Glenalmond College News Archive

For Archived News Stories Trinity Term 2013 click on the following link:

For Archived News Stories Lent Term 2013 click on the following link: News Stories Lent 2013

For Archived News Stories Michaelmas Term 2012 click on the following link: New Stories Michaelmas 2012

For Archived News Stories Trinity Term 2012 click on the following link:

For Archived News Stories Lent Term 2012 click on the following link:

For Archived News Stories from 2010-2011 click on the following link: Archived News Stories 2010-2011

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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 raffle prize winners.

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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Lower Sixth Lecture by John Gillespie

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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.

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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.

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Lacrosse Scotland Selections

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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!

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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.

 

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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 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.

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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.

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Choir Success

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

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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.

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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.

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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 The Scottish Parliament Outreach Programme

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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 SRU Rugby Plate U18 Final 2011 

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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

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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. Lord Smith Of Kelvin

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!

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. Lord Smith Of Kelvin

Junior Golf Team Competition

The annual Midsummer Junior Golf Team Competition hosted by Glenalmond was won by the junior team from Strathmore Golf Club near Alyth. The runners up were Dunning and the best individual score was made by Rory Stewart of Crieff. The winning team is pictured left with the Warden who presented the trophy.

Maths Distinction

Tim Pearson has been awarded a Distinction for coming in the top 25% in Britain in the Intermediate Maths Olympiad Paper. He has also been offered a place to attend master classes at the National Maths Summer School.

Many German parents are sending their children to Scotland for a more rounded education.

Scotland's independent schools are attracting significantly more German pupils than any other nationality, thanks to concerns about their country's education system. 
 

Scottish Island Peaks Race 2009

The mixed team finishing at Troon after rowing in from the yacht to the pontoon to officially check in.

Organiser Curly Mill commented that it was humbling to see the enthusiasm of these young people who, after enduring the extreme hardships of the race on both land and sea for the longest time of all, still having the energy to sprint up the gang plank and to smile for the camera.

Photos are at Photo Gallery

Matheson's Victorious

Matheson's team of Jake Jauncey, Angus Walker and Will Sanderson edged themselves into victory in the Senior House Golf competition on Thursday 14^th May, fighting off some stiff competition from Goodacre's. In particular Angus' score of 47 and Will's 46 (the third best score of the day) helped them secure victory and retain the trophy for the second year. Will was awarded House Half Colours for his performance.
Matheson's

Gurkha Hero Remembered

On Sunday 10th May the College remembered a former pupil who was killed in action commanding a Gurkha patrol in Borneo in 1963.

After Chapel the newly constructed Combined Cadet Force Headquarters was named the Hugh Wallace Building in his memory.

Easter Egg Hunt and Breakfast

This year Mrs Woods combined her traditional Easter egg hunt with a Breakfast Event in aid of Mercy Ships. Mercy Ships was the charity chosen to be supported by this year's Give Gig following a talk given to the school by Dr Keith Thomson OG.

The event, held before Chapel on the last Sunday of the Lent term, was very well attended and raised £100.

Congratulations

to the senior boys' Cross Country Team who won the Scottish Schools event for the sixth time in eight years

to Katie Coventry who has been awarded a Choral Scholarship at Royal Holloway College

to Seamus Begg who has been awarded a bursary by the Perth Chamber Music Society

to Joshua Gibson who came 1^st in the Advanced Viola Solo Class of the Perform in Perth Festival.

Charity Car Wash

Under the watchful eye of Junior Entry Tutors Father Giles and Mrs Dove, II Form pupils recently spent two-and-a-half hours washing cars at Coll to raise funds for this year's Give Gig chosen charity, Mercy Ships.

Visit of Dame Mary Tanner

President of the World Council of Churches Dame Mary Tanner is the latest in a line of distinguished visitors to Glenalmond

Fair Bean or Foul?

The Glenalmond Food and Wines Society met recently for a talk and a tasting of Ethiopian coffees led by Sarah Sherlock of Highland Coffee...

Doubled success in the Intermediate Maths Challenge!

This year 101 pupils from forms 3-5 entered the Maths Challenge in February. Pupils from the Fifth form gained 4 gold, 4 silver and 6 bronze awards; 4 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze were awarded to Fourth form pupils and in the Third form there were 3 silver and 5 bronze awards. This is an outstanding doubling of last year's achievements in all sections.

Three Fourth form pupils obtained the highest marks in the College with one progressing to the first round of the British Olympiad and two through to the Pink Kangaroo Round. Two fifth form pupils also gained scores for qualification to the Pink Kangaroo Round.

Politics trip to London

The Lower Sixth Politics group were taken to the Palace of Westminster and given tours of both Houses of Parliament by Lord Strathclyde (Tory leader in the Lords) and Ben Wallace (former MSP and M.P for Lancaster and Wyre), after which they met in Lord Strathclyde's office for an informal chat and a Question and Answer session.

The Glenalmond Cup 2009

The Glenalmond Cup 2009 saw seven schools taking part: Ardvreck, Cargilfield, Craigclowan, Dollar, Kilgraston, Morrison's and St. Mary's and combined with Glenalmond dummy teams, 24 teams took part all debating two motions: "This house believes that America is Britain's friend" and "This house feels that sport is over-rated".....

