Glenalmond College News      

Inter-house debating

"This House supports the banning of organised religion" The report is in the Debating News page

Jenny Anderton, MSYP

Journey's End

All of the Fourth Form enjoyed a theatre trip to Glasgow this week, to see Journey's End at the King's Theatre.
RC Sherriff's well known play was written and first performed in the late nineteen twenties, giving an insight into the lives of a group of World War 1 officers on the front line over the period of four days. Read Iona Gaskell's review.
 

Sixth Form Lecture

An impressive number of the Sixth Form attended a lecture by Dr Alison McLure, a meteorologist who worked with the British Antarctic Survey for several years, and who now works at the Institute of Physics. Pupils were interested to discover how contemporary scientific research of Antarctica may affect global political policy. Dr McLure was the first of a series of guest speakers that will be visiting the Glenalmond Physics Department over the coming year.

Sports News

Amongst other matches played this weekend, the 2nd XV coasted to a comfortable 53-0 win against a Stewart's Melville XV, with Henry Ambler leading from the front as Captain and Jock Cameron directing the backs effectively. The Under 16 A XV, after the disappointment of last week, responded with a win in the Under 16 Plate against Madras. Some great team work was matched by individual brilliance, with the team managing to score five superb tries resulting in a score of 33-5. The Under 14 XV also won their match, 67-0, against Madras College after a week of rigorous training. They moved the ball about and played with confidence in a match which provided the opportunity for several squad members to play as replacements.

Boys 1st Hockey

The team played away in the Under 18 Scottish Cup at the Aberdeen Sports Village and won the tournament on the difference of a single goal from Aberdeen GS after the two sides fought out a thrilling 3-3 draw and both beat Gordonians in their other game. Glenalmond beat Gordonians 3-1. This was an impressive performance as this is the first time many of the boys have picked up a stick since March and we were a couple of players down through injury.

Munro Club

The Munro Club had an outing to Ben More by Crianlarich, which enjoyed the benefit of some autumn sunshine. George Marlow now has 1 down and only 282 to go, whereas Army Scholar Cameron Montgomery is already making heavy inroads into Sir Hugh Munro's list, and found it a "walk in the park" after his recent trip to the Ladakh Himalayas with the British Schools Exploration Society.

From 'Lady Chatterly' to 'Spycatcher'

A group of pupils from the Philosophy Society visited the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh to participate in a 'Conversation: On Banned Books'. A panel comprising the Rt Rev'd Brian Smith (Bishop of Edinburgh), Rabbi David Rose (Edinburgh Hebrew Congregation) and Advocate Mary Sharpe (a researcher on sacred sex) aired their views and provoked discussion on the morality and legality of the banning, burning and censorship of books for political, moral, social and religious reasons. Following the discussion pupils toured the Library's current exhibition 'On Banned Books' which included items from the Spanish Inquisition to Harry Potter.

Oxbridge Success (25 August 2011)

Four Glenalmond pupils have particular reason to celebrate their exam results, as they have achieved the grades required to take up their places at Oxford and Cambridge. 

GCSE Results (25 August 2011)

Glenalmond's 2011 GCSE results have been excellent, reflecting the ability and hard work of our pupils.

In a record-breaking set of results, the overall pass (A-C) rate for Glenalmond pupils was 96.6%, against a national average of 69.8%, and 59.4% of the Glenalmond results were A* or A grades.  12 of our pupils achieved straight A* or A grades, and 35 pupils achieved 6 or more A* or A grades.  3 pupils achieved 8 or more A* or A grades, and an outstanding 10 pupils achieved 10 or more A* or A grades.

A Level Results (18 August 2011)

The recently-published A level results show that this has been an outstanding year for academic achievement by Glenalmond pupils, with a 48% increase in the proportion of A* grades. 15% of the Upper Sixth Form got three A grades or better.

72% of all of Glenalmond's candidates in A level German achieved an A* or A grade, as did 69% of all Chemistry candidates. Two-thirds of Art candidates achieved an A* or A grade, with a third getting the top A* grade. These results were reflected across the curriculum, with over half of pupils in the following subjects getting A* or A grades: German, Chemistry, Art, French, History, Spanish, Biology, Religious Studies and Politics. In Music, two-thirds of pupils achieved Distinction at Pre-U level, the equivalent of an A* at A level.

English trip to Stratford (17-19 June 2011)

The Lower Sixth English pupils took a tour to Stratford on 17-19 June, visiting the new Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a production of The Merchant of Venice set in Las Vegas! They also saw a chilling performance of Macbeth with a more traditional Jacobean setting. Between the plays, the pupils visited Shakespeare's grave, Mary Arden's farm, The Birthplace and museum as well as the Hall's Croft and Nash House. A busy weekend indeed! Full report in the English Department News.

