, especially from our leader, Mr McCaskey. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Jamie Judd

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RUGBY Under 16s This year the U16s had a great season. We started off the year with thumping victories over the likes of Heriot’s, Dundee High and notably, a great cup win against Fettes College at Anniesland, where we walked away with a 22-7 victory against the renowned Edinburgh side. We advanced to the quarter finals of the Cup, only to be put out against none other than George Heriot’s, the team we had put 70+ points past in the second game of the season. The surprising loss can be attributed to a poor mental attitude and complacency. The fact is that Heriot’s wanted it more on the day and we made life very easy for them. That shock defeat meant we were placed into the Shield and had to win a difficult away fixture against Strathallan if we wanted to have any chance of silverware. Sadly it was not to be, as we came within 3 points of the boarding school who won the game 21-18 with a last-minute penalty to beat us in front of a packed Strathallan stand. This was a tough defeat to take; however, if you had told any of the fourth year boys last year that they would reach this round and put up 18 points against a team like Strathallan, none of them would have believed you. This cup run served to prove just how much improvement had been made since S3 and what a difference having experienced fifth years in the team made. The highlight of our season was the away fixture against Edinburgh Academy. This was my first game as captain after taking over from Harry Bland who led us in the first part of the season. We were getting beaten quite comfortably by the Edinburgh side and went into half time 20-0 down and it looked as though EA were going to come away with a resounding win. However, the boys showed a lot of character to pull a couple of scores back and tighten up our defence and before we knew it were within 5 points of victory. Nevertheless, it was the last play and they had the throw into the lineout. Thankfully we were able to steal the ball and, after

a couple of phases and some quick thinking, the ball was swung wide and Jack McLean ran in to score the winner. Our confidence grew and grew and we found ourselves beating all of the teams that we have had real difficulty with in the past. Those teams included our close rivals, the High School of Glasgow, Hutchesons’ and Kelvinside. However, St Aloysius’ was the game that everyone on the team was desperate to win. The first half was a close affair as the score going into the break was 3-3. We fought hard in the second half but sadly, and to the disappointment of all the boys, we lost. Nonetheless, we bounced back and picked up a few more wins before capping our season off with a 26-0 against Hutchie at Auldhouse, something the team had not done since Prep School rugby. On behalf of all the boys, I would like to thank Mr McNaught and Mr McAslan who have both been instrumental in the improvement and success of the team. Callum Bell

RUGBY 3rd year A The 3rd year A team had a successful year; we all worked hard in training by focusing on weaknesses in our previous games, and learning new skills to improve on our game. This meant that we progressed as individuals and as a team every session, making us a stronger side. The first few weeks got us ready and set to play rugby. Our pre-season helped a lot with that; it got us prepared for the season and taught us some advanced skills through new drills. The games that we showed great skill and strength in were when we beat Edinburgh Academy home and away: both the games were very close. We showed great power in defence holding them off. In the second game we fought intensely in attack. We also had a great performance against Hutchesons’ Grammar School where we had two close games. There was a lot of pressure due to rivalries from the previous season. We were very pleased with our performance in winning both home and away games. We had a rugby tour to the South of France. We trained on the beach, did bowling, go-karting and played two tough games. Our first was the hardest as we were up against a bigger and physical side. The support they got was nothing like at home; everyone got involved chanting and cheering. Our second game was closer; we played better and worked well as a team.

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We all learnt loads from playing in a different environment, and how the French play a fast game. We had a great experience. Overall this season we grew as a team and got better through learning new skills and gaining knowledge from our coach. We all appreciate the time and effort Mr Wilson put in. As a player himself we knew we could learn from him and he didn’t disappoint. We thank Mr Wilson for his help and coaching this season. Robert McNaught

RUGBY 3rd year B 2014-2015 was a very successful season for the 3rd Year B team. We started the season with 5 wins in a row (High School 500, 76-12, Edinburgh Academy 38-12, Hutchesons’ 54-5 and Stewart’s Melville 48-5). These games boosted our confidence, especially as our team tactics worked well and created a fantastic team spirit which saw us through tough games later on in the season. Motivation was never an issue during our season, all of our players gave 100% commitment in both training and games on a Saturday morning. There were many highlights, and it was so encouraging that different players could have been awarded man of the match during the season. The stand out game of the season was definitely our convincing win over Merchiston. This was the game that made the cold, wet Saturday mornings and hard work all worthwhile. With 11 wins and 4 hard–fought losses, we would mark this season down as a great success. I would like to thank the team for their commitment throughout the season and all the laughs. On behalf of the team I would like

to thank our touchline supporters who attended games, both home and away, regardless of the weather. A great big thank you goes to our coaches Mr Kirby and Mr Furnish. Your tactics and coaching made us reach our full potential. Your good humour helped make S3 rugby thoroughly enjoyable for all of us. Matthew Robertson

RUGBY 2nd year A This year the 2nd Year A team have had a fantastic season. We have improved greatly as a team, whether that is our discipline, fitness or our rugby skills. The season started off with a thumping win over Heriot’s. Our next game was against our old rivals, The High School, and we ran out very comfortable winners. We had a difficult game against Edinburgh Academy but we bounced back from that with our biggest-ever win over Hutchesons’. Stewart’s Melville were up next, and we knew we could win through it. It was an extremely difficult game. We were leading into the last play of the game when they scored a try and converted it to draw the game. This was a difficult result to take and took something out of our performances for the next two weeks. We knew we had another game against Stewart’s Melville and the second game was the best game we have ever played as a team. After a poor start to the game, we showed great team spirit and bounced back and scored some excellent tries and won the game. January and February were disappointing months for us as all the games were cancelled. Our first game in four months was against Merchiston. We started very poorly and conceded some simple

tries, but after the first twenty minutes we scored more tries than them. We were unfortunate to lose in the end. Nine of the A team then travelled to the Edinburgh Academy sevens, which we won against Edinburgh Academy, Stewart’s Melville and Dollar Academy. The next game as a squad was on the Perpignan rugby tour, where we went undefeated, in an excellent tour. A special mention must go to Adam Orr who scored fifty-one tries, some of those very important. Also this season would have not been possible without the hard work and dedication of Mr Manson. Finlay Neilson

RUGBY 2nd year B This year the B team has been very successful. We started the season well with a good win against George Heriot’s, winning 44-12. Next came the very important derby, High School, which we won convincingly 22-7. Next along came Edinburgh Academy and Hutchesons’ who we steamrolled before earning a harsh draw against Stewart’s Melville. We had a great win against George Watson’s, continuing with a win over St Aloysius’. Unfortunately, we then ended the year with two extremely close defeats to Kelvinside and QVS. As Christmas came we wished farewell to our coach Mr Bull. As the new year arrived we welcomed in to the group Mr Fulton, our new coach. We had to wait a while for our first game of the year due to snow cancelling out all of January. Finally we played Jordanhill As and Merchiston, losing both very closely before returning to winning ways, emphatically beating George Watson’s. We ended the season with a very close defeat to a very physical Morrison’s team.

After the end of the season some of our players were picked to go to Perpignan on the school rugby trip, thanks to their excellent performances. We would like to thank Mr Manson, Mr Bull and Mr Fulton for their hard work in making us better players and having a great season. Christopher Holdstock and Angus Forbes

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RUGBY 1st year A The season kicked off with a high travelling all the way up to Dundee and getting a successful result, winning 9-0, and then beating High School of Glasgow (our rivals) 5-0, another successful win! But the season had its downs as well as ups. The Edinburgh schools were particularly difficult but we always pulled through and got our heads ready for the next game. We had extremely tight games against Edinburgh Academy: the first drawing with them 12-12 and the second just losing out in the final play of the game 10-5. We also had some mega wins throughout the season, beating Wellington by 11 tries to nil, with one of our wingers scoring no less than 5 tries! But sadly the season had to come to an end and we were determined to win our last game - against Hutchesons’. It was a tough game but as usual we finished strongly with a 3-1 win! Of course we couldn’t have done any of this without our absolutely amazing coach, Mr. Mathewson. We couldn’t have asked for a better coach to take us for this year. All the team will

miss him and he has set us up perfectly for rugby in S2. Thank you from all of the team: we will miss you very much. Max Hedgecoe

RUGBY 1st year B The 1st year B team have had an extremely successful season this year. We have ranged from amazing games, to some absolutely shocking games. We started off destroying other teams, but then we finally found our match, Stewart’s Melville. They were by far the hardest team of all. They had some very impressive players; however, with our hard work and determination, we finally beat them. We have had some ups and some downs, but with the best record in school there is no doubt about how hard we have all tried both individually, and as a team. It is obvious that it has put us through some physically challenging experiences. We have all expended blood, sweat and tears and all had grimaces on our faces at the end of matches. However, I think this is a sign of how hard we have all tried. The one match, which I am sure we will all remember, was our last game against Dollar. We beat them 32-0. We saved many tries and scored a lot as well. We were playing in cold, windy weather but we all surely heated up when we were running up and down the pitch. But sadly the tragedy of the end of the season has caught up with us, and we have to move onto different sports. I can clearly say that we have all enjoyed rugby this season, and

RUGBY 1st year C The S1 C team began the season with fighting spirit, having won more games than lost. Although there have been a few ups and downs we have all given our best efforts, even if we didn’t get the opportunity to play a match every Saturday. The C team won their first match against George Heriot’s, dominating 40-0. The next match was against The High School, who we destroyed 30-0. Unfortunately, the first match we lost was against George Watson’s 14-15, which was a very exciting game. Overall, the C team have only lost two games, and had a tremendous season. Massive thanks to Mr Fulton for being a great coach. Henry McFadzean

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we all strongly thank our tremendous coaches this year Mr Gillies, Mr Fulton, Mr Smith, Mr Furnish and our long-term coach Mr Kirby. They have all been supportive and have made us improve substantially. The whole B team will look back at the best season of their career and all look forward to S2 rugby. Jack McGechie

CRICKET

SCHOOL XI Season 2015 will be remembered for the excellent performance of this young side and their admirable teamwork. Playing the first match of the season our 1st Xl beat High School of Glasgow by a huge margin of 109 runs probably a record in our 1st Xl Cricket! John Oliver and Cameron Russell put their heads down and grafted for long periods on a difficult pitch: such application is rarely seen in schoolboy cricket. Their excellent partnership of 91 runs for the second wicket was very useful to the side. Cameron Horn came in after Russell was out and scored a quick 22. John Oliver played with admirable concentration, restraining himself from playing any indiscreet shots and was out finally in the last over for a very well-made 64. We finished with a high score of 159 for the loss of 6 wickets in our 30 overs. Pressure exerted by our bowlers on that pitch was too hot to handle for High School batters and they were shot out for 50 in 21.3 overs. Cameron Russell (3 wickets for 11 runs) and Fehzan Irfan (3 wickets for 1 run) were High School’s main tormentors. The next game against Kelvinside Academy was played on a good hard pitch (yes, a firm pitch in spite of all the rain - thanks to the groundsmen and new covers). The boys had the experience of playing cricket in the ‘unpredictable’ Scottish weather - basically a stop, start, stop, start, experience. In this regard, when it rained, on a few occasions the fun of running and getting the covers on to protect the pitch, taking it off when it stopped raining to restart the game and so on was all wonderful experience and the privilege of playing on a good ground. We beat Kelvinside by 71 runs. In the next match we beat Hutchesons’ easily by 8 wickets through some excellent bowling from Fehzan Irfan, Cameron Russell and Arman Khan.

Batting first in our game against Dollar, John Oliver and Arman Khan put up the best partnership of the season - 95 runs for the 1st wicket in 14 overs. While John was out bowled to a well-made 39, Arman carried his bat through to the end of the 20th over and remained not out on an excellent 65. At the end of our 20 overs we finished with 139 for 3 wickets. Dollar began their chase well and soon had our bowlers and fielders under pressure, by keeping up with the rate of about 7 runs per over. But two important bowling changes helped to tilt the balance in our favour. Arman Khan introduced in the 8th over had their left-handed batsman bowled by a corker and later Jamie Percival, bowling his loopy leg spinners had their main batter caught at deep mid-wicket by Chris Rae - an excellent catch, judged well, running forward and inches off the ground. Chris Rae came in to bowl the last over with Dollar needing 15 to win. With his 3rd ball of the over, Chris had the batter out bowled with a beauty - the noise of excitement by all our players, when they heard the timber rattle, could have been heard in the Dollar Glen! Glasgow Academy won an exciting match by 8 runs. Andrew Simmers, playing his first match after a couple of years, kept wicket and did an excellent job.

6s TOURNAMENT The Glasgow Academy 6s tournament was interesting. We played very well throughout the tournament and comprehensively beat Wellington, Kelvinside, Lomond and, in the finals, Hutchesons’. With outstanding performances from John Oliver (51 not out, 37 not out and 2 wkts for 7), Cameron Horn (31, 37 not out and 18), Usman Irfan (23 and 18), Cameron Russell (2 wkts for 13 and 2 for 4), Mark Forbes (2 wkts for 8), Glasgow Academy won the final by 32 runs and were crowned the Winners of TGA 6s tournament 2015.

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CRICKET (continued) INVITATION MATCHES Our game against a very strong MCC was on a nice hot day and an excellent batting pitch. MCC batted first and scored 261 for the loss of only 1 wkt in the 39 overs they batted. What was admirable was the attitude of our boys: yes, the bowlers were disappointed if they bowled any loose stuff, but they had their heads up and continued to work hard and positively. Our ground fielding was excellent throughout the innings, with Euan McDonald doing well in the infield. We opened our batting against some quick bowling from The MCC and although we lost a few quick wickets, Usman Irfan (42 not out) came in and played some aggressive shots which were a delight to watch. Usman with Ruairidh Russell for a while and later with Jamie Percival put up a fighting partnership. Fraser Gordon came in with 3 overs to go and probably hadn’t played such quick bowlers before. However, in spite of nerves, he did the simple basics taught and presented a full-faced straight bat and wouldn’t give his wicket away truly admirable and earning us a creditable draw. Douglas Lockhart, The MCC Captain and former Academy pupil, spoke to our boys after the match and credited them for the way they played the game. He also mentioned that while The MCC had beaten the other Glasgow schools easily, they were made to work hard by TGA boys and still couldn’t beat us. He presented The MCC Spirit of Cricket Cap to John Oliver for his all-round performance. In the game against a strong XL (Forty club) they batted first and declared their innings at 227 for 4 wickets. Fraser Gordon,

Greg McMillan and James Thorrington were excellent in the field. Arman Khan (37) and Ruairidh Russell (31) opened our batting and had a good partnership of 71. Later, Fehzan Irfan (18) and Adam McMurray (15) played well and made some quick runs. In trying to push the scoring rate further, we lost a few wickets. Cameron Russell played well and remained not out on 38. Jamie Percival also played well and remained not out on 10. We finished with 164 for the loss of 6 wickets in the 35 overs we could get to bat. The match ended in a draw. The boys worked well together and trained hard from January. Credit goes to Captain Cameron Russell and the vice-captain Fehzan Irfan, who co-ordinated well and arranged times for training both before and during their exams, which is certainly not an easy task. My thanks go to Mr McCaskey for running the winter nets along with our former Deputy Rector, Adam Williams, who we will certainly miss. My thanks also to Mr Smith, our Master in charge of Cricket, who ensured that our cricket season went smoothly, in spite of all the re-arrangements. Final results Teams

Played

Won

Lost

Drawn

Abandoned

V Hariharan

2nd XI The season was limited to four matches, but four very enjoyable matches! First, we welcomed The High School of Glasgow, who had a strong side. They elected to bat and, despite some good bowling by our boys, amassed an impressive 170 runs in their 20 overs. James Thorrington (16) and Nick Rae (13) gave us hope, but, after their dismissals, we couldn’t keep up with the run rate and lost by about 80 runs. We next hosted Morrison’s 1st XI to the school ground. They elected to bat and were kept pegged back by our bowlers, all of whom contributed to bowling out Morrisons for 78. Nick Rae was the main batsman who picked off any poor balls and steered us to an impressive 6-wicket victory with a an unbeaten 42. Our third match was away at the picturesque grounds of Dollar Academy. Our team was made up of several players who had not played for a couple of years, but once we went in to bat, you wouldn’t have known! Regulars Ross Eadie (22) and Nick Rae (11) put on 40 runs, before cavalier innings from Jack McCready (20), Adam Mennie (31), which

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included 20 in one over, and one of the biggest sixes I have seen from Callum Bell saw us finish on an impressive 138 for 7. Dollar looked determined, but tight bowling from all our bowlers kept them pegged back and they were all out for 96, a win by 42 runs. The pick of the bowling was James Thorrington, with 3 for 10 runs. Our final match against a strong Watson’s 2nd XI saw their batsmen score probably the highest score I have witnessed in a school 20 over match, 284 for 1, with one batsman scoring 112 no and the other 108 no. Their bowling was equally impressive, and we were all out for 33….the least said about that match, the better, but the most impressive thing was the boys’ attitude. The heads never went down and they battled right to the last ball, so we’ll take the positive from that! It was, as always, a short but enjoyable season. Thanks to all the boys who turned out , to Mr Williams (what will we do without him next season), Mr Hariharan and Mr Smith for all their help and support. Roll on summer 2016! TM

ATHLETICS This athletics season has been upset by a number of clashes with other events, which cannot be helped given the short and busy nature of the summer term. The Glasgow Schoolsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Championships were held over two days, with a qualifying event followed by finals one week later. Unfortunately, many of our S2 athletes were in Madrid during the qualifiers and missed out on this one; however, there were still medals a plenty from other performances, as listed below. Of particular note was that of the Senior Boys, who put in a great team effort to score an emphatic victory overall in the team competitions. GOLD Alessia Martinolli 100m Alex Sing 200m Robbie Barr 400m Lewis McLean 800 Annabel Ballantyne 1500m Scott Sprang 1500m Catriona Cuthbert Sprint Hurdles Calum Wray Sprint Hurdles Senior Boys Relay Ally Day Discus

SILVER Colin Taylor 100m Ross Montgomerie 200m Scott Briggs 400m Hurdles Craig McKee Triple Jump Tim Chan Triple Jump Nina Boothby Shot

We had an outstanding 29 qualifying standards achieved for the Scottish Schools Athletics Championships this year, which were held over two days at Grangemouth Stadium at the beginning of June. While on the Friday the sun split the skies and we basked in the heat in our shorts and t-shirts, Saturday was a complete contrast; damp, windy and very cold! This is an extremely high standard of competition, with athletes travelling from all around the country to take part. All of our pupils rose to the occasion, many returning with personal best performances. Robbie Barr put in an exceptional shift over the weekend. On the Friday he eased through the qualifying rounds of the 400m, saving his energies for an

BRONZE Callum Taylor 100m Tim Chan 400m Craig McKee 800m Murray Drover 400m Hurdles Kirsty Kitson High Jump Colin Taylor Triple Jump Ruairidh Russell Triple Jump Jamie Brennan Javelin Angus Barbour Javelin

outstanding run in the final, where he displayed sheer grit and determination and was rewarded with a silver medal for his efforts. In doing so, he also smashed the school record, taking nearly 2 seconds off the previous best performance. Robbie returned to action on the Saturday for the 800m and, while he breezed through the morning heats, 9 races in 11 days took its toll and he felt flat and tired in the final. Despite this, he still put in a gutsy run and finished in 6th place. Tim Chan also picked up a medal, finishing 3rd in the Group C Triple Jump, with a best jump of 11m 62. He also returned to action on the Saturday for a hotly contested Long Jump

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ATHLETICS (Continued) competition, in which he finished 17th overall. Harry Matthews finished just outside the medals in 4th place in the final of the senior boys 400m Hurdles race. The weekend before, Harry had picked up a bronze medal in the Scottish Schools Multi-events competition, finishing a very fine school athletics career on a high! His brother Guy had also competed on the Friday, putting in solid performances in both the Discus and the Javelin.