Congratulations to the Give Gig Crew

The Give Gig, Glenalmond's pupils' major charity fundraising event of the year, took place on the last Saturday in January 2009.

A collective effort from musicians, singers, stand-ups and actors resulted in an absolutely outstanding evening's entertainment.

The sketch writing was sharp, edgy and beautifully timed; every bit as good as the Footlights.

The standard of the nine music acts was, quite simply, professional, delivering what the audience might think was possibly the finest Give Gig yet.

Congratulations to the 1st Lacrosse Team

For the fifth year running, Glenalmond's 1st XII Lax team have won the small schools tournament, played last weekend at Casterton. Not a single defeat, although the semi-final v Loretto went to extra time, our girls adding two goals in those last four minutes to advance 4-2 to the Final against Fettes.

A full report, with scores, is at the Lacrosse page

Congratulations to Katie Coventry

Having spent some years in the training choir, Katie Coventry, who has recently gained distinctions for the ABRSM Exams in piano (Grade 7) and voice (Grade 8), has now gained a place in the main National Youth Choir of Great Britain. She will be one of about 16 altos in this prestigious group, made up of the very best young singers in the UK. The choir will tour America for three weeks this summer and make a CD recording in Los Angeles. Katie is also a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland.

Junior Entry triumph

10 weeks ago Sensation Centre in Dundee invited Glenalmond College to participate in a 10 week project (Go4SET - Go for Science, Engineering and Technology) organised by the Engineering and Development Trust to design an environmentally friendly hotel.
Junior Entry Engineering Win

"Alumni Montium" Launch

David Willington's history of the last sixty years of Glenalmond College's history was launched in Coll on Sunday November 30th. Mr Willington described the approach he used to develop the style and structure of the book, richly furnished with photographs throughout, which provides the reader with a detailed review of the development of Coll under successive Wardens.

Mrs Marshall, Director of Alumni and Development, will be delighted to receive your order for this fine hard back history.

Lush Life

"Lush", a Geordie word meaning something very pleasurable, was exactly what this musical production presented the audience with this week.

The singing of of Ella Fitzgerald songs by all six girls in the cast was outstanding, backed by a trio of Graham Robb, Ken Murray and pupil Seryn Burden.

The atmosphere, enhanced by part of the audience seated at tables at the front of the auditorium, elevated the entire production to a convincing evocation of a Newcastle nightclub, whose singer(s) flew to L.A., meeting the beat cop who witnessed the chilling ending of a life-long obsession of Lotte Hanway with the renowned Ella.

There are pictures in the Photo Gallery

Golf News

Carly Booth, the defending champion in the girls' section of this weekend's Daily Telegraph Junior Championship in Abu Dhabi, retained her title winning by six strokes. She is the third champion to retain her title.

The Glenalmond College Choral Society...

...presented the very challenging Requiem by Maurice Duruflé on Sunday November 23rd, conducted by Duncan Ferguson (pictured left), Master of the Music at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh.

Exceptional organ playing by Robert Gower, cello by Lizzy Bartholomew and soloists Seumas Begg and Katie Coventry made for an entrancing time, sadly missed by those who were, no doubt, put off by the snow!

Romeo and Juliet Trip Wednesday 29th October

Seventy members of the Fourth and Fifth Forms set off on Wednesday evening armed with a docket supper and a ticket to see the much coveted RSC's touring production of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's lovelorn tragedy. In all it was an interesting performance, set as it was in Mafia-run Verona. It was jazzed up with a fantastic band and the scene changes offered the simple set depth and intrigue although the "two hours traffic of our stage" was uncomfortably extended to three! However, it is always a great opportunity to see our studied GCSE plays brought to life on stage and particularly when presented by the RSC. Many thanks to the staff who helped to oversee this dramatic evening. Mr Forshaw's class, I hear, have leapt on wildly in their coursework, so all's well that ends well.

Visit of Founder's great-granddaughter

We were honoured to recently receive Visit of Gladstone's Great Granddaughter

Dress Easy Day

... with a touch of tartan -

Alexandra Bushby wins Scottish Champion of Champions Golf

Alexandra Bushby (Lothian House 1997-1999)

Prep Schools Choral Day

Over a hundred and seventy prep school pupils joined Glenalmond's Choral Society singers for this annual event

Carly Booth awarded Golf Scholarship

Scottish golfing prodigy Carly Booth (age16) is to be the first recipient of a Golf Scholarship for 6th form entry to the College.

Shakespeare Schools Festival

On October 7th, fourteen members of the GCSE Drama...Shakespeare Schools Festival:The Tempest

3rd Form on Field Day

On Field Day Third Formers went on a walk from Moulin...

Chemists visit Ninewells

Upper VIth visit Dundee University Clinical Skills Centre...

2008 Oxbridge successes  

Congratulations to four pupils...  2008 Oxbridge successes

Tony Dent one of top ten physicists in UK

Anthony Dent from Dundee, is amongst the top ten pupils according to Edexcel, the UK's largest awarding examination body. Glenalmond pupil amongst top ten in physicists UK