newslinesTHEGLASGOW ACADEMY

Founded 1845

Number 64 February 2012

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Eight for Oxbridge No fewer than eight S6 pupils have received Oxford and Cambridge offers – a record number in recent years.

Robyn Phillips has received an offer to read Biological Sciences at Merton College, Oxford. Meanwhile seven pupils have received Cambridge offers. They are Madeleine Airlie (English, Clare); Peter Charles (Geography, Emmanuel); Lily Mortimer (Law, Homerton); Christopher Simpson (Law, Gonville & Caius); Leanne Massie (Natural Sciences, Newnham); Catriona Murray (Natural Sciences, Murray Edwards) and Cameron Scally (Natural Sciences, Clare).

Congratulations both to the above pupils who have worked hard to achieve these offers in an unusually wide range of subject areas and to all S6 pupils who have been receiving offers for their chosen universities.

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After successes with Les Miserables and Fiddler on the Roof, audiences had high expectations of December’s musical production. They were not disappointed: in terms of its music, its acting and its spectacle, Hot Mikado lived up to the high standards of its predecessors.

Neil Millar, Head of Drama, who this year co-directed the show, commented: ‘It was important to do a production that was stylistically different to our two previous musical

productions, and we achieved that with Hot Mikado. Our pupils understand that theatre is a real collaborative art form, so it is wonderful to watch pupils in the band or backstage working alongside the performers to achieve the high standard of performances. This doesn’t happen overnight, however, and I have been proud of what our pupils achieved during the three months of rehearsals. It makes it all worthwhile.’

The Greatest Story of AllThe Prep School’s Christmas Show this year, entitled The Greatest Story of All, was a retelling of the Christmas story in words and music.

Musically, the show was a triumph – the songs composed by Mr Alastair McColl of The Academy’s Music Department and sung by P3-7 providing a wonderful musical commentary on the unfolding drama.

Congratulations to Mrs MacLeod, Mr McColl and everyone involved in putting together a tremendous show.

Hot Mikado and fashion show photos by Roberto Cavieres

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With almost 30 years of experience in the acting industry, and an extraordinary journey to fame, Blythe Duff was certainly a special presence at the Dallachy Lecture, 2011.

The evening began with a tangible excitement in the air, as Blythe talked excitedly about her past, and some of the incredible people she has worked with in both TV and theatre over the years.

From the Coliseum in London to the

For five days in October, seventy-four pupils and eight members of staff took part in the fifth Glasgow Academy music tour, which this year visited Barcelona in Spain. It was a now-familiar mix of concerts and sightseeing, the highlight possibly being the ‘totally outstanding’ concert they gave in Saint Salvador church, Montserrat where the choir – under Mr Jonathan Hawkins – learned to deal with a five-second echo!

At the end of the tour, Mr Martyn Marshall, Director of Music, summed up the experience: ‘This music tour was one of the best that we have ever done and the children put on some extremely good concerts with standing ovations all the time. The choir particularly was working much better as a team and was really beginning to understand what performing is all about – superb!’

Citizens Theatre here in Glasgow, Blythe really has seen it all, and the opportunity to hear about her experience from her own unique perspective was extremely enjoyable. Perhaps one of the best features of the lecture was the vibrancy with which it was

delivered; as most in the audience could tell, Blythe truly loved her profession. With members of S6 so close to making career decisions, it was both interesting and reassuring to observe at first-hand the magical effect that working in an industry that you are passionate about can have on your life.

The further we delved into Blythe’s past, the more evident it was that the journey to being a household name was definitely not an easy one, and for those aspiring thespians among us,

it was a chance to gain a realistic understanding of the industry. As Blythe is best known for her role in the internationally-recognized TV series Taggart, the evening could not pass without at least one person exclaiming; ‘There’s been a murder!’ However, we saw another side of Blythe as she described in vivid detail her continual support and promotion of Scottish Youth Theatre, as well as her love of production through her own company aptly named ‘Datum Point’. Blythe plans to continue her work in Scottish theatre and television, and we wish her the very best for the future.

Overall, the message weaved through Blythe’s lecture came across with exceptional clarity, and though it was most pertinent to those considering a future in the acting profession, we could all take something valuable away from the evening – if you really love what you do, if you are dedicated and determined, if you put in the hard work, anything is possible.

Anumita Dhullipala, S6

Dallachy Lecture

Blythe Duff with Cameron and Karin

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During the October week, 40 pupils and six members of staff set off for New York and Washington DC with the History and Modern Studies Department. This is the third time we have run this trip, with the focus being on the political and historical aspects of these two cities – and, as ever, those who participated will reap the rewards in the USA unit of their higher course.