PERSONAL BESTS Despite a sore foot, Annabel Ballantyne won her heat in the 1500m; however, unfortunately 2 races in one day proved too much stress on her injury and she had to withdraw from the final. Scott Sprang finished 6th in his 1500m heat, just missing out on a place in the final. Eve Denholm had a busy weekend, finishing 6th in the final of the 200m on Friday, and on Saturday she was 9th in the Long Jump and 6th in her heat of the 100m. Adam Orr also qualified for 3 events. With an 8th place finish in the final of the 200m, he was 4th in his 100m heat and 8th overall in the Triple Jump, an event he had only tried for the first time during games this term. Colin Taylor, Alessia Martinolli and Alex Sing were all also 4th in their 100m heats with new personal best performances, while Erin Crichton was 5th in her heat. Lewis McLean recorded a massive PB in his heat of the 800m and Lauren Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Neil put in a brave performance as the youngest in the field in her 1500m race. As is the nature of athletics, there was some disappointment in the camp. Catriona Cuthbert qualified for her final in the Sprint Hurdles finishing 3rd in a very fast heat. Unfortunately, she clattered a hurdle in the final, lost her rhythm and pulled up on the track, frustrated. Ross Montgomerie made a brave decision not to even toe the start line, with a recurring injury niggling during his warm up. In the Independent Schools Athletics League, our S2 Boys and Girls both came out as the overall champions while the S3 Boys made the final, where they finished a very respectable 2nd. On the back of their performances, Annabel Ballantyne, Scott Sprang and Adam Orr were all selected to represent Glasgow in the Inter-Area Athletics Match at Grangemouth. The Glasgow girls were triumphant overall, with the boys finishing a close second behind Edinburgh, but with enough points to ensure that the overall trophy returned to the West Coast on the Team Glasgow Bus. Annabel also ran two new school records this year, with a 2.24.2 in the 800m to eclipse Lucy McCallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s old mark, and 4.59.4 for 1500m to erase 5.01 which was set by Emma Forrest in 2014. L MacNeill

BASKETBALL

Basketball club has increased in popularity and many pupils, both team players and recreational players, now train every Wednesday lunchtime in the Sports Hall.

This has been a particularly successful year for the U14 basketball team which is made up of S1 and S2 pupils. The team reached the Semi-final of the Glasgow Cup and this is the furthest the school has ever got in the competition, so it was a great achievement. The team also did well in the Glasgow Schools’ League and gained a lot of experience through playing regular matches and having early successes over teams such as Shawlands Academy, Duncanrig and Hillpark.

group. Towards the end of the year we played some S1 games and came second in The Glasgow Academy S1 tournament, and fifth in Glasgow schools S1.

The S1s recently played in the Glasgow Schools’ S1 basketball tournament and came 5th overall. We also hosted an invitational TGA S1 tournament this year and just missed out on winning to St Aloysius’ College - it was a very close match!

Sam Robertson (S4) has been an asset to the club. He played the U18s this year and showed natural leadership ability despite being only in S4. He also helped out in coaching the U14s and S1s. It is great to see that Sam has decided to start playing out of school and now competes with the Glasgow Rocks U16 and U18 teams. Congratulations also to Michael McMillan and Harry Donaghy who achieved their schools’ refereeing award.

Here are a few words from Alexander Hardiman and Craig McKee who both started basketball this year (S1): At basketball club this year we have learnt how to do lay ups, set shots and 1 on 1 defence: it has been good fun. We then went on and played some U14 games and we got to a good start winning 94 - 8. We got to the semifinals of the Glasgow cup and came third in our league

The U18s played in the Glasgow League this year, despite being a newly formed team with many pupils who were new to the sport. Pupils learned a lot about the game through playing regular matches and the team improved a lot over the course of the season.

We are looking forward to starting back after the summer and continuing to train hard and improve through participation in the Glasgow Schools’ leagues and cups. JF Cuthbert and RM MacLeod

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FOOTBALL 1st XI - A promising future This year the 1st XI Football Team has been successful and more competitive than last year. The team performed well and came second in the West of Scotland Independent Schools Football League; this result gave us automatic qualification into the Scottish Independent Schools cup. The early part of the season saw us complete two friendly matches; a well-deserved 3-0 victory over Jordanhill was followed by a good 1-1 draw with St Aloysius’, who proved they are a decent team. For the first time in several years we also entered the Scottish School’s Cup Competition, where we played Oban High School. A 6-0 defeat proved to be a chastening experience, but also one which galvanised the team. With these games out of the way it was clear what we needed to do in order to improve and to qualify for the knock out stages of the Scottish Independent Schools Cup Competition which is run by the SISFA. Twenty players regularly attended training sessions on a Tuesday evening and all of the players worked hard to improve their own performances and those of the team. The squad concentrated on trying to keep the ball whilst under pressure and how to win the ball back quickly. In the West of Scotland Independent School’s League the 1st XI beat the High School of Glasgow 2-1. The team then lost 4-2 to Jordanhill, which was a result we would live to regret. Despite being 2-1 up at half-time Jordanhill came back to finish the match strongly. However, after this defeat we qualified for the knock-out section of the cup by securing a 3-0 win over St Aloysius’ and a 4-2 victory over Hutchesons’ Grammar School. We then faced George Heriot’s in the quarter-final of the SISFA Cup competition and last year’s winners proved to be tough opponents. On a blustery day at Glasgow Green we found ourselves hampered before we even kicked a ball. Unfortunately, our reliable goalkeeper Mark Forbes was injured in Rugby training and our centre forward Cameron Russell had flu, but gallantly said he would play. With Aidan Gallacher deputising for Mark we battled hard in the first half with the wind against us only to find ourselves 2-0 down at half time. In the second half we dominated the game and brought the match back to 2-1 only for Heriot’s to hit us on the break twice. Losing 4-1 is never nice, but it was a close game and if all our players were fully fit there might well have been a different outcome. Despite the disappointment of losing in the quarter-finals there are a lot of positives that we can take from the season. The Football Coaches feel that this has been the best squad of players we have worked with in recent years, primarily because they worked hard, listened and then did their best to improve. On several occasions they changed a match because of their ability to follow tactical instructions

correctly. As well as this each and every one of the players conducted themselves well throughout the matches and the Academy can be proud of our excellent disciplinary record. Cameron Ballantyne (S3) played in the quarter-final and we expect him to go on and have a big impact in the future. Additionally, there is a strong core of players who took part in this season’s competition who will be involved next year; this can only bode well for us now they are more experienced at this level. Well done to all of the S5 pupils for their contributions this season.

All of the team deserve praise, but there were some notable performers, particularly from S6, including Leon Hay who was an intelligent and able Captain who led the team by example. For his efforts and performances he was named the Player of the Year. Mark Forbes in goal was a dominant presence for us and he will be missed next season, whilst Chris Rae was a calming influence in possession at right back. In S5 Cameron Russell provided the cutting edge up front; his goals and ability to score from set plays were a constant threat to the opposition. Interestingly, this year’s SISFA Final featured Jordanhill and St Aloysius’, both of which we have beaten this year. To lose the league section on goal difference meant that our road to the final was harder, so we must try to double our efforts to win the group stages. Well done to all of the players who played for the 1st XI team this year; you have been a pleasure to work with and a credit to the School. Lastly, thank you to all of the parents who have supported the players in their matches this year; your kind words of support are very valuable to the players involved. Thank you also to Mr Shields and Ms Sheldon for their help coaching the team and to Mr Brunton for his continued support. Thank you also to Mr McColl for taking the S1/2 training on a Friday afternoon. D Ford

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CROSS-COUNTRY Scottish Schools Cross-country

The Scottish Schools Cross-country events are of a very high standard, bringing together the best runners from across the country and so, to pick up medals at this level, requires talent and hard work. Cross-country running is a growing sport at The Glasgow Academy, with three training sessions a week which are all well attended. There are also a number of athletes who have taken their running to another level, joining local running clubs and entering events outwith the schools’ programme. The secondary schools competition was held in Irvine on Saturday 7th March and 8 TGA athletes were up for the challenge. The highlight of the day was a team bronze in the Girls Group C race, with Annabel Ballantyne (11th) leading home from Eve Denholm (40th), Freya Hill (51st) and Sarah Halliday (79th). This was a tremendous result, and all the more so as Sarah stepped into the team on the Friday afternoon after a late call off. Scott Sprang also finished 11th in the boys group C race, with Fraser McDonald (87th) also running. In the youngest race of the day, Lauren O’Neil (45th) and Molly Scales (56th) also put in very strong performances. Next up was the primary competition, which took place in Kirkcaldy. Despite some of our athletes being unavailable due to the event being held during the Easter break, again The Glasgow Academy saw some excellent performances and returned with silverware. The highlight of the day came in the first race, which saw Nicola Fletcher battle it out at the front of the field, finishing strongly to take the individual silver medal. Estelle Macaloney was not too far behind her, finishing 6th, with Emma O’Neil in 19th, Abigail Gourlay in 34th and Rebecca Roper in 46th. It was tight in the team standings, where the girls were just edged out from the title by 1 point, to take silver team medals. The Primary 6 boys were next up, led home by Sol Waddell (12th) who was backed up by Lucas Pierotti (40th), Ruaraidh Hart (41st) and Aaron Cooper (45th). The team finished 6th overall. Primary 7 Girls were led home by Ava Smith, finishing 14th, with Honey Morris (50th), Hannah Bell (70th) and Zainab Rasul (71st). As the only P7 boy available on the day, James Smith ran for himself and displayed a massive improvement on his finishing position from the previous year, taking 32nd place. LR MacNeill

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GOLF

After the national successes of last year the bar had been set extremely high by our golfers, but with nearly 70 pupils attending golf training throughout the season there was a rich crop of talent itching for tournament golf.

Loretto U15 & U13 Championships 13 Academy golfers travelled to the Loretto Championships at Craigielaw golf club, a challenging links with commanding views of the Firth of Forth. Players were from S1-S3 and, as they stood on the first tee, with cavernous bunkers and kneehigh rough seemingly everywhere, nerves were high. With U15 and U13 categories, and an online scoring system that sent results through to the clubhouse as they happened, all our players had to learn the art of seaside golf, and quickly. This they did, and notable performances were seen from Ross Christie, Katie Prentice, Alexander Hardiman and Harry Macfarlane, but these were eclipsed by Robert McNaught, who scored a remarkable 53 stableford points and won the U15 handicap event by 6 shots: it was a fabulous effort. St Leonards National Championships (U18, U15) A perfect golfing morning greeted the 13 Academy players who teed it up at the Strathtyrum and Eden courses, St Andrews. The Academy players started well, with nearly all rifling shots down the first, and the knowledgeable galleries saw par after par being made. After 9 holes, Calum Stevens was atop the leaderboard, turning in a gross 37. The breeze picked up a little on the back 9, but swings stayed smooth and as the scores were tallied, the U15 side had had a remarkable day with a clean sweep in the U15 handicap category. Caroline Schraag Sarah Halliday Ross Christie Robert McNaught Ian McNaught Euan Christie U18

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Winner U15 Girls (nett 56) Runner-up U15 Girls (nett 64) Winner U15 Boys (nett 58) Runner-up U15 Boys (nett 62) 3rd U15 boys (nett 63) 3rd U18 boys (nett 68)

The ISGA Scottish Open The ISGA Scottish Open saw 25 teams and some of the finest junior golfers from Scotland, England and Wales muster at Kings Acre Golf Club, a challenging tree-lined course on the outskirts of Edinburgh. With the sun beating down on our 6 leading Academy golfers, tee shots were drilled down the first hole: a good start all-round. The greatest challenge lay in the short game department though, with severely sloping greens putting a premium on accurate approach irons. After four challenging hours the scores were in, with Angus Frood shooting a superb gross 71 off a 5 handicap, ably supported by William Prentice whose gross 76 meant that TGA finished a hugely impressive 4th in both the scratch and handicap events, just a few shots behind the golfing academies of Loretto and Merchiston. Angus Frood

Winner U15 Scratch. Gross 71

St Leonards National Championships U13, U11, U9 In July 2015, the 144th Open returned to St Andrews, and with many of the stands already in place and a notable â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Openâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; buzz all-around, the U9, U11 and U13s made the journey to perform in the St Leonards National Junior Scottish Championships. Most excitingly, this was the first-ever tournament for several of the team, as well as being the first time TGA had entered an U9 side. 181 players took to the Balgove and Eden courses and with brilliant sunshine adorning the links, scores were bound to be low. With up to 50 people watching the 1st tee shot at the Balgove course the pressure was on, but the TGA team rose to the challenge with crisp iron shots into the fastrunning green. The format for the U9, U11 and U13 without handicaps was

to see how many holes you could play in 50, 45 and 40 shots respectively. With that in mind, our debutant P4 U9s and U11s were outstanding, with each one finishing in the top 10. Alex Williams Winner U9 Scratch (Finished on 13th green after 50 shots) Charlie McCready Winner U11 scratch Cameron Hardiman 4th place U9 scratch Fraser Thomson 6th place U9 scratch John Collins 9th place U9 scratch In the U13 tournament on the Strathtyrum, the S1 team also excelled. Scoring is always terrifyingly low in these events, but Harry MacFarlane’s gross 80/nett 61 saw him finish 8th in the scratch event, just ahead of Jamie Morrison who shot an 83/nett 63. Both boys were also top 6 finishers in the handicap equivalent in a field of well over 70 golfers. Alexander Hardiman also showed great mental strength to shoot a nett 70 after a very tricky start. ISGA Scottish matchplay The school’s first team have had a tougher season this year, but played some superb golf to win through to the Regional semi-finals of the prestigious ISGA tournament after an

exciting and pressure-filled win against a strong High School of Glasgow side at Dundonald Links GC. William Prentice, Alex Mennie and Angus Frood all continued to demonstrate why TGA’s golf has moved to the next level of performance, though a few weeks later they lost to Merchiston’s Academy golfers with two of the three games finishing on the final putt of the final green. It was a thrilling game at Longniddry GC, with Matthew Stevens also playing a key role. My sincere thanks go to both Alex Mennie and William Prentice, who not only have led by example and captained with aplomb, but have helped support and encourage the next generation of TGA golfers. Golf at the Academy is in a very good place at present and much of this is due to their encouragement of the younger years and the atmosphere that surrounds the club. I am also immensely grateful to all those staff who have given up time to help the squads with their training at the World of Golf or to drive teams to matches: Mr J McNaught, Mr Duncan, Mrs McKenzie, Mr MacRae, Mrs Gilmour, Mr Brunton and Mr Boyle. Roll on 2015/16! AJ Williams

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ROWING This year our rowing programme moved to a new level with two of our rowers wining Gold at the Junior World Rowing Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Whilst this was certainly the pinnacle of the year, the whole story is also about the training, dedication and hard work of the entire performance group, many of whom achieved their own personal goals. In addition to two World Champions, we had five British Internationalists (all winning international medals), six Scottish Internationalists, two British and Home International Champions, six National Schools Champions and pupils winning 26 Scottish titles. Glasgow Academy also raced, for the first time, at Henley Royal Regatta, setting a new course record in the quarter-finals, beating Sydney Rowing Club. The winter head season was disrupted by bad weather but was still very successful, recording multiple wins at the Scullers head, Schools head and Inverness head. We also had a successful trip south of the border to the Weybridge head, winning a number of events. At the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head in London our top girls rowed with friends from Queen Elizabeth High School and were the second-fastest junior eight in the competition, finishing 23rd out of 400 boats The girls went on to finish fourth in the quad at the Schools head in London. Gavin Horsburgh and Josh Armstrong were selected to represent GB at the Munich Junior regatta, where they took a silver medal behind Germany in J18 quads. At the National Schools Regatta in Nottingham Glasgow Academy were the fourth most successful club in the country, winning 3 golds in Championship Pairs and Doubles and coming fourth in Championship quads. This was by far our most successful performance to date and put the Academy rowers firmly on the map as the crews to beat in Britain. Pupils also recorded wins at the Clydesdale and Castle Semple regatta. At the Scottish Championships we won 26 medals across a range of events. Special mention should go to our performance athletes who made the transition from competing in junior events to racing at senior level to help give them more competition. Gavin Horsburgh came second in open sculls and together with Josh Armstrong came second in open pairs. Alex Rankin came third in open sculls and third with Holly Wicklow in open pairs. The boys quad, girls quad and girls four finished second in these senior events behind the Edinburgh University performance group. To highlight the tough competition within the group at the end of a 2000m sculling race India Somerside and Holly Wicklow could not be separated by a photo finish and were given the identical times and Gold medals in their sculling race.

