Kelvinside Academy
Encyclopedia
Kelvinside Academy is a private school
in the City of Glasgow
, Scotland
, founded in 1878. It has a capacity of 640 pupils and spans two years of Junior Start (Nursery
), six years of Junior School (primary school), and seven years of Senior School (secondary school
), comprising fifteen years in all. It also offers a transitionary year of Senior Preparatory, which helps bridge the gap between Primary and Secondary Education. The school was originally grant-aided, but became fully independent
in 1985. The school was formerly boys-only, and became fully co-educational
in 1998. The school is nominally non-denominational. School uniform
is mandatory for all years and consists of shirt, blue and silver tie, black or grey trousers or a blue/white plaid skirt, black shoes and the school blazer. A blue and white striped scarf and a grey jersey are optional as are shorts for the lower school. Kelvinside Academy welcomed the first female Rector in the school's history in 2009 with the appointment of Lesley A. Douglas.
area of the north of Glasgow, near the Glasgow Botanic Gardens
. It has a large main building, which is category A listed and was designed by James Sellars
, with a number of more modern additions. The original building was opened on 02.09.1878 and cost £21,698 11s, this included the construction of both roads and sewers. The school crest shows Minerva
with the motto ΑΙΕΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΥΕΙΝ (ever to be the best). Minerva appears prominently in carved stone above the main entrance, and in a bronze medallion set in the perimeter wall. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, the school retains much of its original cast iron
fences despite the metal shortages during the Second World War.
There is a well established house system, which divides all the pupils into four different Houses, each represented by a colour; red for Stewart House, yellow for Buchanan House, green for Macgregor House and blue for Colquhoun. The school has a Combined Cadet Force
, and runs a civilian rifle club, with a membership of around 40 pupils and a small number of adult FP's, held in the on-site shooting range
.
Kelvinside Academy is a war-memorial school, and it is for this reason that it practices the CCF. Two walls in the original school building are dominated by bronze plaques that list pupils and academicals who gave their lives in The Great War and World War II. In the case of the 1st World War, proportionally, the school lost the highest number of Academicals - for further reading see the publication by Brodie.
, hockey
, football, athletics
, cricket
, target rifle shooting
, curling
, ice skating
, squash
, aerobics
, tennis
, and golf
. The school owns the Balgray Playing Fields, a short distance from the main site. A all weather playing facility has been created at Balgray and was formally opened on 2 September 2006 - the school's 128th Anniversary. A Pavilion and refurbished stand was completed in 2010.
The school also encourages a wide range of non-sporting activities, such as drama, music, public speaking, debating and many others. The Gilchrist Theatre, named after a former pupil, has played host to a number of school productions. These include, the musicals Grease and Guys and Dolls, Don Quixote, The Glass Menagerie, Anything Goes, Blood Brothers and many musical concerts, of both school performers and other musicians including the Glasgow Gospel Choir.
There is also a CCF contingent. The three sections Army, Navy and RAF meet on a Thursday after school in the school grounds.
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
in the City of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, founded in 1878. It has a capacity of 640 pupils and spans two years of Junior Start (Nursery
Nursery school
A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of one and five years, staffed by suitably qualified and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than simply providing childcare...
), six years of Junior School (primary school), and seven years of Senior School (secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
), comprising fifteen years in all. It also offers a transitionary year of Senior Preparatory, which helps bridge the gap between Primary and Secondary Education. The school was originally grant-aided, but became fully independent
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
in 1985. The school was formerly boys-only, and became fully co-educational
Coeducation
Mixed-sex education, also known as coeducation or co-education, is the integrated education of male and female persons in the same institution. It is the opposite of single-sex education...
in 1998. The school is nominally non-denominational. School uniform
School uniform
A school uniform is an outfit—a set of standardized clothes—worn primarily for an educational institution. They are common in primary and secondary schools in various countries . When used, they form the basis of a school's dress code.Traditionally school uniforms have been largely subdued and...
is mandatory for all years and consists of shirt, blue and silver tie, black or grey trousers or a blue/white plaid skirt, black shoes and the school blazer. A blue and white striped scarf and a grey jersey are optional as are shorts for the lower school. Kelvinside Academy welcomed the first female Rector in the school's history in 2009 with the appointment of Lesley A. Douglas.
The school
Kelvinside Academy is located in the KelvinsideKelvinside
Kelvinside is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It is situated north of the River Clyde and is bounded by Dowanhill, Hyndland and Broomhill to the South with Kelvindale and the River Kelvin to the North...
area of the north of Glasgow, near the Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Glasgow Botanic Gardens
Glasgow Botanic Gardens is an Arboretum and public park located in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland. It features several glasshouses, the most notable of which is the Kibble Palace. The gardens were created in 1817, and run by the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow , and were intended to supply...
