A leading boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 12-18 in Perthshire, Scotland
Reid's House Christmas Newsletter 2011 (downloadable pdf)
Reid's House Lent 2012 Newsletter (downloadable pdf) - the fully illustrated, unexpurgated version)
Lent 2012 |
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Reid's House Snow Hole Expedition Taking advantage of favourable conditions over the first weekend of term I headed off to Cairngorm Mountain with four intrepid Reid's boys with the aim of spending a night in a snow cave just below the summit of Scotland's third highest mountain. After an equipment organisation session on Wednesday evening we departed just after break on the Saturday morning. We then able to start up the mountain in glorious sunshine at about 2:30, arriving at the snow hole location some two hours later just as daylight was fading. This particular spot gets used quite a bit by winter mountaineering training groups and so we were able to find some pre-dug caves. A couple of hours of work saw one of these enlarged sufficiently for four people to lie down comfortably. |
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Reid's Burns Supper In addition to the College Burn's Night, Reid's House again held its own Burns Supper in the Reid's Dining Hall. This event is always a particular favourite with the boys, not least because the Sixth Form are permitted to invite a female guest!
The youngest member of the House, Finlay Graham, was the "Haggis Bearer" and he was expertly "piped in" by Robert Wilson.
The address to the Haggis was led by Head of House John Sampson, but it was a "tag team" effort and all the Upper Sixth contributed.
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Junior House Hockey The Reid's juniors put in a magnificent team performance in this competition and as a result secured a very impressive second place overall having won all but one of their games. In recognition of this significant achievement, half colours were awarded to: Olli Onslow (Captain) Jamie Corkery Malte Schmidt Albert Cases Charlie Leckie Ed Brooksbank Silvester von Rotenhan Archie Rettie Rory Myles A special commendation is also due to Paddy James Duff (1st XI goalkeeper) who did some excellent coaching work with the junior team. |
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It's a Long Way to the Top (if you want to Rock and Roll) The last night before half term was the Glenalmond House Instrumental Competition. Reid's were keen to find something which would create a fusion of our considerable piping talent with our established performers on the guitar, drums and piano. With this in mind, we opted for the ACDC classic "It's a Long Way to the Top if you want to Rock and Roll" for our first number. The slick rock intro, followed by the impeccable entrance of the three pipers impressed the judges. Our second piece involved a change of line up, with Third Former Jack Sommerville coming in on drums, Nathan West on piano, and Paddy on vocals. It's also worth pointing out that there was only one member of the Sixth Form involved and the rest of the performers were Fifth Form and below. The night was an important milestone for this nucleus of young talent in Reid's who will undoubtedly be a real force to be reckoned with over the next few years. |
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Valentine's Ball The Reid's boys scrubbed up wonderfully for this year's "Masquerade" Valentine's Ball. I'm pleased to report that the Ball delivered the full spectrum of emotions that one would hope for from such an event. Still, it's better to have loved and lost etc etc. |
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Representative Honours Congratulations to Peter Glen who has been short listed for the UK Cadets Shooting Tour of the Channel Islands in August. The final team of 12 will be selected following a three day selection process at Bisley towards the end of March. We wish him the best of luck in this and hope to see him selected for the tour in August. Congratulations also to Fergus Sandison who has been selected for the Scotland U18 Hockey squad. Fergus is aiming to be included in next year's U18 European Championship squad and so will be working very hard on his hockey over the coming months. It goes without saying that Fergus was a key player in the Glenalmond 1st XI team that won this year's Scottish Schools hockey competition. | |
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Reid's Sixth form about to depart for St Andrew's Ball House Music Competition Head of House John Sampson cleverly crafted our two entries into this competition which maximised the strengths and minimised the weaknesses (i.e. singing!) of the Reid's boys. Our Partsong entry was the ultra cool French Rap song "Alors on Dance". The French lyrics sung by Constantine Le Vernoy, who looked very at home on the Glenalmond stage, which the English lyrics sung by John Sampson. They were supported by Nathan West on guitar and the "Blanc, Blue, Rouge" backing vocal and "beat box" team of: Les Blues: Robbie Swift, George Fleming Les Blancs: Paddy James Duff, John Sampson, Constantine Le Vernoy Les Rouges: Hamish Conway, Tom Dracup Our House Shout entry was a dance extravaganza version of the all time classic "I Will Survive" featuring an unforgettable opening solo from the "mankini" clad George Fleming followed by a carefully choreographed dance routine by the whole House. It closed with a solo dance routine from Jamie Corkery. Obviously during events like these it is normal for the sixth form boys to take the lead, but I was particularly impressed with the enthusiasm and commitment shown by front row dancers Finlay Graham and Oli Onslow who ran last minute tutorials to get the other boys' moves up to their own slick standards. This ensured that when Gloria commanded us to "just turn around now" the Reid's boys did exactly that in perfect funky unison. Although we were never favourites to win this competition I was very proud of all the effort that the boys put in and the real winner on the night was entertainment. Our performance drew many positive comments from other members of staff. Mrs Sinclair said that she loved it and that it was "everything a House Shout performance should be". Miss Kirk, who teaches drama, was also very impressed that the boys looked so relaxed and were obviously enjoying themselves on stage as she had never seen them perform like this before. | |
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We wanted the refurbishment of the Junior Common Room in Reid's to be in keeping with the styles of the times from 1962 when the House was built. We also wanted it to be consistent with the theme of "Once a Reid's Boy, Always a Reid's Boy" which runs through the whole refurbishment.