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World Champions, GB Internationalists, National Schools Champions and Scottish Champions Josh Armstrong and Gavin Horsburgh GB Internationalists, National Schools Champions, Scottish Champions Alex Rankin and Holly Wicklow GB J16 Internationalists, National School Champions, Scottish Champions, winner GB France Match and British medal winners India Somerside and Becky Neilson In preparation for Henley Royal Regatta our boys quad of Gavin Horsburgh, Josh Armstrong, Seb Glen and Callum Urquhart won Marlow regatta, posting the fastest time of all juniors quads. Racing at Henley Royal Regatta was an experience that would test them like never before. Side by side racing, separated by wooden booms and a cavern of sound from spectators makes it a truly unique racing venue. As a result of the win at Marlow they were a seeded crew and their first race was on Thursday, when they beat Thames RC easily. On Friday they rowed through event favourites Sydney Rowing club to set a course record. On Saturday they were just 6ft behind eventual winners Sir William Borlase Grammar School. With two close races and a course record the four boys will carry memories of this impressive campaign with them for the rest of their lives. Callum Urquhart and Seb Glen won the British junior double sculls title and the following week the same event at the Home International Championships, repeating the feat achieved by Callum’s brother Ross and Ronan Murphy in 2011.

British Champions, Home International Champions and Scottish Champions Callum Urquhart and Seb Glen British Medal winner Sam Abernethy Other Scottish Champions Eilish Day Scottish School Champions Anna Colley Holly Allan Georgina Robinson Jenny Olney Daisy Morris Scottish School Cup Winners Youcef Djoudi Anna Colley Marion Caskie

Sam Abernethy took a bronze at the British Championships in J16 pairs and India Somerside and Becky Neilson a silver in the women’s event. Callum Urquhart, Seb Glen, Sam Abernethy, Kit Morris, India Somerside and Becky Neilson were selected for the Scotland team. India Somerside and Becky Neilson gained selection for Great Britain in the GB France Match, winning their international race for the second year running. Holly Wicklow was selected for the GB J18 Coupe team that raced in Hungary where she won three silver medals in pairs and the eight, losing two golds by very small margins. The GB girls team won their team event. Following final trials Alex Rankin was selected in the GB girls four and Josh Armstrong and Gavin Horsburgh for the boy’s quad at the Junior World Rowing Championships. Alex and her crew mates made the final, where they finished sixth. The boys made the final to come through the field and take the gold medal in impressive fashion - after Munich anything else would have been a disappointment. This was the first-ever men’s quad sculling title for GB, making it a very special win and a perfect result for their hard work, dedication and determination.

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SKIING The skiing calendar started with the Scottish schools dry-slope competition at the Mid-Lothian Ski centre, Edinburgh. Two Prep teams and a Senior team competed in lovely sunshine, with the Senior team going through to the British finals a few weeks later. Fraser Middleton, Jack Graham, Euan Ramsay and Gregor Cockburn competed against the top skiers in Britain, on a very demanding course. Fraser achieved the 4th fastest time overall on his second run, following a very dramatic first run where he was forced to miss the final gate or crash!

jumps. The Prep team did themselves proud, with Kirsty Wicklow coming in 6th and Eilidh McPhee 20th out of 69 girls. In the boys’ competition Christian McCall was 11th, Robin Deakin 12th, Tom Wicklow 15th and Fergus Munro 27th out of 63. This placed the team 5th out of 30 schools – a fantastic result.

In October the Prep team (Robin Deakin, Melissa Sharp, Tom Wicklow and Saskia Wade) won through to the finals of the dual slalom competition at Snow Factor, following their win at the heat at Bearsden ski centre. It’s very encouraging to have so many Prep pupils wanting to take part in competitions.

The Glencoe heats for the Scottish Schools Alpine series were in March. Unfortunately the secondary competition had to be rescheduled, which meant that Fraser Middleton, who was by then race training with the GB team, could not defend his title as West of Scotland champion. However, in glorious sunshine Robin Deakin, Fergus Munro, Christian McCall, Tom Wicklow, Kirsty Wicklow, Eilidh McPhee, Mairi McPhee and Nicola Waite competed in the Prep heat. The girls’ team came third overall and the boys’ came second, sending them through

In November the Scottish Schools ski-cross competition was held at Snow Factor. This event involves pupils skiing an undulating slalom course with banked sides and small

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In the Senior event Fraser Middleton took 1st place, with Jennifer Turner coming in 9th and Charlotte Sharp 12th in the girls’ competition. Their efforts put us in the always unenviable 4th place out of 25 schools.

to the finals at the Nevis range. Kirsty was also the fastest girl, allowing her to compete as an individual in the finals: fantastic results for them all. The following week in similar sun-drenched conditions the skiers competed at the Nevis range finals. The boys did themselves proud, with eight-year-old Robin achieving the 14th-fastest time for the racing boys, but the star yet again was Kirsty, who was 6th fastest in the country â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not bad for a nine-year-old! The final event of the year was the House skiing competition: a final farewell to sixth years who have competed since S1, and involving pupils from every year group. With the best four skiers from each team of eight contributing to the score, the winning House was Temple; however, the top 5 skiers were Fraser Middleton (S5, Temple), Jennifer Turner (S2, Fraser), Charlotte Sharp (S1, Temple), Jack Graham (S6, Morrison) and Oscar Hedgecoe (S3, Morrison) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; well done to all. K Graham

SWIMMING Glasgow Schools The Glasgow Academy has had another successful year in swimming. The standard in competition has been very high, with pupils performing exceptionally and achieving medals for their hard work. A number of pupils attended the Glasgow Schools Swimming Finals and, as a result of their performances, qualified for finals night. The team did the school proud, achieving an impressive medal collection as listed below. Congratulations and well done to all those who competed for the school. Individual Races Patrick Wallace S1

3rd 50m Freestyle, 2nd 50m Butterfly

Jack Wicklow S2

1st 50m Breast, 1st 50m Butterfly

Iain Fletcher S3

1st 50m Butterfly, 1st 100m Freestyle

Sarah Campbell S6

2nd 100m Back, 3rd 100m Breast

Conor Massey S1

1st 50m Breast, 1st 50m Back

Assia Djoudi S2

2nd 50m Back

Muhammad Khan S3

2nd 100m Breast

Relay Races S1 Boys Relay

2nd

S2 Boys Relay

1st

M Manson and G Wilson

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Swimming Success Iain Fletcher (S3) has continued with his success at Scottish level. He is the National Age Group Champion at 200m Butterfly and took the silver medal in the 100m Butterfly and 100m Freestyle, and bronze in the 50m Butterfly. Another fantastic year, well done! M Manson and G Wilson

Senior School Swimming Gala The 116th Senior Swimming Gala was held on Monday 4th February at Drumchapel Pool, with Mrs Forbes presenting the prizes. As ever, competition was fierce not only amongst the pupils but also between the house staff. Both Boys’ and Girls’ Championships were very exciting and competitive across all year groups. The Girls’ Championship was won by New Record

Holly Wicklow, second place was Sarah Campbell and third place was Megan Auld. In the Boys’ Championship Sebastian Glen was the winner, second place was Mark Forbes and third Max Hutcheon. Below are the new records that were achieved on the night;

Stroke

Old Record

Iain Fletcher

11.5s

25m Open Butterfly

Iain Fletcher

12.5s

Muhammad Khan

17.06s

25m Breaststroke

Stuart Gallacher

18.0s

Holly Wicklow

38.82s

50m Breaststroke

Katie Archibald

39.1s

Iain Fletcher

12.0s

25m Freestyle

Joshua Grant

12.3s

Conor Massey

16.2s

25m Backcrawl

Zuhayr Siddiqui

16.8s

2015 House Results 1st Morrison 2nd Fraser 2nd Temple 4th Arthur Congratulations to all pupils that took part in this event. Well done! M Manson and G Wilson

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TENNIS We enjoyed another terrific tennis season and had pupils from P4 upwards involved in competitive matches. We further developed our link with The Western Tennis Club, which is a very positive move for The Academy. Their coaching staff delivered two tennis workshops to our P4 pupils from Colebrooke Street, Dairsie and Milngavie and these were enjoyed greatly by all the children. Several of their coaches helped deliver coaching on our tennis programme as we now have so many pupils opting for tennis as their Summer Games option. This link with the community is something we are keen to continue in the years ahead.

It remains a challenging task to organise inter-school tennis fixtures, particularly for boys. The Summer Term is short and jam-packed with a host of activities and examinations to keep all our pupils extremely busy. We are now in a tiny minority of schools who are prepared to field tennis teams, especially on Saturday mornings. Once again, The High School of Glasgow, Dollar and Morrisonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Academy were the three schools who were able and very keen to organise matches and I would like to take this opportunity to thank their staff for their efforts in helping us maintain a small fixture list.

Number of Couples

Matches Won

Matches Lost

Matches Drawn

P7 Boys

S1 Girls

S1 Boys

S2 Girls

S2 Boys

S3 Girls

S3 Boys

P6 Girls

P7 Girls

S1 Girls

S2 Girls

S3 Girls

Senior Girls

Junior Girls

U15 Boys

High School results P7 Girls

Dollar Academy results

Morrison's Academy results

Senior Girls

Mixed Doubles

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In May, four of our P4 pupils were selected to compete in The Glasgow Primary Schools’ Tennis Cup which was held at Scotstoun. The team consisted of Beth Allan, Amber Wade, Euan Bell and Fraser Thomson and the team progressed from the group stages to the semis and then the final. I am delighted to report that our pupils won this title and on Sunday 7 June returned to Scotstoun to play in the Regional Finals. Nine primary schools participated from all over the west and south-west of Scotland. It was a tough morning, particularly for Fraser Thomson who was our first seed and was playing against the very best in Scotland. This was very much a team effort and Fraser, Euan, Amber and Beth all played an important part as every point won was accumulated to give a team score at the end. The results were announced in reverse order and it was a nerve-racking time as we listened and waited to hear how The Academy had performed. We had made it to the top three; High School was then placed third so we knew either ourselves or Houston Primary had won. I am thrilled to report that our P4 tennis players lifted the title and the shield! Well done to all four players and the mums, dads and friends who came along to watch and support.

The annual High School of Glasgow Girls’ Tennis Tournament took place in May and the girls enjoyed yet another fantastic competition. We played a total of 21 matches and won 13, lost seven and drew one. The Academy has performed outstandingly at this particular tournament and we have won the title eight times in nine years. However, this was not to be our year and we finished as the runner-up, narrowly losing to Jordanhill. Over 15: Under 15: Under 13:

Rosa Spinney (S6) & Alex Fletcher (S5) Fiona Allan (S3) & Katie Prentice (S3) Katie Ritchie (S1) & Hannah Watson (S1)

High School

Jordanhill

George Watson’s

St George’s

Hutchie

Lomond

Craigholme

U13

3-4

4-3

5-3

6-1

5-2

8-0

6-2

U15

3-5

2-4

3-3

3-2

1-4

7-1

1-5

O15

6-1

1-4

5-0

5-2

5-1

2-5

4-2

The Senior School House Tennis Championships again proved to be one highlight of The Academy’s sporting calendar, with nearly 80 pupils entering their respective tournament. Congratulations to Fraser House who won the Senior Boys, Senior Girls and

Junior Girls tournaments and were the runner-up in the Junior Boys’, which ensured they were the overall House tennis winners. Many thanks to all the House staff for organising your teams during one of the busiest times of the year.

Senior Boys

The Glasgow Academy Lawn Tennis Championship Trophy presented by J W Hardy Alasdair Forrest (S5) beat Scott Webster (S5)

Senior Girls

The Westbourne Gardens School Tennis Cup presented by Fiona Muir Rosa Spinney (S6) beat Alex Fletcher (S5)

Junior Boys

The Glasgow Academy Junior Boys’ Tennis Salver Fraser Craig (S1) beat Matthew Robertson (S3)

Junior Girls

The Westbourne School for Girls’ Junior Tennis Salver Emma Forrest (S2) beat Katie Ritchie (S1)

Thank you to all Prep and Senior School pupils who have participated in one of our many tennis events and, of course, to all ground staff and coaches, particularly Mr John Kirby. It is your enthusiasm and commitment which ensures the tennis programme at The Academy grows stronger each season. Colours this year have been awarded to Alex Fletcher, Morna Sinclair, Heather Allan, Sarah McKee, Emma Webster, Katie Morrow and this year’s School tennis captain, Rosa Spinney. NL Bannerman

The Chronicle

SPORTS DAY

The 148th Sports Day started in dry, windy weather and we were going well until a shower of rain affected the hurdles and high jumps. However, the competitive spirit was not dampened and there were some wonderful tussles between competitors, showing that the tradition of keen competition between the houses is as strong as ever. We are grateful to Mrs C. P. Matthews for presenting our prizes, and this year, Fraser regained the London Branch Trophy. There is a pattern of Fraser and Morrison leading the challenge for the trophy, I wonder when Arthur and Temple will rise again? We had our usual theme of double winners in the senior age group this year: Robyn Belch won the long and triple jumps, Catriona Cuthbert won the 100m and flat hurdles, Callum Taylor won the 100m and 200m, Robbie Barr retained both the 400m and 800m and Cameron Russell won the flat hurdles and cricket-ball.

Our recent new trophies were presented and have quickly become an established part of Sports Day. This year we received a new trophy from the Barr Family for the senior girls 1500m and also from the Crichton Family for the Girlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Tug of War. Finally, my thanks to the staff and coaches who made the afternoon work smoothly, Mrs FitzGerald for her efficient organisation, and of course, the extremely able ground staff, led by Mr Cheape. SWM

LONDON BRANCH TROPHY 1st

Fraser

2nd

Morrison

910pts

3rd

Arthur

898pts

4th

Temple

785.5pts

SENIOR GIRLS WINNERS

942.5pts

S2 GIRLS WINNERS

100m

Catriona Cuthbert

14.3s

The Sheila Crawford Bowl

100m

Eve Denholm

200m

Erin Crichton

28.2s

Upper Vth Trophy

200m

Eve Denholm

400m

Holly Wicklow

74.0s

GAPTA Trophy

400m

Lisa Gallacher

800m

Susan Al-Haddad

3.01.0s

Pat Johnston Trophy

800m

Emma Forrest

1500m

Catriona Allan

5.38.0s

The Barr Trophy

1500m

Annabelle Ballantyne

100m Flat Hurdles

Catriona Cuthbert

14.3

Susan Watson Trophy

75m Flat Hurdles

Alessia Martinolli

High Jump

Erin Crichton

1.35m

Sheena MacDonald Cup

Long Jump

Eve Denholm

Long Jump

Robyn Belch

3.96m

The Sheila Crawford Cup

Shot Putt

Katie Prentice

Triple Jump

Robyn Belch

8.31m

Discus

Kirsten Cannon

Shot Putt

Laura McCabe

7.76m

Javelin

Emma Forrest

Discus

Alex Mennie

18.00m

4 x 100m Relay

Fraser

Javelin

Jodie Judd

17.62m

Cricket Ball

Rebecca Gray

37.35m

Tug of War

Fraser

4 x 100m Relay

Arthur

The Bilsland Bowl GAPTA Trophy Crichton Cup

59.6s

GAPTA Quaich

The Lang Trophy for Throws was awarded to Alex Mennie

S3 GIRLS WINNERS 100m

Amy McIntyre

200m

Anna Breckenridge

400m

Nadia Mizra-Saadi

800m

Kay MacKenzie

1500m

Lucy Roberts

80m Flat Hurdles

Emily Duncan

Middle School Trophy

Long Jump

Nadia Mizra-Saadi

Janis Rogen Trophy

High Jump

Anna Breckenridge

Westbourne Trophy

Shot Putt

Nina Boothby

Discus

Taylor Bradley

Javelin

Alicia McAllister

4 x 100m Relay

Fraser

Lorna A Murray Trophy

The Carruthers Cup for Throws was awarded to Amy McIntyre Moira Thomas Trophy for Sprints was awarded to Jenny Olney

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S1 GIRLS WINNERS 100m

Aisha Saini

200m

Laura McMillan

400m

Katie Richie

800m

Lauren O'Neill

1500m

Lauren O'Neill

75m Flat Hurdles

Erin MacKenzie

Long Jump

Amy Smith

Shot Putt

Indi Small

Discus

Katie Richie

Javelin

Eilish Day

4 x 100m Relay

Fraser

SENIOR BOYS WINNERS 100m

Callum Taylor

12.4s

Laird Cup

200m

Callum Taylor

26.0s

Mackay Shield

400m

Robbie Barr

53.6s

Fraser Bowl

800m

Robbie Barr

2.10.0s

Walker Quaich

1500m

Gavin Horsburgh

4.40.0s

Campbell Challenge Cup

110m Flat Hurdles

Cameron Russell

Long Jump

Liam Hay

4.94m

Murray Challenge Cup

High Jump

Ilias Muckli

1.65m

Murray Cup

Triple Jump

Ruairidh Russell

11.36m

J. Coleman Smith Cup

Shot Putt

Harry Matthews

9.61m

Muir Cup

Discus

Jack McLean

24.40m

Academy Cup

Javelin

Murray Drover

29.63m

Challenge Shield

Cricket Ball

Cameron Russell

69.40m

Challenge trophy

4 x 100m Relay

Arthur

50.0s

Laird and Gentles Cup

4 x 200m Relay

Arthur

1.49.0s

Kenburn Cup

Tug of War

Arthur

S3 BOYS WINNERS

Waddell Challenge Trophy

McDonald Cup

S2 BOYS WINNERS

S1 BOYS WINNERS

100m

Cameron Wray

100m

Adam Orr

100m

Stuart Briggs

200m

Oscar Hedgecoe

200m

Adam Orr

200m

Craig McKee

400m

Oscar Hedgecoe

400m

Max Yvan

400m

Stuart Briggs

800m

Iain Fletcher

800m

Fraser McDonald

800m

Craig McKee

1500m

Lewis McLean

1500m

Scott Sprang

1500m

Max Hedgecoe

100m Flat Hurdles

Robert McNaught

80m Flat Hurdles

Colin Taylor

80m Flat Hurdles

Fraser McDonald

Long Jump

George Munro

Long Jump

Colin Taylor

Long Jump

Fraser McDonald

Triple Jump

Iain Fletcher

Triple Jump

Adam Orr

Triple Jump

Craig McKee

Shot Putt

Tom Bouttell

Shot Putt

Ali Day

Shot Putt

Jonathan Green

Discus

Troy Kincaid

Discus

Ali Day

Discus

Jonathan Green

Javelin

Jamie Brennan

Javelin

Kyle Sockalingum

Javelin

Jamie Morrison

4 x 100m Relay

Morrison

4 x 100m Relay

Temple

4 x 100m Relay

Arthur

The Chronicle

Senior School Music

It is with mixed emotions that I find myself writing my last article for The Chronicle - I leave at the end of 2015 to start a new job in Lancashire in January 2016. Although I would not want to write a lengthy farewell, I think it is only right to say “Thank you”. We have a fantastic staff in the music department made up from outstanding teachers and musicians. They all work very hard to encourage the pupils to do their best. This is very evident in the concerts and other events the department presents throughout the year. The parents are very supportive and, of course, the pupils are fairly important too! They work hard, attend rehearsals regularly, learn music from memory and give of their best during a concert. It has been a particularly great pleasure to take pupils away from school for tours in the UK and abroad. I cannot remember the number of standing ovations the pupils have had over the years and the “wows” when they enter a spectacular performing space. The staff have been able to give pupils many “oncein-a-life-time” experiences and it has been a pleasure. I leave the department in very capable hands and I am sure that music in the school will continue to go from strength to strength...

