Rector's Newsletter - March 2010

The prolonged spell of winter chill has affected many activities this term; the yellow green colour of the grass surrounding the school at present acts as a permanent reminder of the absence of sunlight and warmth.  Hockey and rugby have experienced cancellations;  the Junior Cross-Country event had to be postponed;  and snowballing even ceased quite naturally.  Nevertheless, the Senior Cross-Country ran as scheduled – and there have been spectacular photographs on the website to prove it.  The Junior School enjoyed their outdoor project at Ford Castle, and the major FP dinners of the term saw record numbers, as good food and general conviviality provided sustaining warmth.   As will be seen later in this newsletter, the spectacular achievements of the pipe band continued throughout the term, in a variety of locations.  Dollar’s name has been emblazoned on all the silverware of 2010 so far. 

Two wonderful musical concerts took place in the Gibson Auditorium, showcasing the range and depth of Dollar music from the Prep School to Form VI.  Again, the quality came clearly through the chill air.  The Christmas concert in 2010 has been booked for the newly refurbished Usher Hall in Edinburgh.  It will be good to celebrate our young musicians in the capital;  further details will be provided in due course.

The Governors, never wishing to stand still, have approved a range of projects to be completed over the summer break – the renovation of Heyworth House, the spectacular introduction of a new design to the old Playfair gym which will turn into a Sixth Form Centre, the refurbishment of the steps at the front of the Playfair Building, which will then lead into a new reception area.  Car parking provision is scheduled for the triangle, and the current music store will be turned into a music technology area.    The planning of the next major development, behind the Dewar Building, is also taking shape. 

Groups of Dollar pupils will spread out as ever during the spring break – with parties going off to Berlin, Krakow, Ulmen, Clères and so on.  The skiers go off as a large party, and our 1st XV will be led by their excellent captain Tom Hogarth on a tour of Italy.  For all, however, in the senior years, the prospect of SQA examinations looms – and the revision schedules will never be far from their thoughts.  I wish everyone an excellent break.
                                    

Kindest regards,

PUPILS

Athletics
Isla Winchester (VI) took the Silver medal in the Scottish Schools Indoor Athletics Championship for Over 16 Girls’ Pole Vault.

CCF  -  RAF  SECTION
Jamie Ritchie (VI) has been selected for the Air Cadet Pilot Scheme, and Abigail Field (V) has been selected for a Gliding scholarship course.  

Chess
In mid-March, Dollar’s Chess team had two notable successes.  Firstly, Jamie Hookham, Clemens Winter (both VI), Adam Shannon (III) and Ian Tait (I) won through to the Scottish Schools semi-final after a narrow victory over Stewart’s Melville.  The following day, the team, reinforced by Calum MacPherson (III) and Ross Johnston (I) won the annual Law Society One Day Event open to all Scottish schools.  Louis Stewart (III) and Fergus McCreadie (I) also won awards in the Individual Newcomers’ event.

Cross-Country
The winners at the various stages this year were as follows:  Senior Girls – Jennifer Rogerson (V) and Senior Boys - Anthony Gillespie (VI);  Intermediate Girls – Kathryn Gillespie (II) and Intermediate Boys – Robert Henson (II).  Junior Girls – Hannah Worsley (I) and Junior Boys – Gregor Haldane (I).  The Junior School Cross-Country competition, having been postponed because of weather, has now been completed, and the champions are as follows:  Junior 1 – Rebecca Johns and Ross Broomfield;  Junior 2 – Bevhan Trevis and Thomas Henson. Kathryn Gillespie, in winning the Intermediate Girls competition, took an extraordinary twenty-four seconds off the all-time girls’ record, which she herself achieved last year.  Over two thirds of the Senior School ran in this year’s event.

