After moving to Scotland, I spent the rest of my teaching career at Edinburgh’s “oldest” school founded some eight hundred years ago. The school has retained many of its traditions, not least the leave-taking at the end of the school year.
The Royal High School
The old Royal High School is a fine neo-classical building in the New Town Edinburgh
I joined the school Modern Languages Department in 1978, ten years after it had moved to the outskirts of the city
The Memorial Door [inside], long part of the old school in Regent Terrace and brought to the new school in Barnton in the Sixties
The Memorial Door [outside]with two of its senior students in full school uniform still worn by all pupils
The rather splendid Main Hall, one of the largest of its kind among the city schools
Prize-giving - staff and dignitaries assembled on the dais of the Main Hall.
The organ intones “Schola Regia” the school song, on the organ, another relic of the old school
The school has a rich legacy of prizes and an impressive array of medals and cups for academic and sporting achievement
The guest speakers have included F.P. Ronnie Corbett over the years and bring a light touch to the proceedings
At the end of the ceremony, leaving pupils pass through the Memorial Door, marking symbolically their journey to adulthood.
And on the outside, they are greeted by the President of the Former Pupil Association who welcomes them to the world beyond school
My colleagues in the Modern Languages Department
Letting the hair down on Comic Relief Day
........ joined by the staff ....
I organised a number of Parent Teacher Association Ceilidhs to the accompaniment of The Shetland Fiddlers
Farquhar Mackintosh
Rector 1972 - 1989
Rector 1972 - 1989
I was a keen supporter of the Mountaineering Club which went out in all weathers .......
I organised many exchange home-stay visits to France .... to Bléré in the Loire Valley .....
.... and Lyon for a small group of seniors ....
.... and to Munich on a Schüleraustausch programme.