This academic year has seen the department present many concerts and take part in many events, and the year has been very successful. We start the year with the challenging task of getting the senior choir ready for the commemoration service. This year the introit was “Lead me Lord” by S.S. Wesley and the anthem the “Song of Mary” by Richard Shepherd. As usual the choir sang very well and all the hard work paid off. The day after the service we left for New York for this year’s tour - see separate article. The commitment and enthusiasm that pupils show towards the annual school show is to be commended. This year’s production of “Chicago” was fabulous in every way: congratulations to all those involved. This term finished with the carol service, during which the choir sang very well. The PTA has always been very supportive of music and it was a pleasure to have the Senior Boys’ Ensemble performing at the Ladies’ lunch in February. Of all the choirs that we run, the senior boys seem to really enjoy what they do, throwing themselves whole-heartedly into their performances, and they certainly did this for the ladies. The Spring term sees us taking groups to the Glasgow Music Festival and we, again, achieved some very good results. As usual there was

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the termly run of instrumental and vocal exams, with our pupils producing some very good results at all standards of performance. During the summer term it is always difficult to pin the senior pupils down to regular attendance at rehearsals, and this is for obvious reasons. However, we were able to produce a superb evening of music for our summer concert to a sellout crowd. It is great to see our younger pupils performing alongside the older ones and what a huge orchestra that was! Our leavers’ recital is always a fairly emotional occasion and this year was no exception. Having known these pupils for many years now it is always difficult to see them moving on, but I wish them every success for the future. My thanks to all those involved in music during this session. If you are reading this for the first time then I hope you will make it to some of the music events during the next session, and perhaps your child will start to become involved in one of the ensembles that run every week. Remember, “Making music makes you smarter”! M Marshall

COMPETITIONS The standard of music at the competitions this year has again moved up a step. The pupils are producing some quite exceptional performances. The vocal competition was judged by Andrew McTaggart, a young opera singer who finished his studies at the Conservatoire a few years ago and has sung with English National Opera and had his debut in the Royal Albert hall recently. The Nina Morrison Cup (S1-3) was won again this year by Iain Fletcher, with the runner-up being Alastair McLeod. The Seona Cameron Cup (S4-6) was won by Gordon Stackhouse with the runners-up being Gillan Coats and Sean McGettigan.

Our instrumental competition this year was adjudicated by Aaron Shorr, head of keyboard at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. This was another evening of music performed at a very high standard. The Elizabeth V Mackay Award was won by Sean Wong and the runners-up were William Massie, Aisha Rasul and Tim Chan. Jamie Percival won the Sinclair Memorial Salver and the runners-up were Thomas Wallace and Michael Fu. It is always a pleasure to be at these evenings of music and I congratulate all the pupils who took part. M Marshall

THEATRE CHOIR In December we took 30 pupils from The Theatre Choir to perform at St Enoch Square to raise money for The Ronald McDonald charity. They received many positive comments on how well they sang from the organisers, who supplied

them with a meal afterwards, and also from those attending. In total the pupils raised £320. A McColl

THE GLASGOW ACADEMY PIPE BAND Once again, the Pipe Band had a busy schedule last year, with many engagements during the Autumn Term, and it is credit to its members that they gave so much support to the Academy’s ‘events’ Calendar.

For the first time, two members of the pipe band gained prizes in ‘solo performance’ competitions: Callum Nelson in snare-drumming and Simon McAlpine-Scott in piping. Congratulations to them both on their achievements.

The year began with the Sir Steve Redgrave dinner. The Olympic rower stood and listened intently to the pipe band as it performed, commenting on how well they kept their ‘timing’, ‘tempo’ and ‘rhythm’ - attributes with which ‘rowers’ are very familiar.

Sadly, we have to say farewell to Calum Davidson, Sebastian Glen, Euan Grierson, Andrew Simmers, and Jordan Wilson, who are leaving the Academy to pursue their future careers. Thanks to them for their service and support in the past.

The pipe band was involved, for the second time only, in annual indoor pipe band contests for schools, and, in line with their development, received favourable comments from the Adjudicators.

There is a new squad of pipers and drummers ‘coming through’, and we look forward to their future involvement in the pipe band’s activities, as the process of re-building continues. J Wark

The Chronicle

Senior School Houses MORRISON HOUSE The Morrison S6 returned from Lakeside with energy, enthusiasm and a common goal - to win the House championship once again! Each S6 organised and delivered a house assembly at some point during the year, which provided a variety of informative, entertaining and enjoyable activities which were well received by the younger years and helped to build a real team spirit. With Morrison pupils being appointed to a large majority of the leadership positions for the year, we were already off to a great start, and this continued with the first sporting competition when we dominated the cross-country championships. We gave our all in the house singing and house drama event; our talents were just not fully recognised by the judges! Next year those titles will be ours. All year groups turned out for the various sporting competitions and attended a multitude of the clubs, societies and activities that take place during lunchtimes and after school. With a win at house swimming, we went into the final event of the day, Sports Day, confident that we were in contention, and this motivated us to a very close 2nd place finish.

It was a tense moment, waiting for the final points to be announced, as we all knew that it was going to be close. The noise and response that came from our corner of the Cargill Hall when it was announced that Morrison were indeed the 2015 House Champions was a clear indication of just how much it meant to us! All Morrisonians should be commended for their dedication and commitment this year. The future is certainly bright; keep up the hard work as we now need to retain what is deservedly ours! T Menzies and L MacNeill

ARTHUR HOUSE Arthur made great strides in 2014/15 as we improved on recent showings in the House Championship to finish an eventual second. We shocked the school in October with a well-deserved win in the House Singing Competition, following a very polished performance. Whilst others were surprised by our win, the song title, ‘Obviously’, displayed the confidence with which we proud Arthurians knew our win was assured. Special thanks to Leon Hay for a dynamic performance as our conductor, and to our band for a high standard of accompaniment. In the Debating, Arthur showed the depth of talent within the house. We made it to the final where only a strong Morrison side, consisting of the school’s competitive debating team, could stop Greg Dunlop and Louise Murphy. The final itself was closerun, and the judging panel were clearly impressed by the high standard of competition. By now the rest of the school were used to seeing Arthur take most of the points, and this was to continue as our impressive year rolled on. In the House Drama, for which Ben Taylor and Leon Hay wrote our very own play about a House Detention (of which there were very few this year!), Arthur were once again amongst the top performers. Our excellent second place, behind a strong Temple team, was testament to the hard work of all involved. All of the actors did well on the day, but special mention must be reserved for S1 pupil Rebecca Egan who overcame some last-minute nerves to go on stage and deliver her usual feisty performance. Arthur pupils stepping up when it counts was a real theme this session.

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Throughout the year, our dedicated House Captains, Euan Campbell and Anna Dunlop, ensured that we had teams on the field for the full range of sports. Our Hockey teams, Basketball teams, tennis players, swimmers, chess players, skiers, footballers and everyone else who participated in a sport did Arthur proud, and we raked in House points as our talented sportspeople represented the house with distinction. The strength of character in the House came to the fore on numerous occasions and it was all underpinned by a philosophy that was continuously reinforced in House Assemblies. Be the Example. A simple phrase, but one that the House took to heart this session. Every pupil was the example for each other, every member of staff an example to pupils and every Arthur S6 prefect an example to those who aspired to hold that role in future years. We gave out certificates throughout the year for a range of achievements and occasions in which Arthur pupils really were the example. From raising money for charity, winning national events in Maths and Engineering, returning with a positive attitude to studying after major surgery to simply filling in at the last second on the basketball court our pupils showed their class at every turn. It is this attitude and this talent that ensures that 2015/16 will be another successful year for Arthur. Thank you to all of the class of 2015 for everything that you did for the House: your support and enthusiasm motivated everyone to do their best. P Bisland and P Ruddock

FRASER HOUSE Fraser House has gone through a transformation this year with two new Heads of House. Despite a slow start, we secured many victories in various House competitions, including winning the Outdoor Education section of the main House competition categories. With a closely fought contest all year, we narrowly missed out on second place, coming a respectable third. The busy year started with House singing, where we decided to go for an acoustic set. Rehearsals went well thanks to the help of our musical teachers Mrs Watters and Miss MacKenzie and S6 pupils Rosa Spinney and Susan Al-Haddad. Unfortunately on the day, missing the start of the song put some pupils off, but the House rallied together and finished strongly. We were placed third, with the judges declaring a very good performance once we moved on from the poor start. Our 1st year pupils put on a magical performance of ‘Peter Pan’ in the House drama competition. Their enthusiasm and dedication helped them to pull off a very good performance and Mr Waltham declared that this year’s S1 pupils showed some of the best talent they have seen in the House Drama competition in a long time: well done to all involved! Fraser really excelled in sport this year. In House swimming we had many wins across S1-3 and our seniors swam valiantly. Domination in the girls’ hockey pulled in many points, as well as some strong chess playing in restricted time conditions. Some brave performances in the House skiing competition helped the

cause, whilst our tennis players were as successful as our hockey teams, winning the competition overall. Placing second in the cross-country was very good, but nothing beats the feeling of being victors of Sports Day! Leading by just half a point before the relays, a nervous finish was had by all and we were pleased to see our relay teams bring the trophy home! The day was even capped off with a win for the Fraser House girls tug of war team! Our CCF legion really helped win the outdoor education section with their participation in the CCF camps along with the incredible completion of Duke of Edinburgh awards: well done everybody. Our 6th year were excellent from the start of the year, making a real contribution to the House and trying to get younger pupils involved in events. They really bonded at Lakeside in August and made a good team throughout the year. We would like to thank our House captains, Alex Mennie and Cameron Russell, and our Vice-House captains, Susan Al-Haddad, Rosa Spinney and Tom Speedie, for their hard work and organisation throughout the year. Historically Fraser have not had the best record in the house competition, but we hope this year has demonstrated we are improving as a group and with a few more wins in key areas there is no reason we cannot become more successful. The future is bright, the future is Fraser! JF Cuthbert and RMR MacLeod

TEMPLE HOUSE We started the year as House Champions, keen to carry on competing and contributing in all areas of the school. It has been a mixed year in terms of our successes, but it was very encouraging to see that every event was supported by our teams. This great attendance was in no small part due to the efficiency and encouragement of Jennifer McNaught, one of our deputy House captains. The first major event of the year was the House Singing Competition, with a theme of “McBusted”. As usual we began with one song and then changed our minds! Morven Brown (who competed in BBC’s “The Voice” this year) led the House as conductor, supported as always by our excellent band: Callum Wray, Sam Abernethy and Matthew Stevens. The standard of the singing competition has improved hugely over the last few years, and although we had the greatest volume, the adjudicator enjoyed Arthur’s performance better - well done Arthur House and Leon Hay in particular. Temple House always has a large number of musicians and performers in school shows. This year was no different, with Morven, Freya, Sarah, Olivia, Kirsty, Ellie, Gordon, Scott and many others taking on roles in “Chicago”. The main female roles were also played by Temple pupils - Ciara Ewing was the murderous Roxie and Alex Jackson took on the challenging role of Velma with only days to go, due to illness: an unbelievably difficult task - what a star! We secured the Drama cup in March by winning the House drama competition. Written by the cast and produced and directed by Scott Duffield, the play told the story of how bullying was overcome by a mystical watch that could stop time. Youcef Djoudi played the central character, but

was ably supported by Daisy, Andrew, Jay, Mandy, Kiran, Patrick, Assia, Helena, Laura, Andreea and Emma. These pupils showed commitment and cooperation during rehearsals with Scott and thoroughly deserved their success. The Swimming gala was a well-supported event this year and our teams did particularly well in the relays. Notable performances came from Sarah Campbell, Jake Horne, Max Hutcheon, and the S3 team. The House ski competition at Bearsden ski slope is in April and with increasing numbers of ski racers is a closely fought event. This year Fraser Middleton was pushed hard by Fraser House’s Jennifer Turner, but kept his title. Charlotte, Troy and Harry also skied great times, securing us first place again. A large number of Temple pupils continue to take part in CCF and Outdoor Education trips. Melissa and Douglas Sleigh both won national climbing championships while many pupils in S4 - S6 were awarded Bronze, Silver and Gold Duke of Edinburgh Awards. School rugby and hockey teams were well-represented by Templites, as was the basketball team: James Christie, Malcolm McArthur and Sam Roberts are all regulars. The rowing teams also involve talented Temple pupils, with Sam Abernethy, Euan MacLeod and Becky Neilson competing nationally and internationally. Despite many fantastic individual and team performances throughout the session Temple failed to retain the House Championship. We thank all those who participate widely and contributed points to the House. Hopefully session 2015/16 will be our year. I Mackie and K Graham

The Chronicle

PRIZE-GIVING

SENIOR 1 Charlotte ABERCROMBIE Katie BALLANTYNE Julia CHAPMAN Fraser CRAIG Eilish DAY Joseph ELLIS Freja HUNTLEY Rostislav INDYUKOV Hannah MADDEN Lucy McCORKINDALE Craig McKEE Katie RITCHIE Aisha SAINI Molly SCALES Sean WONG

SENIOR 2 Sarah ALEXANDER Annabel BALLANTYNE Shoumita BARDHAN Robert BREWER Lisa GALLACHER Azhar HACKLEY Sarah HALLIDAY Harmony HILL

Bjorn K키HNE Fraser McDONALD Kian McHUGH Finlay NEILSON Benjamin SANDERS Scott SPRANG Colin TAYLOR

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Music Science Endeavour Prize French, Latin English, French, Science Computing Science, English Science Spanish Speaking with Style Art Modern Studies, Science, Sports Endeavour Prize Sports Drama, English, History, Mathematics Geography The Elizabeth V McKay Salver for Instrumental Music

Arabic Sports English, Mathematics, Speaking with Style Biology, Chemistry, English, French, Physics Modern Studies Endeavour Prize Music Art, English, Geography, History, Latin, Endeavour Prize Biology Chemistry, Physics Spanish History Computing Science, Physics Design & Manufacture Sports

SENIOR 3 Judith ARBUCKLE Nina BOOTHBY Jamie BRENNAN Timothy CHAN Iain FLETCHER

Veronica HAUGHEY Ruiyang HE Sarah HODGE Fergus HORNE Talia JACKMAN Kay MacKENZIE Lewis McLEAN Robert McNAUGHT Ritobrata MUKHOPADHYAY Zainab MUNIR Alessandro PIA Lucy ROBERTS Catriona RUSSELL Aman SALWAN

SENIOR 4 Emma ALEXANDER Catriona ALLAN Ashley BELL John BURROWS Anna CRAIG Scott DUFFIELD Georgia DUNN Angus FROOD Alastair FRY Michael FU Luca GIOVANAZZI Fraser GORDON Dian LIN

Geography Sports Physical Education Chemistry, Physics Speaking with Style The Nina Morrison Cup for Singing English Computing Science, French Drama Accounting, Design & Manufacture Business Management Art, History, Latin Modern Studies Sports Biology, Chemistry, English, Mathematics, Physics Spanish Arabic Biology Hospitality Music

English, Biology, Latin, Modern Studies, Spanish Modern Studies English Accounting Hospitality Drama Art & Design Geography The Frank Coutts Cup for Service to the Pipe Band Biology, Mathematics Physical Education Chemistry, History Art & Design, Design & Manufacture

SENIOR 4 (Continued) Jack McCREADY Greg MacMILLAN Jamie PERCIVAL Filip PETROV Juliet PHILIP Morna SINCLAIR Gordon STACKHOUSE Shreenil VANI Thomas WALLACE Olivia YENEKA

Sports Arabic The Sinclair Salver for Instrumental Music Chemistry, Computing Science, Mathematics, Physics Physics Sports The Seona Cameron Cup for Singing English, French Music Art & Design

SENIOR 5 Heather ALLAN Christopher ANDERSON Carol BAXTER Katie BRENNAN Millie COLLINS Alexander DE KONING

Art & Design Spanish Geography, Modern Studies English, Biology, Mathematics English Chemistry, Computing Science Lauren FERGUSON Drama The Da Costa Cup for Art Éirinn FITZGERALD English Alex FLETCHER Sports Alasdair FORREST Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics Victoria JOHNSTONE Classical Studies Simon McALPINE-SCOTT Biology Owen McBURNIE-BALFOUR Design & Manufacture Sean McGETTIGAN Music The Gentles Prize for History Sharan MAIYA Computing Science, Mathematics, Physics Speaking with Style The Thomson Stuart Prize for Accounting Seri OH French Joanna PHILIP Latin The Rose Henderson Essay Prize William PRENTICE Sports Ryan SWEENEY Physical Education

SENIOR 6 Melissa DAVIDSON Jack GRAHAM Alexandra JACKSON Katie McCABE

Catriona RITCHIE Cameron RUSSELL Majid SHABBIR Freya STEWART Cameron WATSON

Psychology Accounting Drama, Politics Design & Manufacture The McNaught Rosebowl for Art & Design Modern Studies The James Jope Shield for Public Speaking Economics The Thomson Stuart Prize for Business Management Physical Education