In the Bishop Hill race held on Sunday 7 March, Ruari Jardine (IV) won the Junior section in his first hill race;  Mr Andrew Johns (Physics), finished seventeenth in the Senior race.  The Head of PE, Mr Steve Newton, is running in the London Marathon this year in aid of Parkinson’s, and he would greatly appreciate any sponsorship at:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/stevenewton

Curling
The Dollar Academy team of Tom Haddow (VI - Skip), Jayne Stirling (IV) and Emily Thomas (VI) came third overall in the in the Miller Drummond Cup this year.

Debating
At the end of January, our Form I debaters returned from Glenalmond with the Glenalmond Cup for Debating.  Four Dollar teams entered and demonstrated their emerging skills on a succession of topics including the Cost of the 2012 Olympics, the Royal Family, and the Euro versus the Pound.  Two of the Dollar teams reached the final which involved six schools and twenty teams.  The overall winners were Amenah Cheema and Amy Niven (both I).  The other successful participants on the day were Iain Leggat, Duncan Cooper, Joe George, Calum Weir, Emily Fisher and Tom Clarke (all I). 

Fencing
Ruth Clarke (V) is to be congratulated on her selection for the GB U-17 Fencing team which competed in the European Championships in Athens.   She will also participate in the World Championships in Baku at the end of the month. 

Football
Alistair Caithness (J1) who participated throughout his mid-term break at the Hibernian Training Centre, won the Golden Boot award as a result of his outstanding performance.  He was also selected to play at half-time during the Hibs v Kilmarnock Premier League fixture.

Hockey
The Dollar 1st XI narrowly lost in the final of the Midlands Cup this year, going down 3-2 to Strathallan at Forthbank Stadium.  The girls had played very convincingly on the way through, and defeated Glenalmond 7-1 in the semi-final, with Lizzie Shedden (VI) scoring a hat-trick. 

Heather Aitken (III) is the first Dollar pupil to have been selected at U-15 Indoor for the Midlands.  Her team came second in the Inter-District tournament. 

Junior School Burns Recital Competition
The overall winner this year was Vicky Walls (J2) who gave a spirited recitation of the whole of Tam O’Shanter.  The judges thought her performance was quite remarkable for an eleven year-old. 

Karate
In early March, Dominic Connelly (I) won the Silver medal for 10-12 Kumite (Fighting) in the Cumbrian Open Karate Championship held in Penrith.   Dominic has successfully attained the grade of First Kyu, that is Brown Belt plus three tabs.  This is the final grade before Black Belt for which he will have to wait a further year prior to grading. 

Lifeguard Course
During the February break, nine senior pupils and three former pupils sat Lifeguard certificates, and all were successful.  Owain Barratt, Blair Dick, Calum Duncan, James Foley, Ross Geddes, Callum Jones, Tom Newbigging and Robert Osborn (all V) and Kerr Wishart (VI) were joined by Lizzie Allan, David Croxford and Gordon McCracken (FPs) in securing certification. 

Linguistic Gap Years
A number of our senior pupils have gained placements for language work overseas:  Naomi Forbes (VI) will spend a year in a Bavarian school prior to reading German and Spanish at university;    Maurice Healy (V) and Sam Tarvet (IV) will spend much of summer term at schools in Germany while Andrew Grant (V) will attend our partner school in Versailles for the month of June.  Plans are currently progressing to extend the programme to Spanish learners by using Clackmannanshire’s twinning link with Espartinas.

Healthy numbers will be participating in the French and German exchanges in June, and it is hoped that the Spanish exchange will likewise attract good numbers.  All three partner schools will converge on Dollar in September.  Before that, thirty-six pupils will head to Clères and a further thirty-six to Ulmen.  In early June, eighteen members of Form II will make their first ever exchange visit to Amberg in Bavaria.  Parents of pupils wishing further details of our exchanges should contact any member of the Modern Languages Department.

Music
Dollar’s two entries in the Chamber Music classes at the Perth Music Festival gained first-class certificates – the Form I and II Trio of Laura Gallagher, Benjamin Collins (both I), and Ben Ward (II) competed in the Intermediate class and the Form IV Trio of Kirsten Leggatt, Anna Currie, and Lewis Macdonald competed in the Advanced class.  The judges praised their performances very highly. 

