Guys & Dolls - Strathallan School

NEWS - Sp r i n g 2009Guys & DollsThere was some newly-discovered musical and theatrical talent starring inthis term’s production of Guys & Dolls. Marcus Adam (Nathan Detroit),Katy Marshall (Adelaide), Oliver Beetschen (Sky Masterson) and AliceInglis (Sarah) in the main roles were backed by a huge supporting castand upheld Strathallan’s reputation for outstanding musical performances.The story revolves around the lives of four main characters in 1950’s NewYork, all of whom are connected in some way to the game of craps, wheremoney is waged on the outcome of the roll of two dice.Mr David Hume and the stage crew once again worked wonders setting thescene with their creative backdrops and props. Mrs Kate Streatfield-Jamesproduced some fashionable 1950’s styles which put together with energeticroutines choreographed by Kimberley Stewart delivered, under the directionof Mrs Mary Robertson-Barnett, a great evening’s entertainment.Music for this year’s performance was provided by the newly formedpupil Swing Band led by Mr Neil Hamilton.Boys Win All Games in Regular SeasonThe Strathallan 1st XI Boys Hockey Team reached the semi finals of the National Indoor competition at the start of term and followed this with anoutstanding eight wins out of eight in the regular season beating all the top Hockey Schools in the country. They also won against a Strathallian XIfeaturing Robert Barr (05), who is currently playing in the Scottish Team.The U15 team has enjoyed a successful season with 27 goals in 7 matches and Jack Rathborne was the top scorer. The 1st XI, Development Squadand the U15 teams are travelling to Dublin for a 4 day tour during the Easter Holidays. Ian McKenzie has been selected for U18 Scotland TrainingSquad and Murdo Elwis for the Midland U15 Indoor team and the U16 Scotland Training Squad.

An Afternoon’s Activities withthe Geography DepartmentStrathallan welcomed Ardvreck Preparatory School to an Activity Day, giving a group of 21 children the chance to experience life at Strathallan School.The children were treated to a fun packed day starting with canoeing, rock climbing and trampolining. The afternoon was spent participating ingeography field investigations such as river studies and the reconstruction of a volcanic eruption within the school grounds and the smiles and laughterprove that learning is most definitely enjoyable at Strathallan.Our Geography Department achieves some of the best results in the UK. It is an extremely popular subject at Strathallan. The AssessmentQualifications Alliance report recently commended the Department for the excellent performance of the pupil cohort in 2007-08. The results for theA2 group within the A-B award remains consistently high at 95%. A similar trend can be noted at a glance of the AS group with 80% pupils securinggrade A and 95% being awarded the A-B grade. The performance of the large GCSE group has been highly commendable with 61% of pupils achievingA*/A grade which has increased since last year and is now over 30% higher than all schools across the UK out of a pool of 55,000 pupils. The overallachievement at GCSE within the A*-B award was 82%. Pupils opting for the popular Scottish SQA Higher resulted in an 80% pass rate at A-B.Geography is taught from Riley through to Sixth Form, when pupils in the Senior School can take GCSE, AS/A2 (AQA) examinations or follow the ScottishHigher SQA curriculum. The Department has four members of staff whose experience and expertise enable a wide range of subject areas to be studied(see www.strathallan.co.uk for further details). It offers a many geographical and transferable skills as well as an awareness of contemporary issues. Inaddition, the large Sixth Form benefits from a series of visiting lecturers throughout the academic year to enhance and broaden their understanding of thesubject and to maintain important links with the tertiary sector. A unique facility to which the School has access is the Met. Office weather station which isestablished in the School Grounds, and maintained by a former member of staff. Also, fieldwork is an essential component of the subject. The Departmentoffers the opportunity for pupils to participate in a range of field investigations including the local region, Cumbria, Yorkshire and Iceland.