ADVANCED HIGHER PRIZES and SPECIAL PRIZES Philip CAI Computing, Mathematics Gillan COATS Mathematics, Music Calum DAVIDSON Accounting Rachel FORBES Geography The Canada Prize for Geography Leon HAY The Rector’s Prize for AllRound Contribution Adam KIDD Physics Jennifer McNAUGHT The Rector’s Prize for Service Isha MAHMOOD Latin Alex MENNIE Physical Education The Westbourne Cup for the Best All-Round Sportswoman Louise MURPHY Physics The London Academical Prize for History The Russell Prize for Mathematics Sebastian SCHRAAG The Eric McNaught Quaich for Initiative Andrew SIMMERS The Scougall Cup for the Best All-Round Sportsman Tom SPEEDIE Modern Studies, Philosophy Scott WEBSTER Spanish Emily WHYTE The Stevenson Prize for Service to the CCF The Alstead Award for Service to the Community The Ian Jeffery Travel Scholarship Yuri XU Mathematics Heather KILPATRICK Chemistry The Attrill Cup for Head Girl The Indian Trophy for Services to the School Christopher RAE The Fraser Cup for Head Boy The Indian Trophy for Services to the School Megan AULD Mathematics The David Hope Taylor Prize for English The Iain MacLeod Prize for Literature The Remploy Prize for Citizenship The Mowat Scholarship Shaina MAHAL Biology, French The Blair Bowl for Modern Languages The Temple Scholarship David Ta-Hsin WU Chemistry McLaurin Cup for Dux The War Memorial Scholarship

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SENIOR SCHOOL APPOINTMENTS

Head Boy: Christopher Rae Head Girl: Heather Kilpatrick Deputies: Robyn Belch, Leon Hay, Andrew Simmers and Emily Whyte

RUGBY Captain: Andrew Simmers Vice-Captains: Cailean Maciver and Andrew Craig

HOCKEY Boys’ Captain: Leon Hay Girls’ Captain: Susan Al-Haddad Boys’ Vice-Captain: Andrew Sinclair Girls’ Vice-Captains: Robyn Belch and Heather Kilpatrick

ROWING Boys’ Captain: Sebastian Glen Girls’ Captain: Kirsten MacKinnon Boys’ Vice-Captain: Finlay Watson Girls’ Vice-Captain: Alex Rankin

SHOOTING Full Bore Captain: Megan Auld Vice-Captain: Éirinn Fitzgerald

SWIMMING Captain: Sarah Campbell Vice-Captain: Mark Forbes

BOYS’ ATHLETICS

GIRLS’ ATHLETICS

Captain: Harry Matthews Vice-Captain: Robbie Barr

Captain: Erin Crichton Vice-Captain: Jenny McNaught

CROSS-COUNTRY Captain: Harry Matthews Vice-Captains: Robbie Barr and Catriona Allan

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CRICKET

TENNIS

Captain: Cameron Russell Vice-Captain: Fehzan Irfan

Captain: Rosa Spinney

Jan Fulton

Staff Tributes

Jan Fulton came to The Glasgow Academy from Croydon High School for Girls in 2000. In 2014 she moved on to become Depute Head of the Advanced Higher Hub at Glasgow Caledonian University. In her 14 years at the school Jan made an immense contribution to the teaching and learning of History and Modern Studies. She is, undoubtedly, an inspirational teacher who always sought to innovate and, above all, charm her classes. To pass Jan’s class was to hear gales of laughter, see games taking place and students having fun. However, this in no way takes away from the real intellectual grounding of her work and focus of her students. In recent years she had made Advanced Higher History her personal fiefdom and the results throughout were simply outstanding. Jan was also one of the first new pastoral Housemasters/mistresses to be appointed by the school. Her beloved Morrison House was overseen with humour and great compassion for the pupils within it. There are many young people who will be

grateful for her care and personal concern for their welfare. Jan’s contribution to the broader life of the school was immense. She ran the school debating club with great success and participated in, and led, many school trips. We wish her well for the future and are already hearing great things about her impact at the Hub.

Robert Paterson Robert was responsible for teaching Music at The Glasgow Academy Dairsie for seven years. During that time he prepared the children for Nativity shows, Grandparents’ Afternoons and end-of-year musical extravaganzas as well as the regular singing and music lessons throughout each term. In 2013 Robert presented the Dairsie School Choir in the Glasgow Music Festival and although just a small group, they made their presence felt and were commended for their performance. We want to record our sincere thanks to Robert for his devotion and service to The Glasgow Academy Dairsie. His musical flair and expertise have been enjoyed by all children he has taught. We wish him continued success in the classroom as he forges a new

path by retraining in the primary sector. We are sure that he will hit the right notes when he eventually has his own class to nurture and care for.

Susan Verschueren

Adam Williams

After seven years of unstinting service to The Glasgow Academy Dairsie, Susan Verschueren found new pastures in the form of a fulltime appointment in a local state primary school. Susan was the first port of call for parents and children alike as she welcomed them to school at the start of each day. Her friendly smile and desire to go the extra mile meant her efforts were greatly appreciated and her help sought out. Her accurate record keeping ensured a well-maintained office, with staff relying on the knowledge she had of various aspects of book-keeping as well as her assistance with any administrative demands of the classroom activities. Susan is wished continued success and happiness in her new environment.

Deputy Rector Adam Williams joined us in 2012 from Oakham and left to become Headmaster of Lord Wandsworth’s College in Hampshire, one of the few schools with its own farm and enough land for an acre or two per child. Mr Williams’ great good humour, his sunny Australian positivity and his generosity of spirit brought infectious cheerfulness as he hailed children round the school by name and enquired how they were. His teaching was excitingly dynamic and fun, his patience and capacity for work remarkable and his interest in people and commitment to them sincere. A kind and thoughtful leader, he was a fine all-round sportsman who could turn his hand to most things and connected with numerous children and parents through sport. His passion for golf led Academy golf to new heights, but he appeared equally gifted at hockey, squash or virtually any other sport you care to mention. Skilled at working the touchline, Mr Williams always seemed to children to know the right answer, and was full of jokes and sports tips. Lord Wandsworth’s is fortunate to have acquired a leader of considerable integrity and commitment who will bring great care and warmth.

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Matthew Pearce

New Staff

It is with great pleasure and a sense of privilege that I join The Glasgow Academy. It is such an exciting time to be joining a school so rich in tradition but modern in its thinking. My very first experience of The Academy - a tour with a senior pupil - was enough to convince me that we valued the same things: hard work, ambition and respect for others. It was with great excitement that I accepted the post of Deputy Rector and that has only grown since I began working with you all. A former pupil of The King’s School, Worcester and a Durham English graduate, I went from English Teacher and Principal Teacher of Enterprise at St. Luke’s, Barrhead to become

Head of English at Bishopbriggs Academy. I was Deputy Head from 2010, during which time the school achieved what is still, at the time of writing, the highest graded Inspection for a state senior school in Scotland. I enjoyed my time there enormously and trust my experiences there can help me to contribute significantly to the continuous improvement of TGA. Outside of work I enjoy sport and fitness greatly, but nothing more than spending some down time with my wife and two children. I very much hope to return to some exciting travel experiences in the future. I have already been made to feel extremely welcome by pupils, parents and staff of the school and I very much look forward to getting to know you and working with you in supporting our children.

Katie Allan After completing a Journalism degree at Napier University in Edinburgh, I graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2009 with a PGDE in Primary Education.

English. I taught Class 5 and 6 (P6 and 7) as well as being an upper years Science Teacher. I also worked in the secondary English department delivering Creative English lessons to students aged 13 - 18. The experience here gave me great insights into language learning and different cultures.

After completing my teaching probation year with Angus Council, I moved to Barcelona after securing a job at the longest-established multilingual school in the city, St Peter’s School. The children here start learning English at 18 months old and complete the Spanish curriculum in

I moved back to Glasgow in the summer of 2014 and after a brief spell working as a supply teacher around Glasgow, I happily started working at TGA last January. I work with stages from P1 to P7. I love the variety and have been delighted to meet and get to know such a great team of staff.

Kirsten Black

Matthew Davidson

I was delighted to join The Glasgow Academy as a teacher of History and Modern Studies last October. I spent the previous five years teaching at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, but also took a career break within that time to move to Paris and teach at Lycée Internationale. I have particularly enjoyed teaching the Advanced Higher History course, given that I have a special interest in Russian and Cold War history. I have taken on responsibility for the school’s Debating Society and was thrilled to have accompanied them on their run to the Semi-final of the Donald Dewar Memorial Debate, run by the Law Society of Scotland. I look forward to continuing running the club this year and hopefully the school will achieve further success in national competitions.

I am delighted to join the Prep School at TGA, teaching music at Dairsie and Kelvinbridge. I have a passion for music, playing piano, accordion, and a wide range of percussion, including marimba. I taught for five years abroad in the south of France and loved every minute of it. In my previous school I enjoyed combining music and theatre in our annual showcase involving our whole community. I enjoy travelling to new places, meeting new people and am thrilled to be a part of the TGA community.

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Dr Nigel Mann A much fresher-faced version of myself (where have all the years gone?!) graduated from the University of Manchester with a degree in Zoology, completed a PhD at St. Andrews and obtained a PGCE at Jordanhill. Most of my career has been spent working in the university system, at St. Andrews, the Open University and then, from 2004 to 2014, as Senior Lecturer for the State University of New York. In addition, I have also worked as a conservation biologist for the SNH and British Deer Survey, and have run over 20 field courses for conservation NGOs in various tropical locations. I have also co-directed a non-profit tropical conservation and education organisation.

return to Scotland from New York with the aim of finding an exciting teaching position over here. Although I have not been in my temporary position at TGA for long, I am really enjoying myself and I am convinced that I have made the right career move. As a research scientist, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to study monkeys and birds in Central and South America rain forests, as well as in Uganda, South Africa and Madagascar. However, teaching was always the most satisfying part of my job; it has never been more important, as a biologist, to encourage and amplify the natural enthusiasm that young people have for the natural wonders of our planet.

Just over a year ago, I chose to make a career change, to

Away from work, I love to travel (especially to places abounding with wildlife and good food). Closer to home, I keep fit by running and remain at a level of permanent anxiety by closely following the fortunes of Stoke City Football Club.

Fiona McDiarmid

Jessica Newman

I was educated at Hutchesons’ Grammar School and graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 1986 with a BA in French and Marketing, gaining subsequent teaching qualifications in German from the University of Stirling in 1994 and in Spanish from the University of the West of Scotland in 2014.

I was born in Surrey and attended St. Peter’s Catholic School. I enjoyed my studies and responsibilities at school, such as being Head Girl. I then went on to read Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London.

After working for an international company in London, I decided to retrain as a languages teacher and in 1994 gained a PGCE with distinction in French and German.

After finishing my degree I went on to work in PR and marketing in London before making the decision to move to teaching. I completed my PGCE at the University of Cambridge and then went to teach at Holy Trinity School in Guildford.

I have worked as a teacher of Modern Languages for the past 21 years at Mearns Castle High School, and still work there part time, before joining The Glasgow Academy in December 2014.

I enjoyed working with large classes and a variety of special needs. In my free time I love travelling and volunteering abroad, baking and playing netball.

Caroline Provan

Stuart Wallace

I graduated from the University of Strathclyde in 2011 with a B.Ed (Hons) degree in Primary Education. After completing my teaching probation year in East Renfrewshire, I moved to London to teach a Year 1 class in a Primary school in Westminster. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work alongside children from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, gaining a wealth of unique teaching experiences which I believe have shaped the teacher I am today. I moved back to Glasgow at the beginning of 2014 where I taught Prep 2 in Hamilton College before joining The Glasgow Academy last September. I am delighted to be part of such a warm and welcoming school and have so far thoroughly enjoyed a variety of roles, mainly teaching in Prep 1 and currently supporting children in Prep 5, 6 and 7. In my spare time, I am a keen horse-rider and I enjoy spending time with family and friends.

Originally from Dunfermline, I moved to Glasgow in 2008 to study Aeronautical Engineering at Glasgow University. After gaining experience working in the engineering industry I went on to study my PGDE in Physics at Dundee University before teaching at St Ninian’s High School in Giffnock. I am a keen sportsman, and enjoy an array of physical activities. I have played hockey and football at a high level, playing hockey for the university 1st XI and Clydesdale Hockey Club, in addition to playing pro youth football in my teens. I am looking forward to passing on my knowledge and experience on the hockey field by being one of the coaches at the Academy. In my time away from school life, I enjoy hiking up Munros, playing hockey and anything which involves fitness. I also fly light aircraft as a member of Prestwick Flying Club, having learnt to fly at university as an officer of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. I aim to use all of my abilities both in and outside of the classroom to further develop the pupils at The Glasgow Academy.

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PTA I set the PTA just three simple objectives in my first year. 1. Firstly, to ensure that whatever we did, we did really well. 2. Secondly, to ensure we sent people away from our events wanting more. 3. Thirdly, as a fundraising committee, not to concern ourselves with financial targets. If we achieved objectives one and two, then three would look after itself. Some friends of mine cheekily refer to me as “Head Boy” but as anyone knows, the key to getting on in life is to surround yourself with really talented individuals because this deﬂects from one’s own deficiencies. This is certainly my strategy. At our AGM in June I reported that I do sincerely believe we exceeded all our expectations. More than £21,500 was presented to the school in session 2014/15. This is no fluke. It is down to the incredible hard work of the whole PTA Team, who give of their time without seeking praise or reward. However, they get that all here, in spades! Thank you in equal measure to Flavia Cammarota, Pam Wong, Alexandra Fabvre-Meltser, Louise Callaghan, Christine Abercrombie, Lesley MacFadzean, Leigh McFarlane, Pamela Martinolli, Nikki Harle, Cheryl Smith, Tounsia Djoudi, Cecilia Wong, Gillian Lavercombe, Sean Templeton and Patries MacIntyre. I also want to report that we had great fun along the way! We had a very successful Winter Fayre and the Cargill Hall, Sandwich Bar and Dining Hall were very busy all day. A record amount of money was raised and I wish to record my thanks to Patries MacIntyre and the entire team on such a wellorganised event. We have had much praise for the event from both stallholders and visitors, and look forward to trying to expand our stall-holder area this coming November. The bar area was transformed by Louise Callaghan and a

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special thanks to her for that. This made a huge difference, I feel. A thank you, too, to Richard Lyth and staff who worked tirelessly that day. The choirs were wonderful and a special thank you to the children and music staff for entertaining us so well. I cannot finish this part of the report without thanking the Rector for looking after the bouncy castle and Mr Williams for being outside all afternoon in the freezing weather being the goalie in the Astroturf area. We look forward to seeing how well Mr Pearce goes in goals this year. (Did he read that small print in his contract?) Despite there being a Rangers v Celtic football match on, and there being three Police Riot Vans at the door of the hotel, well over 200 ladies attended our Ladies’ Lunch this year in the Grand Central Hotel and a record amount of money was raised I am told. This year our committee organised guest compere Edward Reid, who I think went down a storm and was an excellent idea. Indeed feedback from many is that this was the “best lunch ever” and I am sure many will now return in the coming years to the event again. My thanks go to the team who put many hours of work into making this the excellent occasion it was. Without this effort the lunch would not have been the success it was. The inclusion of the boys’ choir was an undoubted success and we thank them all, and their choir masters, for putting in so much rehearsal time in their own time and for giving us

such a wonderful concert that day. Never let it be said The Glasgow Academy does not educate the whole boy! I’m not sure if the lads had ever experienced a crowd like it! They can expect another invitation, if they think they are up to it! I also offer thanks to Mr Sean Templeton who rounded the day off with 80s classics as he spun his wheels of steel. Around 300 P4-7 children attended our Prep Discos at the end of March and I think they were seen as a great success. Approximately 3 metric tonnes of sweets were shifted. I must thank Sean again for his great work as the DJ, but also everyone else - parents and staff - who gave up their time to organise and support the event. Sean reports (pleasant) surprise at some of the song requests: Heavy Metal seems to still have its fan base amongst nine-year-old boys. Now – an apology. Those that know me will testify to my delusion that I possess a world-class dancing technique. I confess the children were given the very real nightmare that is my “YMCA” routine (twice) that evening. I can only ask for everyone’s forgiveness! Moving swiftly on… I am also pleased to report the Uniform Shop is in rude health. It was interesting to me to note that prior to 2013 we only operated twice yearly sales. Since then the shop has been open for business more or less once a month during term time as well as two large Saturday sales. The amount of second hand uniform sold at our June 2015 Sale alone was more than that sold in an entire year only two years previously.