A number of pupils auditioned successfully recently – Tommy Henson (J2) for the National Boys’ Choir, Colette Crawford (IV) for the National Girls’ Choir and Hannah Leggatt (I) for the National Girls’ Choir Training Group.  Other names might well follow.

Rugby
Jamie Urquhart (VI) is to be congratulated on his selection for the Scotland U-18 rugby squad;  Tom Hogarth (VI) was on stand-by.

At the point of writing, various Sevens competitions are underway.  The U-15 Seven did remarkably well in the Stewart’s Melville Sevens tournament, losing narrowly to North Berwick, national finalists at the age group, in the semi-final (24-26).  The team had already defeated Robert Gordon’s, 38-7, Stewart’s Melville 24-17 and George Heriot’s 45-0. 

Schools Challenge Quiz
Once again, the Dollar team was pipped by one starter question in the final of this competition.  George Heriot’s won, but the school team of Ruth Cameron, Calum Worsley (both IV), David Verghese (II) and Scott Weir (VI) – competing for the sixth consecutive time – showed enormous enterprise.

Swimming
Aisla Gordon (J2) came fourth in the 400m Freestyle and eighth in the 200m Individual Medley, both personal best times, in the Glasgow Graded Meet in early February and she achieved times set by Scottish Swimming for the regional squad.  She also made it to the Scottish Schools final in the 50m Freestyle. 

Nine Dollar pupils qualified for the Scottish Schools Swimming Championships, and three achieved Distinction:  Stephanie Hanley (VI) – 100m Backstroke (Silver), 200m Backstroke (Bronze) at U-19;  Catriona Laird (V) – Silver medals in  100m and 200m Butterfly, at U-16;  and Laura Manson (I) 50m Freestyle Silver at U-12. 

The girls’ swimming team has had a most successful season in competition with the other leading Scottish schools.  The girls remained undefeated at the end of an arduous swimming season.

Pipe Band
Our Pipers and Drummers have already experienced remarkable success in 2010.  In the George Watson’s Solo Piping and Drumming and Mini Band contest, one of the largest indoor competitions on the circuit, individual and band successes were well-deserved:  Lucy Ferguson (I) came third in U-15 Solo Piping;  and in the U-18 Solo Piping, Robbie Jones (VI) came second, Fraser Stewart (VI) came third,  Jamie McCann (VI) was fourth and Robert Reid (IV) came fifth.  The most significant result in solo competition, however, was Louise Carson’s (V) first place in the Senior Solo Drumming, the first time in the nine years of this competition that the prize has evaded George Watson’s College.    In the Junior Mini Band Competition, Dollar’s B band finished third, while the Dollar A band won with a first for Piping and a first for Drumming.  Ellise Alexander (V) and Cameron McKenzie (IV) collected the trophies in Senior Assembly.  The winning junior band comprised Robert King, Cameron McKenzie, Fraser Morrison (all IV), Nicole Abel and Rebecca Davis (both V), Sarah McCann, Oliver Guild and Seonaid McIntosh (all II). 

Dollar A band won the Senior Mini Band Competition finishing four points ahead of Watson’s.  Fraser Stewart (VI) collected the trophy, and the remainder of the band, the school’s congratulations on the achievement.  The Senior Mini Band comprised Fraser Stewart, Catriona Jardine, Robbie Jones, Jamie McCann (all VI), Ross Geddes, David Barcroft, Matthew Orr, Louise Carson (all V) and Rory Weir (III). 