Give Gig Charity Cheque Presentation

Glenalmond pupils recently presented a cheque for £3138 to the Young Carers Project in Perth. They had raised the money through the Give Gig, a culmination of a term's work, with live music, dance acts, sketches and magic making up the bill. The whole school was involved in one way or another, and the charity was chosen as a way for Glenalmond pupils to support other teenagers in the local area.

Glenalmond Wins National Cricket Finals (17 June 2011)

After qualifying as the representative for Tayside and Fife, the Glenalmond College Development XI competed in the national cricket finals at Doo'cot Park in Perth on 16 June. The team, made up of talented players from our Colts and Junior Colts, played the semi-final against The Gordon's Schools from Aberdeen, and won by 9 wickets. In the final, against George Watson's, the Glenalmond team demonstrated the strength in our junior cricket, winning convincingly by 42 runs. Full report in Cricket News.

Scottish Fencing Awards

Fencing is enjoying the early stages of a revival at Glenalmond following the appointment of Ed Rogers, of Scottish Fencing, as coach, and with College Chaplain Father Giles Dove as Master-in-charge of Fencing. Ten pupils have gained Scottish Fencing's Foil 1 Award. As a result of particular persistence and determination, Caroline Bullen (Home) progressed further by achieving her Scottish Fencing Foil 2 Award.

Fencing Success (12 June 2011)

Hamish Barker (Skrine's) won Bronze Medal in the U17 Men's Epee Competition held in Bathgate

Meanwhile, largely due to his commitment to this sport during the holidays, Hamish was placed 1^st= in U16 Fencing at the British National Modern Pentathlon Tetrathlon competition, won the round in which he competed at U16 Epee at a Scottish Schools Fencing competition, attended the British Public Schools Fencing Championship at Crystal Palace, and came 5^th out of 30 fencers at the international Modern Pentathlon competition in Lithuania.

Primary pupils study Classics at Glenalmond
(10 June 2011)

A group of pupils from Craigie Primary School had the opportunity to build on their classroom topic "The Romans" with a fascinating Classics day at Glenalmond College, organised by their teacher, Mrs Anne Fraser, and Glenalmond Classics teacher and housemaster, George Pounder.

The children spent a busy day in the Classics department uncovering the mysteries and wonders of Pompeii. They also had a tour of Perthshire's own version of Hogwarts given by Glenalmond pupils, and then enjoyed an introduction to Latin through Harry Potter's spells and seeing how Latin words relate to the modern world.

Argentina Tour Raffle Draw

A grand prize draw, to raise funds for the Glenalmond College rugby tour to Argentina this summer, raised the princely sum of £2286. The photograph shows Jesme Fenton (Rugby Tour Committee member), the Warden, Gavin Rennie of the Development Office, and Huw Thomas, first XV coach. Many thanks to all those who sold the draw tickets, and of course, to those who bought them! The list of winners is here.

If you need to, you can use the free Adobe Reader download.

---

Confirmation

College Chaplain Father Giles Dove prepared 30 pupils for Confirmation by the Most Rev'd David Chillingworth, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld & Dunblane and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Unfortunately, one candidate was unwell on the day so will be confirmed at a later date. The candidates were also welcomed into the fellowship of the Church of Scotland by local minister the Rev'd Philip Patterson of Methven and Logiealmond Church. The Warden read the Gospel, the Chapel Choir were on fine form, and College Sacristan Alex Irons-Young served at the altar.

---

Camp Rock - The Junior Musical

The Junior production of Camp Rock ran for four successful performances including a matinée, which was well attended by more than 160 pupils from local primary and prep school pupils including Ardvreck, Balhousie, Crieff, Logiealmond, Methven and Ruthvenfield. At Camp Rock, 'it's all about music', and that was as true for our visiting pupils and staff, who enjoyed themselves joining in and rocking along with the songs, as it was for the cast.

---

Crieff Primary School Visit

As part of its programme to strengthen links with the local community, Glenalmond College invited pupils from Crieff Primary School to visit the College to take part in a range of activities.

The format for the two days was established when Alice Jaggard OG, a teacher at Crieff Primary, got in touch with Mark Nichols, outdoor activities co-ordinator at Glenalmond.

Two groups took part, from Primary 6 and Primary 7. The younger pupils had a mixed day of orienteering, drama and swimming. The older pupils first enjoyed the spring sunshine with a game of rounders, then got down to some serious science with "the Red Hot Cheese Wire of Science" and "the Pencil of Death", two experiments which were certain to make Physics interesting!