Having witnessed this, it is clear to me that the PTA Uniform Shop offers an incredibly important service to a significant percentage of our parents. To this end, I echo the grateful thanks of previous PTA reports to Alexandra who runs the shop and who puts in many, many hours of hard work to ensure this key part of our operation continues to offer the valuable service it does. A great number of articles of clothing have now also been donated to Smileawi, the charity we partner with that sends much-needed clothing and dental supplies to Malawi. Anything Smileawi does not need is then sent by us to be recycled. In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my committee again for all the hard work they have put into running what has been a very successful year. I would like to give special thanks to Flavia and Pam for undertaking their roles as Secretary and Treasurer with great energy and professionalism. I would also like to thank the Rector, his Senior Leadership Team and all other staff on the PTA committee for giving up so much time and for giving so much advice to myself and the rest of the parents in this, our first year in the job. Finally I would like to thank all those who attended our events and gave so generously this year. We look forward to welcoming you back. David Rome (1987)

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PREP SCHOOL

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The Prep School Session 2014/2015 was one to remember; academic successes included five golds, a silver and five bronzes in the Scottish Maths Challenge. Sambhav Chadha gained a gold in this and also a gold in the UK Primary Maths Challenge - one of only 50 children in the UK to do so. In writing and poetry competitions, we took the first three places in the Allander Rotary Club Competition, repeating our successes of the last three years. Congratulations to Rachel Lochhead for her first place. Hannah Bell was also in the top three out of 1500 entries in the Anthony Horowitz Alex Ryder future competition. In the British Legion WW1 Writing and Research Competition, we were in the top 3 nationally. The Friends of the River Kelvin held a writing competition and Amaya Patel came first in the P4/5 section and Imogen Roach first in the P6/7 section. Hamish Nugent, Daniel Burdon and Christie McBurnie claimed second places in their year group too. EON sponsored a Poetry Competition and Katie McCall, Francesca Fairlie, Sadie McLaughlin, Amaya Patel and Alexander Scott all won prizes. All this success has to start somewhere and the ‘excellents’ in our Kindergarten Care Commission inspection are testament to the foundations Mrs Black and her team lay in Kindergarten. Miss McCracken, her team and the Nursery children raised money for the Saunders Centre, as well as for Erskine, and still found the time to celebrate Chinese New Year and Diwali! We are genuinely blessed with both of our pre-school facilities; the standard of provision is second to none. Money week continued less formally as our efforts in this area were focused on the Making your Money Grow project. Its aim was to raise £2,500 to allow the Prep School to purchase a seat in the Watson auditorium in the Saunders Centre. Activities from investing, raffling, making and selling allowed us to raise the money for the seat and have £1,100 left to send to the Nepal Earthquake appeal. ENTERPRISE AND CHARITY Enterprise and charity work continued through class, stage or individual efforts. The P7 raised a record £2,776 at the Children First sale and Sophie Heginbottom, Anna Streule and Eilidh Harrison raised £160 through their own personal Comic Relief bake-off. We supported ten charities and raised £5,982 in total.

we were the only primary school in Scotland attempting such an ambitious project, which the children carried off with great aplomb. Rehearsals for this October and ‘Twelfth Night’ have already started. We had a spectacular and all-encompassing Christmas Show, ‘Santa Gets the Sack’, written by Mr Simpson and Mr McColl. Our Nativities were wonderful (full of the special feeling that comes at Christmas when the younger children perform). The PTA came to the fore at Christmas through their organisation of our Christmas parties. Our thanks to David Rome, their Chair, and to his committee for these and last term’s two discos and their help at transition and induction events. Music continued to flourish; we have had some outstanding Prep School concerts, with last term’s soloists concert a particular highlight. We have entered three choirs in the Glasgow Music Festival; two came top in their groups: they were the only entries, but their scores were nonetheless very high. The whole of Kindergarten also went off to perform in the Festival. A number of P3/P4 pupils, after RSNO auditions, succeeded in joining their training choirs. Holly Rodwell, Jasmine McGregor and Brooklyn Moyo have been offered parts in the Scottish Opera touring production of ‘Carmen’, which is a considerable achievement for P5 and P6 pupils. In piping and drumming, we have entered competitions with Prep pupils and Callum Nelson in P5 (aged 9) came 5th in the Under 16 drumming competition he entered. The Easter term saw the culmination of the Theatre Club’s music with the lively and engaging production of Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies, so ably directed by Mrs David, Miss Kirkwood and Mr Simpson, a production as ever full of the most terrible puns.

Two of our F1 teams competed in the National Final in Coventry in June and both were a credit to the School. The project involved setting up teams, designing and building a small model F1 car, seeking sponsorship and raising money to fund the team.

The Rights Respecting Schools group and the Pupil Council thrived. Our rights respecting work has led to the adoption, through the pupil voice, of four rights from the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, on which we base our behaviour code. The Pupil Council work very effectively to represent the pupil voice and have worked on playground games, met with the council and managed to get carrot cake back on the menu at lunch, amongst other suggestions!

Staff enthusiasm saw this project succeed as with the Shakespeare Schools Festival. Last October a P7 cast performed a much shortened version of ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ to a full Platform theatre in Easterhouse. Once again

Under the banner of Enterprise, Mrs Hill and her Jewellery Club beavered away all session producing the memorable remembrance poppy brooches and raising £557 for the Scotland Poppy Appeal.

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Our P7 Dragons Den competition saw an Hawaiian-themed Prom, and our regular programme of visits and outings took us to Stirling Castle, Falkland Palace, the Tenement House, Scotland Street School and the Hunterian, to name but a few. P6 and P7 had successful trips to Abernethy and Benmore respectively and in September P5 embark upon their first residential trip to Ardmay House. These trips build on the skills of cooperation and collaboration, they widen the perspective children have of others and themselves and allow them to challenge themselves and try something new and unfamiliar in a safe environment. (They come back enriched and we wanted to extend this type of experience to P5.) In our assemblies, P3 entertained us with a special Roman assembly, P4 were all Egyptians, P2’s Indian Assembly was as colourful and lively as ever and P5 gave us an inspiring assembly on litter. Alongside all of these activities sport still flourishes and seems to have broadened its base still further. The girls A, B and C hockey teams played 25 matches, the P7As were runners-up in our tournament, winners of the medal competition at George Watson’s and had a successful tour of Perthshire. P6 teams played well at the Craigholme Festival too, which augurs well for the future. In rugby, P7 and 6 across the A, B and C teams have played 72 matches, with the most successful teams being the P7B and P6B. The Prep 5s had an inaugural match versus the High School and the P7As won the St Columba’s tournament and the Quaich at Stewart’s Melville. The P6/ P7/S1 rugby tour to Northumberland was as successful as ever, with the majority of the teams recording wins. When the weather has permitted the cricket results have been mixed, but what is encouraging is the enthusiasm for the game amongst many of the boys. All of this would not be possible without our Senior School colleagues and sports coaches and we thank them for all the support they give Prep School sport. Parents too deserve thanks for turning out in all weathers to support our teams and individuals! In the warmth, indoor swimming thrived with TGA winning five individual and one team gold at the Glasgow Schools, with two new records for Tom Wicklow (in addition to six silvers and eight bronzes).

In the Cross-country Scottish competition our P6 girls team of Nicola Fletcher, Estelle Macaloney and Emma O’Neil came second overall, with Nicola winning an individual silver. At the Grangemouth Road relays, with 60 teams competing, the same girls beat Hutchesons’ by one second to take gold and the P7 boys also took bronze. In the Glasgow competitions we won the P5 girls and boys team events and took the individual golds in both too, with Kirsty and Tom Wicklow. Sol Waddell won the P6 boys gold and led his team to first place, whilst the P6 aforementioned girls’ team were joint winners of their competition. The P7 boys completed a fine afternoon’s racing, taking the gold too. Golf has made an appearance in the Prep School calendar, and our golfers went to St Andrews for the St Leonard’s National Junior Scottish Championships. All our under 9s competing were in the top 10 with Alex Williams from Dairsie winning the under 9s overall and Charlie McCready driving a mere 244 yards to win the under 11 driving competition. Skiing is relatively new in terms of sending teams to competitions. In the dual slalom finals at Snow Factor we were 5th out of 60 schools and outside at Glencoe the boys’ team qualified for the national finals at the Nevis range. Here Robin Deakin, aged 8, achieved 14th place in a field of much older boys and Kirsty Wicklow was sixth amongst all the girls and she was only 9! Tennis had a successful Summer term and our P4 team of Fraser Thomson, Beth Allan, Euan Bell and Amber Wade won the Glasgow Primary Schools cup and Sam Ballantyne reached the UK National 14-and-under final played at Wimbeldon. The girls won the Henderson Challenge Athletics and the boys were second. Special congratulations are due to Bryn Doherty, Philippa Williamson, Anna Manuel and Flynn McLean who have been selected to represent Scotland in a triangular international tetrathlon tournament. Tetrathlon involves riding, swimming, shooting and running. Flynn has also been selected to represent Scotland in a triathlon competition too. We also celebrated World Book Day with the culmination of ‘Book Week’ being our annual poetry competition; the standard this year was simply incredible! The Glasgow Academy Prep School continues to flourish, but this would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff - a huge thank you to them all for going above and beyond the call of duty so often. AM Brooke and AW Mathewson

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Global Citizenship and International Education This year, the key values of Global Citizenship and International Education have been embedded throughout the Prep School. The children have enjoyed taking part in a wide range of different activities which have given them the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of the world and Scotland’s place in it.

Our celebration of the European Day of Languages in September was larger and more spectacular than ever. Children from all three sites were responsible for researching countries around Europe, not just the languages they spoke, but also information about their population, culture and economy. The children were so enthusiastic about this that many went on to find out similar information about other countries further afield. Their findings were then presented; P4 made power-points, P5 made fact-files and P6 made posters which they then used to share their learning with younger pupils. The highlight of the celebrations for children at TGA Milngavie and Dairsie was no doubt when they were challenged to use what they had learnt to dress up as a person from another country. There was certainly a very colourful array of different traditional clothing on display.

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Enterprise Club worked along with the Prep Eco Committee to raise awareness of Fairtrade Fortnight in February. After researching the work of the Fairtrade Foundation and the impact that it has on people’s lives all around the world, the Eco Committee presented an attention-grabbing and thought-provoking assembly to the school. Once this important message was shared, Enterprise Club, with the help of Mr Lyth and his team in the Dining Hall, baked a selection of goodies using Fairtrade ingredients. These were then sold in their ‘pop up’ Fairtrade tuck-shop. The queue was out the front door of reception and products were so popular that they sold out before the staff had a chance to have a taste! P6 and Mrs Dolan also used food to help them learn about

countries all over the world. When preparing tasty treats such as pizzas, pastas, chow mein, fajitas and curries, the children found out about where different ingredients come from and how diets can vary around the globe. 2014 was a very important year for Scotland as we saw the independence referendum take place. This did not go unnoticed in the Prep School and children of all ages showed a great awareness of political issues that were being discussed. P7 held a fascinating Independence Debate on the day of the vote, with those taking part demonstrating very admirable public speaking skills. Our link with Nehru World School in India is now in its third year and we were lucky enough to send two more

members of the Prep staff to work in the school during the summer holidays. While they were there they taught classes of all ages about Scotland through a range of art activities, numeracy lessons and literacy tasks. Best practice was also shared between the staff through CPD sessions and joint planning meetings. We are now very much looking forward to welcoming three of our colleagues from Delhi who will be joining us for a week in September. The teachers, who all specialise in different areas of the curriculum, will be working with classes at all stages. This will allow them to share their experience and expertise with as many of our children and staff as possible. L Campbell

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Prep School Music Our younger pupils in the Prep School have continued to participate in some enthusiastic music-making this year at The Glasgow Academy. They have been involved in concerts and competitions, performing to large and appreciative audiences. There are a range of choirs and instrumental ensembles rehearsing across the week, including the Junior Choir for pupils in Prep 6 and 7, Prep Wind band for any woodwind instrumentalists and the Flute Ensemble. Throughout the years all the groups have been working hard at their pieces for the concerts we have been able to put on. Following the auditions in the previous session, our Junior Choir (run by Mr Mills with able assistance from Mr Hawkins and Mr Marshall) cracked on with rehearsals on John Rutter’s For the Beauty Of The Earth for the Harvest Festival at Kelvinside Parish Church. This was soon followed up with the usual Christmas pieces and some fun Christmas songs and Carols for the PTA Christmas Fayre in November. In the new year, they started preparing for our usual trip to Glasgow Music Festival. With eleven other choirs listed to compete against, our Junior Choir were fortunate enough to be placed joint third against some stiff competition. The adjudicator was most impressed with their performance of Bob Chilcott’s difficult Light and Glass. Saying goodbye to the Prep 7 members of the choir after Easter (as they move on up to the Senior Choir), we welcomed the successful Prep 5 pupils who passed the audition to join the Junior Choir next year. They gave an impressive performance of Where is Love? from the musical Oliver and followed this with a moving performance of Al Shlosha D’varim to a packed Cargill Hall during the joint concert with the Senior School ensembles this summer. Both the Junior Girls’ and Junior Boys’ ensembles have continued to grow from strength to strength; the Boys’ ensemble also competed at Glasgow Music Festival and despite being the only ones in their class they earned enough points to be awarded first place. This group have enjoyed some enthusiastic and energetic rehearsals with Mr Marshall and the Girls’ ensemble continue to be run jointly by Mrs Yeoman and Mrs Dean. The standard of music produced by these groups is high and continues to improve year after year. The instrumental groups also continue to produce music of a high standard. The Flute ensemble under the direction of Mrs Guerrier continue to work hard at their pieces. The String ensemble, too, under Mrs Baron’s direction are making great progress and really enjoy their rehearsals with her. The numbers for Pipe Band drumming continue to grow under the expert guidance of Mr Henderson. There have been large numbers taking part in instrumental lessons again this session, with excellent success at examination for Trinity and ABRSM music exams. My thanks as always go out to all the pupils who have been involved in music in the Prep School this year, to their parents and class teachers for their support and encouragement, and the many members of music staff who help enthuse our students. MB Marshall

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Rights Respecting Schools

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Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies It seemed appropriate, in many ways, that as we approached a General Election, the subject of this year’s Prep School Show should be a character dedicated to the repatriation of taxes. Robin Hood and his Merrie Men have been portrayed countless times by a myriad of actors but never, I would suggest, with as much enthusiasm and gusto as seen on those two nights at the end of the Spring Term.

The plot was based, as are all good farces, on a mixture of outlandish characters, misunderstandings, comic timing and an outrageous plot. We have come to know and trust Craig Hawes’ work well, and this mixture certainly fitted the bill; in my humble opinion, this was one of the best of the Prep School shows in recent years. One thing that was noticeable about this year was that during the dress rehearsal, (traditionally played out on the Monday morning before curtain up on the Tuesday) and in front of that most critical of audiences (the pupils’ peers) the laughter was genuine and long lived. Therefore, with this in mind, I approached my class and asked them to write down what they thought of the show and I will use their views as testimony. “Costumes were very creative (as always).” “If you were a bad person you wore dull colours but if you were a good person you wore bright colours.” “Some draped down and swayed about while others were made to look intimidating and scary.” “Mrs McLellan made everyone look great.” These three quotes hold the secret of the costumier’s art colourful, characterised and choreographed. As ever Mrs

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McLellan’s nimble fingers did the trick and coupled with the expert sound and lighting from our Senior colleagues - in particular Mrs Wishart and Emily Whyte - the spectacle glowed and shone as brightly as ever a Prep School production did. “Great make-up and super songs.” “The teachers did amazing make-up.” As ever the songs were upbeat, memorable and singalong in style. The chorus line - that never-ending conveyor belt of talent - sang its heart out and moved effortlessly around the stage. The music and musicians were corralled but Mr Marshall added to the festivities in the brightest and lightest of ways. The make-up enhanced the costumes; it was subtle, allowing us to recognise what something actually resembled but, at the same time, allowing parents to identify their children! Well done to Mrs Halliday and her team. “Brilliant characters like Grabbit and Bolt, the mischievous duo.” “Nursie was over dramatic and therefore funny.” “The Sheriff of Nottingham reminded me of Hagrid.” “The cast was hilarious, they made the jokes work.”

It is invidious to name individuals and their contribution to the show; suffice to say that the cast managed to bleed every single drop of comedy out of the script by adding their own interpretation in accent and inflection; their comic timing was crisp and their acting superb. This could only come from the nurturing given by the show’s producers Mrs David, Miss Kirkwood and Mr Simpson. Their commitment to the cause, their encouragement and enthusiasm for the project and their dedication over a sustained period of time ensured that the cast and the audience were left with memories of happiness and achievement, of a job well done. “I think it was the best - 10/10.” “A fantastic production.” “The best show I’ve seen in years. I loved it!”

Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings … One final thought. The Prep School show, as I have mentioned many times, is a fine example of team work of pupils and staff working in complete harmony. Towards the end of the first performance, I had to leave midway through the second act. As I made my way from the Cargill Hall through the Dining hall to the car park, I saw Mrs Shaw tidying away the cups and biscuit boxes which the cast had enjoyed during the break. Quiet and unheralded, yet on such dedication - in all spheres - does the success of the show depend. Thank you to Mrs Shaw, all the staff and, in particular the cast for giving us such memories. R Williams

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BENMORE

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PROM

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KELVINBRIDGE KINDERGARTEN

Going on a bear hunt stay and play

Gruﬀalo hunt at our stay and play day

Having fun at the park

Making playdough

Kindergarten St Andrew’s Day breakfast

Our ﬁrst cuddle

Outdoor fun in our garden

We have the P6 readers every Wednesday

Welcome to the world little chick

Balancing the scales

We went to the park in our Halloween costumes

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KELVINBRIDGE NURSERY

August Making new friends

September Fundraising for the Sci-tech building

October Diwali celebrations

November Selling poppies for Erskine hospital

December Trip to the Tron Theatre

January Celebrating Robert Burns

February Preparing for the Chinese New Year

March World Book Day

April Planting strawberries in the garden

May Working together

June Sports Day

June Happy days at Kelvinbridge Nursery

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Prep rep 1

An Autumn Tree by Xavier King - P1.2

Anya Hetherington, Isla Mackenzie and Eva Roper - P1.2 planting seeds

Emily Porter, Isla Mackenzie and Charlie Collins P1.2 working on a phonics activity

Crispy Crab by Persa Donaldson - P1.3

Glasgow Skyline by Leilah Higgins P1.1

Ice cream bar graphs P1.3

Making sea creatures - P1.1

Easter crafts - P1.1

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Big Face by Maya Lei - P1.1

Oil pastel drawing of a ďŹ sh by Becky Burgess - P1.2

Whole class Christmas party - P1.1

Fox by Lexie Muirhead - P1.3

Spring Chicks by Jack Lyons - P1.3

Outdoor learning - P1.3

Painting of a Face by Anya Hetherington - P1.2

Painting of Poppies in the style of Monet by Hanna Preiss - P1.2

Making sea creatures - P1.2

Craft activity - P1.2 with P7.2

Big Face by Hugh Fulton - P1.3

Snow Bear by Eilidh Yeung - P1.3

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Prep rep 2

The Dinosaur by Avneet Kaur - P2.3

Christmas table decoration - P2.1

Dinosaurs class activity - P2.1

Indian spice activity - P2.1

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Spring Flowers by Josie Walker-Smith - P2.2

Indian Pattern Fish by Neve McQuilter - P.2.2

Christmas table decoration - P2.1

Concentric Circles in the style of Kandinsky by Madison Wilson

Class photo - P.2.2

Poppy Ballantyne World Book Day costume - P2.1

FireďŹ ghter Nico - P2.3

Christmas art group - P2.2

Mondrian artwork by Daisy Mark - P2.1

Group activity, completing dino wall - P2.2

Primary colours in Miro style by Natasha Ewing - P2.2

Visit to Kelvingrove Museum - P2.1

Elves at Christmas - P2.1

Active maths - P2.3

World Book Day - P2.1

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Prep rep 3

Roman Soldier by Michael Winship - P3.2

Roman Topic - P3.3

Reﬂecting on Prep 3 - P3.3

Class photo June 2015 - P3.1

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Minibeast Magniﬁer by Alex Thomson - P3.3