A week later, the Dollar band won the Glasgow Highland Club Competition hosted for the first time by Hutchesons’ Grammar School.  Twelve schools took part, with over 200 competitors, and Dollar pupils were placed in the top six in all of the five solo categories.  Lucy Ferguson (I) took first place on this occasion in the Junior Solo Piping competition and collected the splendid Glasgow Highland Club cup.  In the Band competition itself, Dollar won for the first time in some years, defeating George Watson’s College who won the World Championships back in August.   Fraser Stewart (VI) collected the trophy.  The other members of the band were Robbie Jones, Tom Hogarth, Jamie McCann, Talia Sarafilovic, Catriona Jardine (all VI), Ross Geddes, Grant Blair, David Barcroft, Matthew Orr, Ruth Clarke, Erin Stanhope, Louise Carson (all V), Robert Reid, Calum McMillan, Cameron McKenzie, Laura Pickles (all IV), Rory Weir (III) and the ever-present Lucy Ferguson (I).  The band was awarded the Pipe Major’s Banner and the Glasgow Highland Club Challenge Shield.

The band returned to Dollar around midnight and enjoyed an impromptu performance on Academy Place as a result of this memorable achievement.  The following evening, the band was one of the highlights of the Dollar FP Club celebratory evening held with over 100 guests at Solsgirth House.  In a spectacular if chilly setting, the band played a rich and varied programme. 

Between the two major competitions, the band was honoured by being invited to perform at Murrayfield on the night of Bill McLaren’s life being celebrated.  Again, the chilly conditions did not deter the band from displaying its immense versatility, composure and musicality.  Mr Craig Stewart and Mr Matt Wilson are to be congratulated on their achievements this year to date. 

STAFF

Many congratulations to Miss Jilly McCord (History and Modern Studies) on her further selection for the Scottish Women’s Rugby XV. 

We welcomed Mrs Estelle Williamson to the IT Department as IT System Administrator.

Mr David Hall (Head of Classics) has published an article on characterisations of Anne Boleyn in literature, film and opera for Around the Globe magazine.  The article introduced Howard Brenton’s forthcoming play Anne Boleyn which premiers at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in July.

Fraulein Sarah Anders and Fraulein Nicola Zeller joined our team of language assistants for the last month of term.  They have been much appreciated by our senior linguists in German who have final orals at this point.

Mr John Foster (Director of Sport) was welcomed back after a period of absence.

NEWS

Sports Travel Awards 2010
Sports travel awards are available for any pupils in Forms IV, V and VI who would like to travel to pursue their sport.  Any interested pupils should apply in writing to Mrs Karol Fitzpatrick (Music Department) before 31 March. 

The Politics Society was delighted to welcome Alex Kitz, FP 2002.  Alex, a former ESU scholar from Canada, well remembered for his portrayal of Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, was part of President Barack Obama’s campaign team. 

Gordon Banks MP was a recent visitor to the Modern Studies Department. 

The Academy Burns Supper, held in the dining hall before an audience of over 160, was an outstanding success.  The speeches, the recitations and the music were of the highest quality, and thanks are owed to Mr McFadyean and Mrs Murray for their organisation of this event.  The committee, under the deft chairmanship of Lizzy Walker, ensured that every detail was right on the evening itself.  Arsalan Cheema’s Immortal Memory won the Dollar Burns Club award, and Rebecca Chroston won the Fergusson Quaich for her address to the school.

The senior school play, to be performed from Wednesday 24 to Friday 26 March, is the stage adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s novel Noughts and Crosses.  Tickets priced £7 (£3 concessions) are available from Mrs Jeffrey or Mrs Stewart in the Maths Department.  The performances will be held in the Assembly Hall.

The biennial Careers Convention proved hugely popular, and the many presenters are to be thanked for their contribution to an evening which genuinely helps all Academy pupils to think rather more carefully about their future options.  Mr Geoff Daniel is thanked for his organisation of the evening.

We were delighted to welcome the soprano, Laura Smith, a postgraduate student from the RSAMD who provided a memorable lunchtime recital in the Gibson Auditorium. 