. It has a large main building, which is category A listed and was designed by James Sellars
James Sellars
James Sellars was a Scottish architect who was heavily inflenced by the work of Alexander Greek Thomson.He was one of the designers commissioned by the Saracen Foundry to work on a set of standard designs for a series of decorative iron works, for example railings, drinking fountains, bandstands,...
, with a number of more modern additions. The original building was opened on 02.09.1878 and cost £21,698 11s, this included the construction of both roads and sewers. The school crest shows Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
with the motto ΑΙΕΝ ΑΡΙΣΤΕΥΕΙΝ (ever to be the best). Minerva appears prominently in carved stone above the main entrance, and in a bronze medallion set in the perimeter wall. Unlike many of the surrounding buildings, the school retains much of its original cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
fences despite the metal shortages during the Second World War.
There is a well established house system, which divides all the pupils into four different Houses, each represented by a colour; red for Stewart House, yellow for Buchanan House, green for Macgregor House and blue for Colquhoun. The school has a Combined Cadet Force
Combined Cadet Force
The Combined Cadet Force is a Ministry of Defence sponsored youth organisation in the United Kingdom. Its aim is to "provide a disciplined organisation in a school so that pupils may develop powers of leadership by means of training to promote the qualities of responsibility, self reliance,...
, and runs a civilian rifle club, with a membership of around 40 pupils and a small number of adult FP's, held in the on-site shooting range
Shooting range
A shooting range or firing range is a specialized facility designed for firearms practice. Each facility is typically overseen by one or more supervisory personnel, called variously a range master or "RSO – Range Safety Officer" in the United States or a range conducting officer or "RCO" in the UK...
.
Kelvinside Academy is a war-memorial school, and it is for this reason that it practices the CCF. Two walls in the original school building are dominated by bronze plaques that list pupils and academicals who gave their lives in The Great War and World War II. In the case of the 1st World War, proportionally, the school lost the highest number of Academicals - for further reading see the publication by Brodie.
Extra-Curricular activities
The school supports a wide range of sporting activities including rugby unionRugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, football, athletics
Athletics (track and field)
Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...
, cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
, target rifle shooting
Shooting sports
A shooting sport is a competitive sport involving tests of proficiency using various types of guns such as firearms and airguns . Hunting is also a shooting sport, and indeed shooting live pigeons was an Olympic event...
, curling
Curling
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a...
, ice skating
Ice skating
Ice skating is moving on ice by using ice skates. It can be done for a variety of reasons, including leisure, traveling, and various sports. Ice skating occurs both on specially prepared indoor and outdoor tracks, as well as on naturally occurring bodies of frozen water, such as lakes and...
, squash
Squash (sport)
Squash is a high-speed racquet sport played by two players in a four-walled court with a small, hollow rubber ball...
, aerobics
Aerobics
Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness...
, tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, and golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
. The school owns the Balgray Playing Fields, a short distance from the main site. A all weather playing facility has been created at Balgray and was formally opened on 2 September 2006 - the school's 128th Anniversary. A Pavilion and refurbished stand was completed in 2010.
The school also encourages a wide range of non-sporting activities, such as drama, music, public speaking, debating and many others. The Gilchrist Theatre, named after a former pupil, has played host to a number of school productions. These include, the musicals Grease and Guys and Dolls, Don Quixote, The Glass Menagerie, Anything Goes, Blood Brothers and many musical concerts, of both school performers and other musicians including the Glasgow Gospel Choir.
There is also a CCF contingent. The three sections Army, Navy and RAF meet on a Thursday after school in the school grounds.
Kelvinside Academicals
Upon leaving Kelvinside Academy, a pupil is automatically granted membership to the Kelvinside Academicals Club, a vibrant, world wide community which aims to help maintain a former-pupil's relationship with the school. The club has branches all over the World. An Academical's dinner is held in London every year. The Academical's also have sports clubs, playing Cricket, Angling, Rugby, Curling and Golf. One of the many highlights of the Academical club year is without a doubt the Academical's Rugby Match, whereby Former Pupils take on the current School First XV.Notable alumni
- John Joy BellJohn Joy BellJohn Joy Bell , known professionally as J J Bell, was a journalist and author. Born in Hillhead, Glasgow, Bell was schooled at Kelvinside Academy and Morrison's Academy. He attended the University of Glasgow, where he studied chemistry...