Sophie Lovenkrands - P3.3

Starry Night by Keir Wright - P3.1

MacIntosh Rose by Gracie Hunter - P3.1

Topic - P3.1

Minibeast projects - P3.2

Learning Latin with Mr McKellar - P3.2

Minibeast hunt - P3.2

Visit to the new Sci-Tech building as part of their ES Topic - P3

Releasing our butterďŹ&#x201A;ies - P3.3

Roman Mosaic - P3.3

Shoe box houses - P3.3

Roman soldiers - P3.3

Autumn Tree by FďŹ onMann - P3.3

Roman mosaics - P3.3

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Prep rep 4

3D snowďŹ&#x201A;ake by Zak Iqbal - P4.2

Casper Waddell, completing archaeological dig in class - P4.1

Bromeliad experiment, Alix Beattie, Amiya Patel & Ashley Herbert - P4.1

Art term 3 Matilda De la Rosa - P4.1

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Class photo - P4.1

Honey with a dagger

Making adverts for cups - Matilda De La Rose, Alix Beattie and Abigail Burgess - P4.1

Egyptian proďŹ le by Eva Pollock - P4.2

Aideen with a weapon

Jenna and Rachel made a bromeliad - P4.2

Tapestries - P4

Cannons - P4

Class photo - P4.1

Class photo - P4.2

Dressed for Egyptian Assembly - P4.2

Class photo - P4.3

Gargoyles by Anna, Euan, Indigo & William - P4.3

Rachelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Egyptian collar

Ruaridh Murdoch - P4.1

Matisse art - P4.2

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Prep rep 5

Self portrait by Adam Fisher - P5.3

Fraction fun - P5.3

Great Fire of London by Sophie Heginbottom - P5.1

Collage of a River - P5.4

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Northern Lights by Eilidh Harrison - P5.1

Class activity - P5.2

Class maths activity - P5.2

Science investigation of air resistance - P5.2

Delftware plates - P5.2

Medieval Tennis - P5.3

Jack McBride - P5.2

Christmas show - P5.3

Amit Walkay - P5.2

Henry VIII assembly - P5.3

Happy with the yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work - P5.4

Name inspired by Henri Matisse by Rohin McKinlay - P5.3

Book Week - P5.2

Gangsta Granny by Noah Sarvesvaran - P5.4

Collage of a River - P5.4

The Solar System by Oluchi Uwakwe - P5.3

Bothwell Castle by Saskia Wade - P5.3

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Prep rep 6

Scotland Street - P6.3

Tenement House - P6.3

Tenement house - P6.3

Climbing Wall by Philippa Williamson - P6.3

Detail of a William Morris design by Olivia Egan - P6.3

Grace Connelly - P6.1

Olivia Egan by Estelle Macaloney - P6.3

Abernethy - P6.4

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Anna and Xavier making hot chocolate as part of P6.4s Enterprise project

William Morris art by Lucy Wong - P6.2

Mrs Halliday - P6.1

Fergus & Alex with their electrical circuit reindeer - P6.2

Jacobite Assembly - P6.2

Abernethy - P6.4

Tenement house visit - P6.2

Katie & Lucy with their electrical circuit ladybird - P6.2

Wolf silhouette by Nicola Fletcher - P6.2

Class photo - P6.2

The Great Wave by Isaac Burrows - P6.1

Tilly Brown & Anika Frame, World Book Day - P6.1

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Prep rep 7

At the prom - P7.2

In their natural habitat - P.7.2

Evacuation morning - P7.1

World Book Day - P7.1

Language time - P7.2

Preparing for prom - P7.4

Ruby Younger - P7.2

Evacuation morning - P7.3

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Solar eclipse - P7.5

Playgrounf friends & listeners - P7

Smarties ratio - P7.1

SuďŹ&#x20AC;ragette morning class photo - P7.1

SuďŹ&#x20AC;ragettes term 1 activity - P7.5

World Book Day - P7.4

World Book Day - P7.5

WW1 drama - P7.4

WW1 resource game - P7.3

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WORLD B 130

OOK DAY 131

COOLKIDS’CLUB It has been another full and interesting year in Cool Kids’ After School Care. We have seen children grow and move on to Senior School and welcomed new children into our after-school care. We have extended our Health and Well-being experience for children; they have access to yoga, meditation, mindfulness exercises, goal-setting and personal development. In Dairsie children have taken part in various seasonal activities and charitable events, including Children in Need and Comic Relief, and they have worked closely with staff to develop our service. The latest Care Inspectorate Report has acknowledged this hard work with ‘Very Good’ grades and we will now work towards Excellent grades in all three services. Children in The Glasgow Academy Milngavie have enjoyed various clubs, including dance, computer skills and culinary creativity, and have produced a recipe booklet explaining their methods and favourite recipes.

generous with her time and expertise and is developing our children’s interests with a weekly Science club. Children attending Cool Kids have taken part in various experiments: learning how to create the ‘perfect poo’, extract DNA from fruit and how to measure accurately and build on their knowledge by keeping precise notes. Children are creating accurate models of extension bridges and windmills, and building an early interest in science and engineering. Our Holiday Clubs are varied and we aim to provide a valuable service to families and great fun for the children attending. With visits to Finlayston Park, Scotland Street School Museum, The Science Centre, Sea Life Centre in Balmaha, Conic Hill, The Kelvingrove Art Galleries, Showcase Cinema and Troon Beach to name but a few.

To retain and build on our Rights Respecting School award, children are encouraged to actively take part in our bimonthly meetings where their opinions and views are aired and initiatives are developed to support each child who attends Cool Kids.

All Cool Kids’ Club staff look forward to including our families in the development of Cool Kids’ Club, offering excellent, stimulating and supportive childcare in an exciting and inclusive environment.

Dr Sowden at our Kelvinbridge site has been very

C Bremridge

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133

PREP HOCKEY HOCKEY P7A We have had a fantastic season of hockey, winning the majority of our matches. We have developed our fitness and skill-levels and made close friends within our teams.

and support of all of our hockey coaches, including Miss Brackenridge, Mr Ralph, Miss Dick and Miss Campbell. So a huge thank you!

Our first match got off to a rocky start losing to Dollar Academy; however, the following Monday we re-grouped at Windyedge and the next Saturday we won our match against Craigholme.

Ava Smith, Rachel Lochhead, Hannah Bell and Louisa Herbert

The Glasgow Academy Tournament was a great success, ending the tournament as runners-up out of sixteen schools, and beating The High School, Kelvinside and St Aloysius’, our closest rivals, throughout the afternoon. The same week we travelled to Edinburgh to the George Watson’s College Tournament and came first in the medal section. Our tour up north to Perthshire was a key learning point through our hockey season, playing two schools including Dollar once again and Strathallan for the first time. It was challenging and pushed our fitness levels but a great experience. All in all we would not have been able to improve in our hockey skills, fitness and technique without the care

HOCKEY P7B Hockey in Prep 7 is great fun; it is a chance to develop your hockey ability alongside your classmates and leaves you looking forward to Mondays and Fridays. The coaches are extremely knowledgeable about the sport and are always there to help and support you. Every Monday and Friday we train from 2:30-4:15 with matches every Saturday morning from any time between 8:30 and 12:00 and can be either home or away. Usually we play against a variety of opposing schools which test our ability, teamwork and skill. At half time our coaches give us a motivational talk which inspires us to strive to work to our absolute limits in the second half. Every Monday we focus on our weak spots from the previous Saturday, while on Fridays we practise teamwork for the upcoming match. We also do a full warm up and physical training before every session. Amidst the second term we participate in a variety of home and away tournaments; for example we, The Glasgow Academy, host our own. We also go on a tour away and stay in a lovely hotel; during the tour we play two matches in the surrounding area. This year the hockey ‘A’ and ‘B’ team had the privilege of visiting Perthshire and playing two outstanding matches each. Of course it could not have happened without our wonderful coaches to whom we are very grateful as they took the time out of their schedule to take us.

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We have had a very successful year and have enjoyed every match we have played. We have tried our hardest and won many matches. We especially enjoyed our first game against Dollar and all of our games we played away on tour: most of them we won and we played our best. Our last game against Jordanhill was extremely memorable and we played well and won. It was memorable as it was our last game of Hockey in Prep 7. Hockey at The Glasgow Academy is fantastic and it would definitely be worth trying out hockey as it is a great sport. We have had a fabulous year of hockey and we are extremely looking forward to it in S1. Millie Howat and Allison Lavercombe

PREP RUGBY RUGBY P7A The P7A Rugby have had our ups and downs this season! It all started with a good 6-3 win against the High School of Dundee, which was then followed up by an excellent 12-0 win against George Heriot’s. Unfortunately after this good start our season started going downhill for a while with a 6-6 draw against our main rivals, the High School of Glasgow. Our ups and downs further continued as we lost to a powerful Edinburgh Academy side and then we were beaten 6-9 by Hutchesons’ Grammar School, although it should be recognised that the team was somewhat below its normal strength due to a fixture clash with the school crosscountry and player illness. We struggled against the bigger Edinburgh schools and were beaten by strong Watson’s and Stewart’s Melville teams. After that we picked up our game and started to perform better as a team and won 21-6 against St Aloysius’ and 12-0 against St Columba’s. We then returned to Stewart’s Melville, where we played with far more spirit and determination and were right in it at half time before their strength and size took its toll, with us eventually going down 0-15. This gave us real encouragement and we returned to winning ways against a scrappy Wellington team. After the Christmas break we struggled to play as a team against Dollar and succumbed 12-18, followed by a return

match against Hutchesons’ who we managed to beat 9-3 to end our season on a high. The season had its high points and we retained the St Columba’s tournament trophy and won the Bowl in the Stewart’s Melville tournament. I would like to give a massive thanks to Mr Fairlie-Clarke for giving us encouragement and support even through the hard times, when we weren’t playing our best! We are all now looking forward to the challenges of Senior Rugby. Bryn Doherty

RUGBY P7B This season the P7B rugby team has played tremendously well. We won the majority of our games, both home and away. In our season we not only beat all our Glasgow rivals but also recorded fantastic victories against Edinburgh Academy, Heriot’s and the mighty George Watson’s. We were unlucky to be beaten away from home against Stewarts Melville, who scored a last-minute winning try. Our dominant forward pack delivered quality ball to the lightning-fast boys in the backs who ran in tries from all over the pitch. We owe thanks to our Director of Rugby Mr Carlin for his excellent coaching. Charlie McCready

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RUGBY P7C

The P7C Rugby Team had a brilliant season, with a very high win percentage and nearly everyone scoring tries. To open the season the team played a match against George Heriot’s at home, where we comfortably won 155. We carried the momentum through to the next game where we won 11-1 against Jordanhill. This match showed a standout team performance with 7 of our 13 players scoring tries. The effort put in by the team to start the season on the right track was amazing. The same effort that was applied to the first and second games was evident throughout the season, not only in matches but in training as well! This resulted in the C team losing only 4 games in the entire season. In the process, we scored a whopping 56 tries! The season was concluded with games against the P6B team and the P6A team. This gave our players some valuable game time towards the end of the season when the interschool matches were few. But, of course, the maximum credit must go to our fantastic coach, Mr.

RUGBY P6A

Simpson, who worked with us all year round in improving our skills and helping us fulfil our potential. Sambhav Chadha

matches and remember good wins against the High School of Dundee, Wellington School, Dollar Academy and Hutchesons’ Grammar. Many of our away matches were challenging. The matches against Edinburgh schools were particularly tough but we’ll be ready for them next season. The highlight of the season was the tour to Northumberland when we won all of our matches and returned with a trophy. Thank you to everybody involved. We are now more used to early Saturday morning starts and last-minute cancellations. We look forward to P7 rugby when hopefully the weather will be kinder. Thank you to Mr Jackson for coaching and encouraging us all season.

This was our first season of competitive school rugby. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We had several close

Angus McCorkindale

RUGBY P6B The 2014/15 Rugby season has been a good one for the P6B rugby team. Winning 7 out of our 13 matches has been an achievement to be proud of (lost 5, drew 1). Notable wins against The High School of Glasgow (42-3), Edinburgh Academy (19-9) and Jordanhill (33-6) were highlights, as well as a draw against the mighty Stewart’s Melville College. The tremendous team spirit has been a major factor which contributed to our success, with every player giving 100%. It is difficult to single out any individual player but two players who deserve a special mention are William Nicolson whose power and pace took him in for many tries and Sol Waddell whose terrier-like tackling was awesome. All of this success would not have been possible without the encouragement and coaching skills of Mr Coskry who has been a great inspiration and great fun.

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Next season we hope to build on our success and achieve even better results. Jack Percival

PREP SPORTS DAY The Prep Sports Day was held at Anniesland on Monday 1st June, on a summerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s day that felt like autumn. Our youngest pupils, from Nursery to P4, showed great determination to try their best through the morning rain showers, competing in their classes in a variety of running and obstacle races. The afternoon competition for P5 to P7 again provided a very enjoyable atmosphere of athletic competition. The culmination of inter-class relay races provided a great conclusion to the day. Our thanks to Mrs K. Crichton who presented the prizes to the Prep 7 winners. S McAslan

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PREP GLASGOW SCHOOLS’ SWIMMING

The Prep swimming squad has had a fantastic year, competing in a number of different matches and events. Some 35 pupils represented the school from Prep 5 to Prep 7. A number of our pupils qualified for the Glasgow Schools’ event. It was pleasing to see so many pupils achieving medals. Below is a list of our medal winners: Bryn Doherty

25m Butterfly

2nd

Stuart Andrews

25m Butterfly

3rd

Tom Wicklow

25m Free

1st

Saskia Wade

25m Free

1st

Emma O’Neil

25m Free

2nd

Nicola Fletcher

25m Free

2nd

Alexander Hunter

50m Free

3rd

Tom Wicklow

25m Breast

1st (New Record)

Kirsty Wicklow

25m Breast

1st (New Record)

Daria Martinolli

25m Breast

3rd

Nicola Fletcher

25m Breast

3rd

Abdurahman Khan

50m Breast

3rd

William Aggleton

25m Breast

3rd

Kirsty Wicklow

25m Back

1st

Emma O'Neil

25m Back

2nd

Stuart Andrews

50m Back

3rd

10yrs Boys

4 x 25m Relay

2nd

10yrs Girls

4 x 25m Relay

1st

11yrs Girls

4 x 25m Relay

3rd

12yrs Boys

4 x 25m Relay

2nd

Congratulations to all pupils that represented The Glasgow Academy this year. Well done! M Manson & G Wilson 138

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PREP SWIMMING GALA The Prep Swimming Gala was held at Drumchapel Pool on 26th January. Mrs G. Campbell presented the Girls Swimming Cup in memory of Adrienne Louise Chawner to Morrison, and the Boys’ Inter House Swimming Gala Cup also to Morrison. The Prep Gala is a very large event designed to involve as many swimmers as possible in house and class races, as well as the championship competition swum over 50m. Congratulations to our Girls’ Champion swimmer Zainab Rasul, and our Boys’ Champion swimmer Stuart Andrews. Unusually, the winners of the Open Butterfly races are both in P5, a reflection of the very strong young swimmers in P5. We had the following new records set P5 Boys' Freestyle 25m

Tom Wicklow

15.9s

P6 Girls' Freestlye 25m

Nicola Fletcher

15.8s

P5 Girls' Freestyle 25m

Saskia Wade

16.1s

P5 Girls' Breaststroke 25m

Saskia Wade

21.1s

P5 Girls' Backcrawl 25m

Kirsty Wicklow

20.2s

Girls’ Inter-house Swimming Gala Cup in memory of Adrienne Louise Chawner

Once again the atmosphere between the houses was intense and very appreciative of some excellent races. The balance of the event is in having as many of our swimmers competing as possible, providing a competitive experience and a personal challenge for every swimmer. S McAslan

Boys’ Inter-house Swimming Gala Cup

Arthur

Fraser

Morrison

Temple

Arthur

Fraser

Morrison

Temple

P5 Girls

2.5

P5 Boys

P6 Girls

P6 Boys

P7 Girls

P7 Boys

5.5

8.5

Totals

Open Boys Butterfly 25m

Tom Wicklow

17.4 secs

P7 Boys Championship Freestyle 50m

Alexander Hunt

34.5 secs

P7 Boys Freestyle 25m

Nitin McKinlay

16.5 secs

P6 Boys Freestyle 25m

Kurtis McIlwraith

18.24 secs

P7 Boys Championship Breaststroke 50m

Abdurahman Khan

46.7 secs

P7 Boys Breaststroke 25m

Nitin McKinlay

28.8 secs

P6 Boys Breaststroke 25m

Oliver Cooper

25.2 secs

P7 Boys Championship Backcrawl 50m

Stuart Andrews

40.4 secs

P7 Boys Backcrawl 25m

Rory Harris

21.5 secs

P6 Boys Backcrawl 25m

Aaron Cooper

22.0 secs

P7 Boys Champion

Stuart Andrews

Open Girls Butterfly 25m

Saskia Wade

17.5 secs

P7 Girls Championship Freestyle 50m

Holly Taylor

37.3 secs

P7 Girls Freestyle 25m

Nicola Waite

19.4 secs

P6 Girls Freestyle 25m

Nicola Fletcher

15.8 secs

P7 Girls Championship Breaststroke 50m

Ava Smith

48.6 secs

P7 Girls Breaststroke 25m

Iona Denholm

23.5 secs

P6 Girls Breaststroke 25m

Nicola Fletcher

22.0 secs

P7 Girls Championship Backcrawl 50m

Holly Taylor

46.0 secs

P7 Girls Backcrawl 25m

Alexandra Livett

21.4 secs

P6 Girls Backcrawl 25m

Emma O'Neill

21.3 secs

P7 Girls Champion

Zainab Rasul

P7 Girls Relay

Temple

P6 Girls Relay

Morrison

P7 Boys Relay

Temple

P6 Boys Relay

Temple

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PREP SCHOOL Prize Winners F Connor Lynch Fraser Thomson Alex Williams