CHARITIES 

Sarah Crowe (VI), who is currently fundraising for a teaching/care project she is about to undertake in Ghana, would welcome any old mobile phones for recycling.  The phones should still have the battery in them, although SIM cards should be removed.    

FORMER  PUPILS

Lorna Gunn (FP 2004) has been awarded a full scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to study for a Masters degree in 2010-2011. 

Finlay Hay (FP 2007) has been selected for the Scottish Universities Rugby Team in this year’s student internationals against France and Ireland. 

Jennifer McIntosh (FP 2009) won Gold in the Women’s 3 Positions pairs match on the opening day of the Commonwealth Championships in Delhi.  She was also the top scorer in that match, and she was thus awarded another Gold medal.

James Ross (FP 2009) has launched his music career with his debut single “Right Next to You (These Days)” on iTunes. His debut album, Light September is planned for release in the autumn.  He will be playing at nine venues across Edinburgh in March and April and a Los Angeles-based promoter is hoping to arrange concert dates in the USA later this year.  To find out more, visit his website www.myspace.com/jjrossmusic.

The Glasgow FP Club held an excellent dinner with record numbers in the Western Club in early March;  the Dollar FP Club organised a wonderful celebration dinner in Solsgirth House later that week.  Over 100 FPs of all age groups participated in an event which was greatly appreciated by the Rector and his wife.  The clubs are thanked for their tremendous efforts on behalf of the wider Dollar community.

HELP PLEASE

Tesco Vouchers
The Tesco voucher scheme has begun again, and Mr Marchant will be pleased to receive vouchers in the Tesco collection box in school.

High Energy Drinks
The concerns over the consumption of high energy drinks has been given national publicity.  Here in Dollar, we have liaised closely with the local shops in order to avoid the problems arising from the use of high energy drinks.  Some of these are sold as shots;  others are marketed like cans of cider – Relentless, for example.  While the small print says “not suitable for children” or words to that effect, the marketing strategies are clear.  The very high caffeine, taurine, and sugar content is a matter of genuine concern, and we ask for parental support in ensuring that our health guidelines here are followed. 

Pupil Absence
Increasingly, employers and higher education institutions request details of pupil attendance patterns.  Parents are reminded that absences are only logged as being authorised when an absence note has been provided.  Failure to supply such a note means that the absence is unauthorised, and the school is thus obliged to provide such information in response to requests.  Absence notes thus must be written to cover every instance of absence.

Thrift Shop Opening, 2:30pm – 4:00pm  (2nd and 4th Thursday of the month)

Thursday 25 March                                 Thursday 22 April            
Thursday 13 May                                    Thursday 27 May

The Thrift Shop would like to thank parents who brought in a lovely selection of girls’ party dresses and shoes in the run up to the Christmas parties.  Parents who would like to have unsold party items back are requested to collect these before the February break, when any uncollected items will be donated to charity.

We currently have plentiful supplies of the following specialist items:

• Revision guides & past papers
• Rugby pads & scrum caps
• Ski wear
• Riding boots & associated items
• Corp boots (especially smaller sizes)
• Hiking boots

So do come in and find yourself a bargain!

Please note that we will no longer be taking the following items from 2010:

• Golf shoes
• Riding boots & associated items

The Thrift Shop is always happy to welcome new members to its friendly, committed, team.  If you feel that you are able to donate two afternoons a month to this important, parent-run, service, please pop in next time the Thrift Shop is open and have a chat to the volunteers.

Further information about the Dollar Academy Thrift Shop can be found in the Parents Section of the school website.

The hymn book used in Senior School Assemblies, the red CH3 book, is available second-hand from the School Office priced £3.50.

MAIN  DATES  FOR  YOUR  DIARY

Further dates will be found elsewhere on the website and on the Calendar Card

The Pipe Band plays in the darkness at Solsgirth House,

Saturday 13 March 2010

Musicians: Lewis Macdonald (FIV) and Carla Chiappa (FP)

The Rector reminisces