, journalist and author - David Brogan, ConservativeConservative Party (UK)The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Parliamentary Spokesman for Edinburgh WestEdinburgh West (UK Parliament constituency)Edinburgh West is a burgh constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom , first used in the 1885 general election... - Robert Browning (Byzantinist)Robert Browning (Byzantinist)Robert Browning was a Scottish Byzantinist and university professor.-Early career:Browning was born in Glasgow in 1914. He attended Kelvinside Academy in that city. He entered the Humanities department of Glasgow University in 1931, graduating in 1935...
- Brigadier General John CharterisJohn CharterisBrigadier General John Charteris CMG, DSO was a British general during the First World War. He was Sir Douglas Haig's Chief of British Army Intelligence Officer at the British Expeditionary Force's headquarters from 1915 to 1918....
- Bob Forrest, Scottish Liberal Democrat
- Sir Hugh Fraser, 2nd BaronetSir Hugh Fraser, 2nd Baronet-Career:Fraser was educated at Kelvinside Academy, and was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Stirling, where one of the student residences is now named Fraser of Allander after him. In 1981 he gifted the Mugdock Castle estate to the regional council as a country park. In 1960, he...
, of the House of FraserHouse of FraserHouse of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...
department storeDepartment storeA department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
chain - Richie GrayRichie Gray (rugby player)Richie Gray is a Scottish international rugby union player currently playing for Glasgow Warriors. It was announced in November 2011 that Gray would be leaving the Warriors at the end of the current season, having agreed to sign for the Sale Sharks.A former Kelvinside Academy student, he has...
, Scottish international rugby union player currently playing for Glasgow WarriorsGlasgow WarriorsThe Glasgow Warriors, formerly Glasgow Rugby, are one of two professional rugby union teams in Scotland, Edinburgh being the other. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12 and their home ground is Firhill Stadium, also the home of Partick Thistle Football Club.-History:Glasgow Rugby were created to... - Brigadier Alastair PearsonAlastair PearsonBrigadier Alastair Stevenson Pearson CB, DSO & Three Bars, OBE, MC, TD was a baker, farmer and one of the most highly-regarded soldiers of the British Army who served in World War II. During his distinguished military career he was known as Jock Pearson to the men of his command.-Early...
, Parachute Regiment, DSO, MC - Air Vice Marshal Alexander Vallance Riddell Johnstone
- Lord Kinclaven, judge
- Ian LivingstonIan LivingstonIan Livingston is the Chief Executive Officer of BT Group .The fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago, the family eventually owned a factory that made flying jackets and police uniforms...
CEO of BT GroupBT GroupBT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of... - Sir George Donald Alastair MacDougall, economist
- Colin MacKay, TV political commentator
- Sir Thomas Risk, former Governor of the Bank of ScotlandBank of ScotlandThe Bank of Scotland plc is a commercial and clearing bank based in Edinburgh, Scotland. With a history dating to the 17th century, it is the second oldest surviving bank in what is now the United Kingdom, and is the only commercial institution created by the Parliament of Scotland to...
- Lord Rodger of EarlsferryAlan Rodger, Baron Rodger of EarlsferryAlan Ferguson Rodger, Baron Rodger of Earlsferry, FRSE, FBA, PC was a Scottish lawyer and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom....
, Lord of Appeal in OrdinaryLord of Appeal in OrdinaryLords of Appeal in Ordinary, commonly known as Law Lords, were appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 to the House of Lords of the United Kingdom in order to exercise its judicial functions, which included acting as the highest court of appeal for most domestic matters...
and President of the Expert Witness Institute - Alasdair Cameron Sutherland, architect and academic
- Craig WrightCraig Wright (cricketer)Craig McIntyre Wright is a former Scottish cricket player who currently plays for Watsonian Cricket Club. He was a big hitting right-handed middle order batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler.-Career:...
, cricketCricketCricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er,
Related Publications
- Kelvinside Academy, 1878–1978 by Colin Mackay
- Kelvinside Academy, 1878–1923 by William Brodie
- Kelvinside Academy, 1878–1928 by David Morrice Low
- Minerva, termly newsletter
External links
- Kelvinside Academy
- ISCis page for Kelvinside Academy
- Friends Reunited page for Kelvinside Academy (registration required)
- Kelvinside Academical Club
- Kelvinside Academy's page on Scottish Schools Online
Sources
- http://www.glasgowsculpture.com/pg_biography.php?sub=sellars_j
- http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iss/archives/collect/10lo80-1.html
- http://pmsa.courtauld.ac.uk/pmsa/GW/KS-002.htm
- http://www.schoolsguidebook.co.uk/schools/Kelvinside_Academy.html
- http://www.isbi.com/isbi-viewschool/2869-KELVINSIDE_ACADEMY.html