With this in mind, we have created a montage of Andy Warhol style "Pop Art" photos of all the Reid's boys. The intention is that this will now become a living display and all future Reid's boys will photographed in this style when they arrive.
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Climbing at Dunkeld
Having promised Phillip that I would take him out to bag his first Munro during his extended taster visit this term I was keen to keep my word as the end of term approached. As always in Scotland the weather intervened and dictated a change of plan which took us to Dunkeld to go rock climbing instead. This was the first experience of outdoor climbing on real rock for both Archie and Phillip and they relished the challenge. We packed a lot into the day, doing two classic climbs and finishing with an abseil descent from a hanging belay after being caught in a rain shower.
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Fergus Makes Glenalmond Golf History! Fergus was part of the Glenalmond team which won the Scottish School's Golf competition at Glenalmond this term. Playing in what were described as difficult conditions by Dr Stewart, Fergus equalled the course record for a pupil which has stood since 1977. He is now only one shot away from the absolute course record set by Wallace Booth who is now a professional golfer. |
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Seb wins Glenalmond Squash Seb's four year wait for an inter-House squash competition finally paid off within days of his leaving thanks to Mr Lugton organising the event. Seb won all his games to emerge as the overall winner and is pictured here still in the full flush of victory! |
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Camp Rock
Reid's House had a very strong representation in the junior musical production of "Camp Rock". The two lead roles of Shane and Nate Gray were played by our very own Nathan West and Paddy James Duff. Two summer camps battle it out in the final jam to save Camp Rock. Brothers Shane and Nate Gray save the day with their singing. Along the way Nate Gray finds romance with Dana from the enemy camp and Shane works hard to save his relationship with Mitchie.
Democracy Comes to Reid's
This year, my fourth as Housemaster, I decided to introduce a ballot to determine the appointments of potential Prefects. This was an idea I had been developing for some time and it builds upon the procedures of application and interview which were already in place. Candidates could apply for two of the following appointments:
Head of House
III Form Prefect
IV Form Prefect
V Form Prefect
Following their application, they had the opportunity to address the House and spell out their reasons for wishing to become a Prefect. The vote, in which all Reid's pupils, Reid's tutors and House Matron participated, took place shortly afterwards.
Form Orders
In order to stimulate healthy academic competition, each set of form orders is compiled into a House "effort league". The highest ranked boy in each year group is shown below. The asterisk denotes top of the House.
Year Name
III Form Archie Rettie
IV Form Seamus Ogilvie
V Form Matthew Oliver
L6 Form Jack Wilson
U6 Form Blake Wu*
Scottish Islands Peaks Race 2011
This year's event again included a strong Reid's contingent, with Seb Schofield and George Fleming competing in the event for the first time and Fred Swift returning to run for a second time. I was also taking part again as an adult runner, but the logistics were such that I was not able to run with the Reid's boys this year.
Things got off to a good start for the boys team on Mull. I ran this with Will Sanderson (M) and James Bradley (P) starting 15 minutes behind the Fettes team. I am pleased to report that we overhauled this lead and beat them to the top of the mountain. They did get ahead of us on the return leg, but we still finished with a 12 minute lead over them after recording a time of 3hrs 35 minutes, which may well be a record for a Glenalmond team on Mull and was certainly a new PB for me.
The mixed team on Mull, which consisted of George Fleming, Iona Gaskell, Amy Izat and Mrs Henderson started about an hour and a half after us. Although they reached the summit in good time, sadly for them the weather closed in as they were descending and they become disorientated as night was falling. They were just considering retiring to their survival bags for the night when the race marshal found them and brought them back to the boats after about seven hours on the mountain.
Bad luck then struck the boys team whose boat, Sceptre, struck a submerged rock as they were approaching Jura and was damaged. For safety reasons the boys team then transferred to the other boat (Blue Damsel) after completing the Jura run. Sceptre made for port with just the crew on board, but their damaged rudder failed completely as they were rounding the Mull of Kintyre and they had to be towed to safety by a passing warship!
A crowded Blue Damsel then sailed on to Arran, where both teams recorded impressive times. Seb Schofield was running this leg with the mixed team.
Although both teams were technically disqualified as a result of these misfortunes, this mattered little to the pupils who had set themselves the personal challenge of completing this event. I read somewhere that to be a true adventure an undertaking should involved "uncertainty of outcome" and the 2011 event certainly qualified in this respect!
I am pleased to report though that this year's event has in no way diminished enthusiasm for the event. George Fleming said straight away that he wanted to return next year and run on Arran (his family home) and he will be joined by Jock Cameron and Robbie Swift who both have very strong pedigrees as distance runners.
House Shoot 2011
Despite the business of this Trinity term, the traditional Reid's House Charity Clay Pigeon Shoot at Gleneagles was again a well supported event, with 21 pairs (mostly "father and son") shooting on the day. This year we also welcomed three members of next year's III Form intake to the event with Robert Wilson (Craigclowan), Findlay Graham (Ardvreck) and Jack Sommerville (Cargilfield) all taking part.
This year things were very tight at the top but Chris and Fred Swift emerged as the winning pair having both scored 36/50. The highest scoring individual was Chris Clayhills-Henderson on 40/50. The detailed scores are shown in the downloadable version of the newsletter.
The Swifts selected the Vanessa Grant Trust as the Charity of their choice and they received a cheque for £260.05. The Vanessa Grant Trust is a UK registered charity established to fund and support educational projects in Rongai, Kenya.
Thanks as ever go to Colin and Johanna Wilson for organising the day and to the Glenalmond catering staff for the wonderful buffet back at Reid's afterwards.
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