DP4

MP4

Sophie Hannigan Cody Kinnaird Aimee Teale

P4.1

Casper Waddell Jamie Little Rory Darling

P4.2

Karan Shah Charlie Treharne Eva Pollock

P4.3

Amber Wade Euan Bell Taje Bijral

P5.1

Maxwell Biggam Tom Wicklow Daniel Burdon

P5.2

Nicholas Massie Ben Thomson Andrew Harden

P5.3

Saul McGlennan Christian McKay Catherine McCarey

P5.4

Ella Adams Edward Howat Rubens Buter Iona McNeish

P5 Maths Prizes

Andrew Harden and Rubens Buter Lucy Taylor Rosemary Connor & Luke Mackenzie Scott Logan Gemma McLaughlin & Harris Johnston

P6.1

Flynn McLean Jack Percival Mairi McLeod

P6.2

Nicola Fletcher Sophie McMillan Ruaraidh Hart

P6.3

Kenneth Fraser Rachel Lochhead James Smith

P6.4

Ellis McLaggan Vanessa Prescott Lisa Khorishko Rennie

P6 Maths Prizes

Nicola Fletcher & Brooklyn Moyo Cherry Chen Anna Manuel Roden Burns Alex Walters & Ross Simpson

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P7.1

P7.2

P7.3

P7.4

P7.5

Gabriel Barret-Bunnage

Language

Liam McCrimmon

Environmental Studies

Zainab Rasul

French

Ben Jackson-Morris

Creative Writing

Lewis Massie

Language

Sambhav Chadha

Environmental Studies

Honey Morris

French

Sofia Chatfield

Creative Writing

Charlie McCready

Language

Imogen Roach

Environmental Studies

Siqi Yang

French

Ava Smith

Creative Writing

Kenneth Fraser

Language

Hannah Bell

Environmental Studies

Kenneth Fraser

French

Rachel Lochhead

Creative Writing

Louisa Herbert

Language

Louisa Herbert

Environmental Studies

Millie Howat

French

Millie Howat

Creative Writing

P7 Maths Prizes

Honey Morris and Stuart Andrews Jamie MacLean Ellie Sung Abbey Orr Zak Potter

Headmaster's Maths Prizes

Sambhav Chadha & Linda Lee

Poetry Speaking prizes

John Collins

Katie Bell

Lucas Pierotti

Blythe Wray

The Julia Donaldson Writing Prize

Kenneth Fraser

The Director of Musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Prize for Performance

Angus Morrison

Music prizes

The Games Prizes

The Art prize

Allison Lavercombe

Estelle Macaloney

Louisa Herbert Bryn Doherty Darcie McCann Kenneth Fraser

FRAME CUP For InterHouse sports Competitions

Morrison

The House Shield

Morrison

THE DUX

Honey Morris

JULIA DONALDSON

n o i t i t e p m o C Writing My RAF Story

The day I first set foot on a plane, now two years ago, was a horrible one. Still devastated from my father’s sudden death just weeks ago, it was hard to concentrate on my training. You see my father was in the RAF, fighting in the Battle of Britain, when his plane was shot down by the beastly Luftwaffe. I joined to seek revenge for his death, and show those Germans who was boss. Now I’m not so sure. Two months later I’m in a Spitfire, flying in my first real mission. The enemy planes dart towards us like a spine-chilling swarm of bees. “Give ‘em your best shot!” I hear my Commander say over the radio. Before very long the sky is filled with the recurring hum of planes and grey silhouettes in the distance. Soon I change course to avoid the inevitable massacre. Now I am heading straight towards a menacing Messerschmitt. It aggressively starts firing shots at me. “Keep going lads, we’re all … “ my commander’s voice is cut short with a sudden bang. The radio is broken! I panic as the enemy plane hurtles towards me. Shots burst through my plane’s right wing, as I scream helplessly. There is an almighty crash as our planes collide. Despite all this drama, I was still alive, but as the plane plunged towards the ground I knew I was certainly going to die. Then I remembered the parachute. Why hadn’t I thought of it before? I opened the hatch and jumped out, seconds before the dilapidated plane smashed into the ground. It was peaceful now. I could hear the soft waves and the crackle of a fire. I must have been as stunned as a hare on the road, frozen in the glaring light of a car, not to have realised there were other people on this island. As my feet touched land and the last few minutes went rushing into my head I passed out, only to be woken again by the heat of a warm fire. I looked around startled, before a man spoke softly to me. “I’m here, Jack. You’re safe.” I instantly recognised my father’s voice. He was alive! “Dad?” I whispered, falling into a deep sleep. Over the next few days we mended the radio in my plane. We sent out a distress signal and found out where we were, which was in fact an island just off the coast of England. I enjoyed living on the island with my father; however, we had to get home. A boat rescued us and we returned to our home in Kent. My RAF story became famous. I would certainly never forget it. Kenneth Fraser

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A YEAR IN THE LIFE of TGA Milngavie

Every time the children see our new school minibus in the car park, they tell the staff another bus joke: ‘What did the bus driver say to the frog?’ ‘Hop on!’ We are now collecting seven children from areas around Milngavie and they never stop talking and telling their jokes to Mr Jackson the bus driver and Mrs Chalmers our chaperone. The wrapping on the bus shows many of the activities we do in school, with outdoor learning being a major theme. This year, all our pupils were out and about in Barloch Moor working with the ranger from Mugdock Country Park. They were looking for signs of the seasons, art in the moor, life at the water’s edge and birds. The older pupils planted and named trees and measured heights. Hillfoot Nursery pupils joined us for a session on the moor then reciprocated by inviting our Nursery/Kindergarten to take part in a ‘Living Eggs’ project. Staff visited Canniesburn Nursery to peer observe its outdoor learning environment. Our pupils participated in Wellington boot activities on the moor to raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Mrs Davies also organised a ‘Walk to School Week’ when, on the first day, the heavens opened. This did not deter the hardy TGAM walkers, even although they were absolutely drenched when they arrived at school!

FUND RAISING TGA Milngavie is known for its charitable fund raising and we collected around two thousand pounds again this year. Our charities are diverse and include Children in Need, The Scottish Poppy Appeal, BookAid, Yorkhill Foundation, The British Heart Foundation, CLIC Sargent, the NSPCC, Barnhem Thailand and The Roald Dahl Foundation. Our PTA, run by Mrs Claire Ronald, is always willing to support and organise events. These included the Ceilidh at Cairns, the Christmas Fayre, the School Disco and the Summer Family BBQ. Our parents continue to support the school and have recently bought us more iPads and N/K playground equipment.

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Teaching staff attended courses to support the use of ICT and they sent home clips of the children in action at school. Mrs Sutcliffe produced the yearly DVD of the pupils. This is always great fun and highlights our yearly programme. Perhaps one of our most exciting days out this year was when Mr and Mrs Wilson, grandparents of the school, gifted us a trip for the whole school to visit the pandas at Edinburgh Zoo. Both pandas looked a bit like men in panda suits eating bamboo. Apparently, they forage and eat for sixteen hours a day and sleep the rest of the time, so we were lucky to have them on view and animated! It was a wonderful addition to our Chinese culture programme.

PROFESSIONAL We included more drama in our curriculum to complement the professional productions of ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Pink!’. One highlight this year was our production of ‘Pirates versus Mermaids’, which we performed to our grandparents in March. There was a moment when we thought we might have attempted too much but the children rose to the occasion, as they always do and performed brilliantly. The show culminated in a double page spread of pirates and mermaids in the Milngavie and Bearsden Herald, our local newspaper. During May we welcomed Peter Quinn, a visiting teacher from Clifton School in South Africa. He showed us slides of his own school where the children spend the afternoons outdoors climbing trees, riding horses and playing sport. Our pupils thought this was wonderful until they learned that school started at 7am! In South Africa the children also plant then harvest their own fruit and vegetables to use in the lunch hall. At TGAM we have continued to grow carrots, onions, potatoes and strawberries. I am not sure that the amount we grow will

be useful at lunchtimes but we did have six strawberries last year and a couple of very small carrots and potatoes! I think the squirrels who run along our fence must stop for the occasional healthy snack!

We had our Family Groupings where the MP4s were in charge of the little ones. Design Technology challenges and Critical Thinking activities in House groups were always competitive!

All of our pupils enjoyed team activities and, being a small school, were often in mixed age groups. Mr Munro and Mr Jackson took the children for Athletics, Crosscountry and Rugby skills. Even our Nursery/Kindergarten were involved. Bikeability continued to be popular, with most of our children riding their bikes without stabilisers.

It has been another busy year at the school and we are looking forward to introducing varied and even more challenging events in the coming year. It will give the children on the mini-bus even more to discuss when they are travelling to school and might even curtail the bus jokes!

‘Why didn’t anyone take the school bus to school?’ ‘It wouldn’t fit through the door.’ J McMorran

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MILNGAVIE NURSERY KINDERGARTEN

Pyjama day

Welly walk

Adding on

Beep beep

Burns supper

Our nativity

Children in Need

Chinese dragon

Comic Relief

Red Nose Day

Diwali banquet

Fairtrade

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MP1

Aboriginal dot painting

Celebrating Remembrance Day

Clay pots

Jamie using his reading skills

Kelvingrove Art Galleries

Callum at piano lessons

Number Day

Picking apples from our tree

Transport museum

World Book Day

Phonics

Counting Mats

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MP2

Milngavie Fire Station

Bloomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Taxonomy

Designing Dinosaur T-shirts

Dinosaur museum shop

Dinosaur T-shirt enterprise project

Dissecting a daďŹ&#x20AC;odil

Educational games on laptops

Hockey skills

Holding an ammonite

Katie Morag

Learning from an optometrist

Measuring the playground

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MP3

World Book Day

Quiz

Practical maths

Edinburgh zoo

The panda enclosure

Halloweâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;en

Topic work

Paired learning

Electricity

Making Roman soldiers

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MP4

Enterprise project

Smartboard maths

Chess challenge

Problem solving

Planting trees in Barloch Moor

Outdoor learning

Money Week

Paired reading

Kelvingrove Egyptian Trip

Mugdock Castle

ICT

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ECO-SCHOOLS at Milngavie

Lindan with his litter poster

Making pictures from litter

Eco Committee

PTA healthy tuck shop

Planting seeds in the garden area

Walk to TGA Milngavie board game

Litter and Waste Minimisation Assembly

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TGA Dairsie Once again last year was a busy and active year for the children and staff at The Glasgow Academy, Dairsie, and we would not have it any other way! Mrs MacLeod, who re-joined us last June, took up residence in our P3 classroom and Mrs Bell who taught P3 last year, left us in September to await the birth of her second child. Once again we were indebted to Mrs Shaw for teaching in P2 and covering Mrs Bell’s leave of absence. We were sorry to say farewell to Mrs Verschueren in October, but have been indebted to her for her seven years of unstinting service. We have also been pleased to be able to welcome Mrs Ferguson back amongst us as a Classroom Assistant and we welcomed Mme McDiarmid, who has been teaching French to all the children. The activities and learning that have taken place in the classrooms and beyond have been both inspirational and instructive; it has been the hard work of the teaching staff that made it possible. The NK children were very busy in their room: amongst other things, they thoroughly enjoyed learning about Chinese New Year, Diwali, the Ninja Turtles, keeping healthy, shapes, pirates, Autumn, Winter and Spring; I think they would have learned about Summer if we had seen any sign of it before the end of June! At the end of the year the NK children presented their very own great piratical rumbustification that brought huge smiles to our faces and kept us singing sea shanties all day! Having just embarked upon their P1 learning, not only did the boys and girls in P1 learn lots of interesting and exciting facts about their home city, but they also presented those facts to the rest of the school in a well-rehearsed and enjoyable class assembly. The confidence they displayed was lovely to see and I am sure they will remember the story of Glasgow for the rest of their days. The children in DP2 had great fun finding out about people who help us; however, we do not hold P2 responsible for the unexpected arrival of the Fire Brigade after one of our regular Fire Drills! Once again, the studies into dinosaurs were a firm favourite in DP2 and supplied the material for the class assembly back in April. The children’s studies on India gave rise to some lovely chalk rangoli patterns on the playground, but sadly the rain washed them away! However, the rain helped their sunflower plants to grow and the children learned a great deal about growing and planting. Some fantastic work also took place in DP3; the ferocious Romans displayed their talents in assembly and the minibeasts were been crawling all over the classroom walls! Well, that is apart from the butterflies that the children observed develop from caterpillars, and they released into the back garden. The DP4 classroom was a medieval castle, a palace for an Egyptian Pharaoh and a rainforest complete with overhanging canopy. This year’s ‘Money Week’ had a slightly different focus from usual; we combined forces and joined with the other two

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sites to raise money for a seat in the new Saunders Centre auditorium at Kelvinbridge. The monies from the DP1 & DP2 ‘Bring and Buy Sale; the DP3 Money Trail and the DP4 stationery shop, along with the profits from the sale of our piggy banks, all helped fund the seat. We enjoyed our journeys with poetry, back in October, in conjunction with National Poetry Day: we learned poems about travel, which ranged from a caterpillar crawling on a garden leaf to soaring high into space. Since November 2014, The Glasgow Academy has enjoyed full ownership of Newlands Bowling Club and we have sought to use the grounds and premises as often as has been possible. For the DP3 Jog for Children in Need in November we were able to use the two greens and the children had great fun as well as raising a super £1700. We were indebted to Mr Lynch for organising and running our Football Club which also benefitted from the grounds at the Bowling Club, whenever conditions allowed. Our Dairsie Eco-Daft Day was as popular and successful as ever! Miss McNaught set up two assault courses at the Bowling Club: the children had great fun running in their ‘green’ outfits, enjoying the challenges of the courses. They also participated in different ecological matters. The P3 children visited Newlands Park to carry out a survey of birds in the area. The other children made grass heads and then everyone planted seeds to take home and watch grow. All the children learned about the correct items and way to recycle our waste packaging. The week after our Eco-daft Day we had a visit from the Hopscotch Theatre Company with a presentation entitled ‘What a Load of Rubbish!’; the theme fitted perfectly with messages of our Eco-daft Day. It looked as if our Sports’ afternoon was going to be cancelled; however, the optimism of everyone was high and even although the wind presented an added element of challenge, we were able to go ahead. It was lovely to be able to use our own grounds at the Bowling Club and even although we had to split the field into younger and older children, it was great to have the inaugural sports’ day on the new Glasgow Academy site. The children enjoyed many trips and outings throughout the course of the year as well as visitors coming to the school. During the first term we had a visit from the Scottish Centre for Excellence in Dentistry to speak to children about dental care. Generation Science came to give a workshop on motion and movement to P1 and P2; they investigated gravity and friction, with the help of some toys and soft furry friends. P3 and P4 explored the science of chemical reactions with a workshop entitled ‘Fizz, Bang Boom’. We all donned our best bibs and tuckers when ‘Manners Kingdom’ came to remind us about our

manners. The children in P3 and P4 enjoyed a visit from the Strathblane Falconry Centre and P3 had a ‘handson’ session that allowed them to handle various insects, mammals and reptiles from Zoolab. The Nursery and Kindergarten children had great fun on their day’s trip to Almond Valley and they also went to the Gallery of Modern Art. P1 ventured to the Transport Museum and the Sea Life Centre at Lomond Shores. As well as the gentlemen from Polmadie Fire Station visiting us, the P2 children visited them and they went to the Police Dog Branch in Pollok Park; both P2 and P4 visited the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery, on different days and for different things. The P3 children went to Lochwinnoch and P4 visited Stirling Castle and Amazonia. Whether it has been near or far, in school or out of school, there was a host of active learning that took place and when asked to think back over the year the children themselves

realised they had learned a great deal. It has not just been the children and teachers who have been busy: the PTA, under the direction of Mrs Montgomery, worked non-stop throughout the year too. Last December, they held their very first Christmas Fair, which was a resounding success, and they moved the venue of the Spring Fair to the Bowling Club with equally pleasing results. They held Halloween parties for the children and reinstated a Spring event which we called the ‘Spring Fling’. Looking back we can say, it was a great year; the children worked hard and were in the driving seat, aiming for success. We can say it was another year we can safely chalk up to experience! HJ Logie

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Dairsie Nursery Kindergarten

A pirateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s life for us

Charlotte and Jessica creating patterns

Fun in the shade

Having fun on the bowling green

Jessica, Charlotte and Ruby in the home corner

Kurtis and Gregor beaming with delight at completing their model3

Kurtis, Michael and Emma having fun with snow

Nativity

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Zoolab

Dairsie 1

Amelie Caldwell as the ‘clippy’ Riverside Museum (Glasgow topic)

Decorating the tree Murray Thomson & Eilidh Reid

Generation science

Learning facts about sea creatures with Harry Farquharson’s marine biologist Uncle Pete

Mental maths odd & even numbers

Murray Thomson & Sebastian Carmichael Halloween Pumpkin decorating

Numbers to 20 using laptop Eilidh Reid & Amelie Caldwell

Sea Life May

Sebastian Carmichael phonics work

French breakfast

Learning facts about sea creatures with Harry Farquharson’s marine biologist Uncle Pete

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Dairsie 2

Dinosaur Assembly

Katie Morag pictures

Polmadie ďŹ re station

Rangoli patterns - Aarav Sharma

Reading with NKG Kurtis and Aidan King

Reading with NKG

Visit to Botanic Gardens

Visit to Pollok Park Dog Branch - Charlie Williams and Charlie the dog

Visit to botanics

Visit to Polmadie Fire station Musa Latif

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Dairsie 3 Corn snake

Lochwinnoch

St Andrew’s Day

Red Nose Day

Newlands Park

Roman boys

Roman Assembly

Sports Day

Iris Barr and Fajar Ashaq

It’s only a crab!

Lizard

Nativity angels

Nativity

Romans Topic

Nativity

Red Nose Day cake sale

World Book Day

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Dairsie 4 From a railway carriage

Ancient Egyptian Collage Cat Connor Lynch

Lochwinnoch

Amazonia Field Trip - Connor Lynch

Cameron’s ‘Flat Stanley’ World Book Day

Ancient Egyptian Field Trip Kelvingrove - ‘Hello Mummy!’

Sports Day

Medieval Banquet

St Andrew’s Day

Pharaoh Connor Lynch Self-Portrait in Chalk

‘Castle and Sun’ Connor Lynch

Rainforest Paper Batik Cameron Hardiman

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Sock Puppets for Manners Kingdom Show

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