In NY, we visited the new 9/11 memorial, Wall Street (where we saw first-hand the Occupy Wall Street movement in action) the African American Burial Ground, St Paul’s Chapel, Trinity Church, the Vietnam Memorial, Grand Central Terminal, Central Park, Top of the Rock, The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We also took in Billy Elliot on Broadway, visited Madame Tussauds to have our

photos taken with ‘the Obamas’ and watched The Ides of March in the Times Square movie theatre.

In DC, we took in the Holocaust Museum, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Supreme Court, The Capitol Building (which included getting into the House of Representatives Chamber), the Museum of the African American, Arlington Cemetery (where we watched the changing of the guard ceremony at the tomb of the unknown soldier, as well as seeing JFK’s burial spot), the new Martin Luther King Jnr Memorial and the Newseum (where we watched the breaking news of Col Gadaffi’s final overthrow on the big screen!). For the second trip in a row we were also lucky enough to have Obama’s motorcade zoom past us!

How to get ahead in Modern Studies exams…

Sharan’s still No. 1Congratulations to Sharan Maiya who has once again come first out over 56,000 pupils who participated in the Four Nations Maths Challenge this November. As Iain Smith, the National Manager for Mathletics in Scotland and Northern Ireland, commented: ‘What a star you have in Sharan Maiya – coming first again in our hotly-contested Four Nations Maths Challenge’.

In March Sharan will participate in the World Maths Games in which he was placed sixth out of over 5 million last year – a wonderful achievement.

A team of ten S2 pupils travelled to North Glasgow College for the first ‘Construction and Built Environment Challenge’ in the West of Scotland in December. There they were presented with a series of challenges ranging from building a picnic table to wiring an electrical circuit.

They may not have won the competition, but it was a great exercise in teamwork.

Team building

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Road sense at AthollAs part of their focus on road safety, members of Atholl’s School Council have been busy devising Atholl’s ‘Road Safety Contract’. They’re encouraging all pupils, parents and staff to learn it and stick to it – so that everyone in the school community can be safe on the roads.

As their Enterprise project in December, Dairsie’s P1 children delivered the Christmas post. They made a very fancy post box then sorted, ‘franked’ and delivered the Dairsie children’s mail – no easy task with all those Christmas cards needing to find proper homes!

The Dairsie choir preparing to sing Christmas carols at Silverburn shopping centre in aid of Yorkhill Hospital. They raised £164 for Ronald McDonald House.

Atholl’s Chinese teacher, Miss Liao, spoke to Atholl parents recently about Chinese Culture and Mandarin characters. She discussed the importance of learning another language and the problem-solving element to decoding the characters.

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Sixth Year fund raisingOver the course of last term a great deal of fun was had by the Sixth Year organising fund-raising events. The annual Slave Auction was a huge success, with plenty of First Years getting the prefects to do their every bidding, as was the 24 Hour Sports event, which had a huge number of senior pupils running about in the middle of the night to keep warm as the heating system wasn’t working! An innovative event this year was a Film Night, which was well supported and may become a regular in the charities calendar. At the start of January Mrs Liz Osborne from LEPRA was at assembly to receive a cheque for £2000 from Suhaib Siddiqui and Danae Constantine.

Back in September, 51 Senior pupils and seven staff took part in SHINE – Cancer Research’s Night-time walking marathon. Just over half the pupils opted for the gruelling marathon rather than the half marathon. Beginning at 9.40pm, the last of the marathon walkers crossed the finish line inside the SECC at around 7.45am.

Miss Calder takes up the story: ‘We had a fundraising target of £4085 and, as well as individual sponsorship, we held cake stalls every day of the week in the run up to the event. Every tutor group in Fraser House contributed to the baking effort and the stall raised £695.90 for the cause. In total we raised £6614.96 and we also donated 60 bags of clothing, DVDs etc, each of which was estimated to be worth around £30 to Cancer Research, when they sell these items in their shops. This takes our grand total contribution up to £8414.96! A remarkable effort from everyone involved!’

In fashionThe PTA fashion show in November was a tremendous success, raising over £3000 for school funds.

As these photos show, we have lots of model pupils at The Academy!

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Books for TanzaniaCalling all parents. Do you have books that your children no longer read? Would you like to donate them to help a developing world project through the charity

READ International?