---

Afternoon Tea Raises Charity Funds

Glenalmond College pupils chose a novel way to raise funds for charity, by holding an afternoon tea party. The fifth form girls, from Cairnies, put on the afternoon tea for pupils, staff and parents, and had a range of stalls selling jewellery, cards, scarves and, of course, cakes!

---

Lower Sixth Lecture by John Gillespie

---

Fifth Successive Golf Blue

Ruaraidh Stewart OG has just achieved his fifth successive Golf "Blue" for Cambridge. An amazing achievement for anyone - not least a student reading medicine.

---

Fire Training

All III Form pupils have now completed a fire training course, which guides them through the dangers and risks of fire, as well as providing instruction on how to raise the alarm and a practical demonstration on how to tackle small fires.

---

Lacrosse Scotland Selections

---

Glenalmond Parents Learn to Cook!

Glenalmond Parents enjoyed two masterclasses recently at "Let's Cook" in Abernethy. One group learnt about the art of breadmaking, while the other brushed up their skills with a course on creative canapés!

---

Language Fair

III Form pupils learnt about the importance of languages in all fields of employment at the recent Language Fair. A number of outside speakers came to talk to small groups of pupils about how languages could be used in all walks of life, and to explain how the knowledge of languages other than English is gaining importance in the employment market.

 

---

British Childrens' Skiing

Glenalmond staff Patrick and Janine Erdal (shown far left and second left) helped run the British Childrens' Ski Championships in Meribel during the Easter holiday. The photo shows the organisers with Prince Edward (second from right, front row), who presented the prizes.

---

Field Day

11 May was Field Day at Glenalmond, and pupils undertook a range of activities, both in and out of the school. Different sections of the CCF visited the River Clyde Fleet Tender, RAF Leuchars, and Port Edgar for power boating, while the Army section carried out a programme of activities within the school grounds. Other pupils got involved in hill walking, climbing, canoeing, mountain biking, conservation, recycling, charity wood chopping and on-site community service activities with Junior Entry going to M+Ds!

---

STEM Day

Third Form pupils took part in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) day in May. Their project was to make model cars which were powered by capacitors. These could be charged up but then had to run on a single charge. The project culminated in a car race across the Front Quad, made more entertaining by the fact that not all the cars managed to run in a straight line! Some of the pupils are shown here with their cars.

---

Hydreau on the Almond

Pupils saw science in action with the testing of a prototype portable hydro power unit on the River Almond, in the school grounds. Hydreau, co-founded by an OG, aims to produce units for use in third world countries to provide power and water purification to rural villages. The prototype unit has been developed by Rolls Royce apprentices who came to Glenalmond to test and refine it before progressing to the next stage of development.

---

 Lysistrata Star

Actor Colin McRedie, well known star of Taggart and River City, was here at the College to discuss his recent starring role in Lysistrata. The Aristophanes play is studied by 6th Form pupils of Ancient History and of Drama. Colin is pictured here with John Wright who teaches Ancient History, Annabel, Iona and Thomas all of whom have made their mark in Drama at Glenalmond.

---

Alba Quartet

The renowned Alba Quartet visited Glenalmond recently, and some of our young musicians got the opportunity to rehearse and play with the group in a day of master classes and performances.

---

Choir Success

Congratulations to Emily Harrison who has been offered a place in the main National Youth Choir of Scotland.

---

Primary Orienteering

Around 70 pupils from primary schools in Perth and Kinross enjoyed beautiful weather for their annual orienteering competition, held at Glenalmond. The course took around 45 minutes to complete, and saw children exploring all parts of the campus. The competition was won by a team from Comrie primary school, with two teams from St Dominic's primary school in Crieff coming in second and third place.

---

Historical Visit

Members of the Dunkeld and Birnam Historical Society visited Glenalmond recently, to find out more about the history of the school and its buildings. They were given a guided tour by Glenalmond's archivist, Elaine Mundill (shown on the left of the photo), starting at the Gladstone statue in Front Quad.

---

Parliamentary Insight

On the eve of the elections to the Scottish Parliament, Glenalmond third formers gained an insight into the roles and responsibilities of MSPs, through the Parliament's outreach education programme. The interactive sessions gave the pupils an understanding of the scope of the Scottish Parliament's powers, and which policy areas are devolved to Holyrood and which are reserved to Westminster. The sessions will be followed up with a visit by an MSP to Glenalmond.

There's a pupil's report here

---

Coll: Winners of the SRU U18 Plate Final

Glenalmond beat Glasgow HS at the Murrayfield Back Pitches to acquire the Brewin Dolphin Cup.