With the enthusiastic encouragement of Dr Rebecca Sowden and the help of Mr Brian Johnston, the janitor, The Glasgow Academy has been working to ensure

that unwanted books find good homes. Rebecca and Brian have been collecting and packing books for over a year now and recently Brian drove ten pallets of

textbooks to Edinburgh to be stored before being shipped to Tanzania.

If you want to contribute to this project, send any books to Dr Sowden or to the Prep or Senior School Receptions.

Golfing successes Congratulations to Alexandra Mennie of S3 who came third in the Grand Final of the Highland Spring Junior Masters in October. Played over Gleneagles Hotel’s Queen’s Course, the competition attracted the best young golfers in Scotland, all of whom had pre-qualified in a variety of regional finals around the country. Meanwhile, by virtue of their win over St Aloysius’ ‘A’, the Senior Golf Team has qualified for the final of the West of Scotland leg of the Independent Schools Golf Competition. The team will play The High School of Glasgow next month for a place in the National Final being held at Carnoustie at the end of April.

Olympic Hockey Honours for LauraAnna and the AuthorWhen Anna Rickards was in P6 she won a competition to draw a character for inclusion in one of Jacqueline Wilson’s books. This led to a correspondence that has lasted over 5 years during which Anna (S4) has sent Jacqueline 50 or so beautifully-detailed cartoon drawings. One of these specially-chosen cartoons has been included in Ms Wilson’s exhibition ‘Daydreams and Diaries’ at Seven Stories in Newcastle. The photo (below) is of Anna at the press launch of the exhibition. As a result of the correspondence, Anna

has been offered a work placement with Random House, Ms Wilson’s publishers.

Great Britain Hockey has named former pupil Laura Bartlett as its 2011 British Olympic Association Athlete of the Year. The award is presented to the top-performing British athlete of the year and is selected by Great Britain Hockey on behalf of the British Olympic Association. It recognises Laura’s outstanding performances for Scotland over the past twelve months and her demonstration of the Olympic values of friendship, excellence and respect.

After the announcement, Laura said: ‘It is a great honour to receive such an award and I would like to thank everyone who has helped me along the way. It has been a great year to be part of such a successful Scotland squad. It’s been tough recovering from my injury and I would like to thank all of the physio support that I received in Scotland and England. I feel I’ve come back stronger and I’m looking forward to the challenges over the next year.’

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Jordan is the championAt the beginning of November, Jordan Donaldson (S1) was crowned the new 2011 British National Kart Racing Association Honda Cadet Champion with the lowest points recorded. The first ever Scotsman to win the Cadet Championship, Jordan’s points tally allowed him to take home all three NKRA trophies, including the enormous Champions Trophy. Congratulations to Jordan on this fantastic feat – a fitting way to end his Cadet racing career.

Judy Arbuckle (P7) in her Scottish colours competing with her pony, Welsh Wonder, as part of the Scottish 12-year-and-under Show-jumping Team. Judy travelled with the team to compete in Ireland and Wales.

Max is runner-upMax Aitchison of S5 sealed an excellent year in Athletics by winning the IAAF Lotto Cross Cup in Brussels in early December. That success gained him a nomination for the Daily Record Young Athlete of the Year. Max responded to the nomination with typical modesty: ‘I was really pleased when I found out but I thought someone was playing a joke. Even if I don’t win, it means a lot just to be nominated.’ In the end, he came second – but, like many of his races, he never let the front-runner out of his sights. Well done, Max, on another fine year in athletics!

Hockey winCongratulations to the 1st XI Indoor Hockey team who won the West District Indoor Hockey Tournament in early December.

On their way to winning the Sheila Moodie Quaich, the team beat Hutchesons’, Craigholme, Jordanhill and Lomond, scoring no fewer than 11 goals and conceding only two. Meanwhile the 1st XI (outdoor version!) reached the BP Cup final against High School of Glasgow, conceding the winning goal only in the last two minutes of playing time.

Cross-Country winnersFive Academy athletes represented their clubs at the Scottish West District Cross-country Championships at Irvine in early December.

They all produced fine performances over a very muddy, hilly course. Max Aitchison unleashed a fantastic sprint finish to take the U17 boys’ title. Catriona Graves ran strongly to finish third and take the bronze medal in the U15 girls’ race.

Wonder-ful!

P6 Football newsCongratulations to the P6 boys’ football team who won the Glasgow West qualifying round of the SSFA 7-a-side competition and are now through to the regional finals. The boys topped their group, winning three games and drawing one.

Three sporting highlights…

SPORTS ROUNDUP