The full story is here 

---

Victory in SRU Plate Semi-Final

Glenalmond achieved an impressive 20-0 victory over the High School of Dundee in the SRU Plate Semi-Final held in early March. The full match report, SRU Schools U18 Plate Semi-Final, explains how they played for such a decisive win.

Glenalmond's full back scores under the posts

---

Scottish Youth Parliament

Congratulations to Jenny Anderton (LVI) who has been selected as a member of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYP), representing South Perth. She will also have a seat on the Youth Council.

---

Schools come together in song at St Mary's Cathedral

Glenalmond College, Belhaven Hill Preparatory School and the City of Edinburgh Music School came together to stage an outstanding concert at St Mary's Cathedral at the weekend (Sunday 6 March).

For the full story, follow this link: Choral Society at St Mary's Cathedral

---

Role of NATO in the 21st Century

In February, Paul Heward from the Defence Academy gave pupils from the William Bright Society and LVI a view of "The role of NATO in the 21^st century". Starting with the beginnings of NATO in 1948 and moving forward to its current role, the lecture was intriguing and informative, and gave the pupils an understanding of the shifting global picture of international relations.

---

Piping for St Johnstone

The pipe band impressed the crowd when they were invited to play at the St Johnstone vs Dundee United match at McDiarmid Park in February. The full band made an impressive sight, and sound, both pre-match and at half-time, and won applause from the supporters of both teams.

---

Chocolate and Love

Glenalmond College LVI gained an insight into the world of the entrepreneur from former pupil and founder of ChocolateAndLove.com, Richard O'Connor.

In a very lively session, with plenty of discussion and questions from the audience, Richard explained that in his view, entrepreneurship is not so much about having a unique idea, as about having the tenacity, focus and commitment to work hard. Borrowing the Nike slogan, he encouraged the pupils to "just do it"!

Having inspired the pupils to think about setting up their own businesses, Richard went on to tell them more about his current venture, ChocolateAndLove.com which sources the best chocolate from around the world. While the pupils clearly enjoyed the presentation, one of the highlights was, naturally, the chocolate samples they were encouraged to try!

---

Career Insight: The Life of the Vigneron

Mr Syd Littleford provided LVI pupils with a fascinating insight into the work of the vigneron when he visited Glenalmond at the start of February.

He highlighted the need to adapt to career changes throughout life, by telling the story of his path to vineyard ownership. His talk touched on the need to balance technical and scientific expertise with marketing, selling, economic planning and management skills, along with the requirement to conform to legal requirements - particularly strict in Western Australia in relation to wine production.

As well as explaining his job as a vigneron, he also talked about attractions of the life, his involvement with the tending of the vineyard and the respect for nature necessitated by the season by season routine.

Glenalmond Concert at St Ninian's Cathedral

Music scholars from Glenalmond College performed at St Ninian's Cathedral in Perth on Saturday 5 February as part of the Cathedral's concert series. The ten pupils performed a number of solo pieces and duets, directed by the College's Director of Music, Tim Ridley.

---

A* for All

Glenalmond College Maths pupils are celebrating an outstanding set of results from their November 2010 GCSE exams. All fifteen pupils who sat their GCSE Maths exams early in fifth form have achieved A* grades. Getting an A* mark would be a noteworthy achievement for any pupil, but for these marks to have been achieved by pupils sitting their exams two terms early makes them even more remarkable.

Most of these pupils will take A Level Mathematics and start by studying the first module in fifth form. Many plan to study A Level Further Mathematics and are aiming for careers in Engineering, Computer Science, Economics or Mathematics.

This is part of Glenalmond College's programme for providing for academically gifted pupils.

There are many able pupils still to sit the examination in June 2011 and more A* grades are expected from this strong year group.

We would like to congratulate all the pupils who worked hard for their success

Flag Officer Visits CCF

Glenalmond College CCF was visited by Flag Officer Scotland, Northern England and Northern Ireland (FOSNNI) at the start of February. Rear Admiral Alabaster had a tour of the College, then was escorted by Coxswain Lauren McLaughlin, Flight Sergeant Sarah Stephens and Lance Corporal Cameron Montgomery on a tour around the CCF building and saw the various training activities being undertaken as part of the Glenalmond CCF Wednesday afternoon programme.  As the senior officer in charge of all RN cadets throughout the UK, he also took the opportunity to speak to many of the cadets during his visit.

Top Scottish Businessman Inspires Glenalmond College Pupils

Glenalmond College pupils gained a unique insight into the world of business and finance at a lecture at the school by Lord Smith of Kelvin, Chairman of the Weir Group, Scottish and Southern Electricity and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Read more here...