Maths WeekFor some years mathematicians have been celebrating March 14th asInternational pi Day. (This is because, if you write it in month first format,the date is 3-14.) The Mathematics Department decided this year to have aseries of events in the week leading up to pi day. The week began with somemathematical paper folding: pupils created origami equilateral triangles,and by folding and taping these, created tetrahedrons (triangular basedpyramids). By taping four of these together, a larger ‘gappy’ tetrahedronwas made, knows as a Sierpinski pyramid. By taping 4 of these pyramidstogether a bigger one is made, and so on. By the end of the week, 256 smalltetrahedrons had been taped together to make one huge pyramid. Look outGuinness Book of Records!On the Wednesday, the Staff took on a team of Sixth Form pupils in aUniversity Challenge style quiz; after a slow start the pupils took a 40point lead, which the staff slowly whittled away, until they won on thelast round of questions 65-40. On the Thursday, one pupil managed toanswer all the questions in “Who wants to be a Mathionaire”, while onthe Friday, Professor Howard Waters from Heriot Watt University cameto speak on “Smoking, Drugs and Obesity. What’s Maths got to do withit?” He explained how actuarial mathematics uses models to predict lifeexpectancy, and examined the extent to which obesity drugs (in particular,statins) and smoking can extend or shorten life expectancy. After an engaginglecture which explained how the maths was used, without getting boggeddown in the details of how the maths works, the pupils in the audienceresponded with some interesting and thoughtful questions. Finally, onpi day itself, various pi related activities took place in class, from measuringcircumferences to creating paper chains with each colour representing adifferent digit in the decimal expansion of pi, followed up by a quiz duringlunch. Who would have thought maths could be so much fun?Strathallan MusicDepartment hostsArgentinean SchoolsAt the end of January, Strathallan hosted St Gregory’s and Brick TowersSchools from Buenos Aires, Argentina. A joint concert of popular andfolk music was performed in the chapel, with Strathallan’s ChamberChoir and traditional music soloists supporting the tourists’ Concertband. The evening was a great success, with the impromptu post-concertentertainment in the Music room a big-hit with our pupils!Spring Term MusicThis term has been incredibly busy with performances. The lunchtimeconcert series continued every Friday afternoon up to half-term, andculminated in a staff concert that featured the talents of Mr Gerry Kennedy,Rev Roger Quick and Mrs Irene McFarlane.Immediately after half-term members of the IIIrd & IVth Forms weretasked to prepare their annual concert. Audience members were treatedto a rich, varied and high quality programme which displayed the genuinemusical and artistic talent within these two year groups.The Riley Inter-divisional Music Competition saw the divisions battle itout for the title just before half-term. In the second half of term, Riley’sattentions moved to the Riley Informal Concert. The emphasis was onensembles, so the audience of pupils, parents and staff was treated toperformances from the Riley Ceilidh Band, ‘Riley Rocks’, and a wall ofsound performance of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ by the whole of Form 1.Choral ScholarsThe Choral Scholars have had a busy term, singing at the weeklyservice at St Ninian’s Cathedral, Perth. They welcomed a new tenor,Jonathan Keddie into the fold in the New Year, following the highlysuccessful Christmas performances. The Scholars’ musical focus isnow shifting to their Holy Week and Easter Day Services (9th-12thApril), and to a recording of Advent music under the Priory Recordslabel in July.St Ninian’s Cathedral has received a donation of £10,000 to help topromote its Choral Scholarship scheme with Strathallan. The gift,donated by Mr & Mrs Alan Walmsley and Ms Elaine Brigham, is tobe used to increase the number of choral scholarship awards available,in order to enhance the provision of music at the Cathedral. Furtherdetails about the scheme can be obtained from the Director of Music.

Evening of the Scottish ArtsIn this ‘Homecoming’ year, Strathallan made its contribution with ‘An Evening of the Scottish Arts’ held in the Music Room on 27th February. The evening wasto showcase another new venture for the Music Department this year, Scottish Folk music, under the direction of Miss Patsy Reid. The Folk Group, Fiddle Trio,Clarsach Quartet as well as various soloists delighted the audience with their performances; highlights included the Gallic duets “Tioram air tir” and “An cagar”performed by Alice Inglis and Kim McDonald. This concert will be repeated on May 9th at 7.30pm in Kinross Parish Church and all will be welcome.Lower VIth Leadership DayWith the sun shining, no classes and the army putting us through a series of tests it was, suffice to say, not an ordinary Strathallan Schoolday. It was of course the annual Lower VIth Leadership Day which was enjoyed by many and found to be extremely beneficial. The pupilsfound themselves being challenged both intellectually and physically with a wide spread of activities from building pyramids(whilst sprinting) toconstructing bridges across a “minefield” with only three planks of wood at our disposal. Although everyone expected that some work wouldbe required I’m sure nobody was prepared for the pounding received from the PT instructor,” Charlie”. The girls’ comments ranged from,“Oh, my nails” (Kirsty) to advice on “listening to Charlie when he spoke rather than concentrating on his ‘oh so lovely’ biceps” (Sarah!). Inthe end it turned out to be a day of shouting, diligence, perseverance and continuous press ups whilst yelling “PT is good for me” at the top ofour lungs, but foremost extreme fun. And of course a massive thank you must go to the army for their time and effort and to Mr Barnes fororganising the day.

Pipe BandThe Strathallan Pipe Band has enjoyed participating in various competitions this term and hasaccumulated a number of prizes including the Crawford Family Quaich and Gold Medal whichwas awarded to Pipe Major Adam Michie in the Senior Solo Piping event at the George Watson’sCollege Piping & Drumming Competition.Author VisitsLocal Author, James Jauncey, visited Strathallan in December to talk to IVth Form about his two novels for young adults, “The Witness” and “TheReckoning”. Both books are gripping thrillers set in Scotland and deal with social and political issues. “The Witness” has been shortlisted for the ScottishChildren’s Book Award and for the Angus Book Award. Mr Jauncey read from his latest book “The Reckoning” and talked about the writing process. MrJauncey lives in Birnam and is on the Board of the Edinburgh Book Festival.Charity WorkThe Brick by Brick Appeal has successfully managed to raise £3051 fromNon Uniform Day and collections at House Music, Headmaster’s Musicin Perth and the Christmas Carol Service. £3000 has been sent to thepeople of Mosanto in Malawi as a contribution to the building of theirnew school and the remainder will be used to purchase equipment suchas pencils, jotters and balls for three VIth Form pupils, William Farmer,Catriona McKenzie and Liam Stelzer to take out to Malawi. A hugenumber of books were also collected for Trust Academy and AudreySime is organising to send them over to Malawi through the Ravens Trustwhich ships out all the collected goods on a container from Strachur toMalawi.The Kilt and Rugby Shirt Day held on St Andrew’s Day, raised £576.55 asum divided between Capability Scotland and The Sandpiper Trust.Instrumental MusicSteven Segaud has been selected again to play viola in National YouthOrchestra of Scotland. Ciara Elwis has passed her audition to NYOS andis currently playing the flute in the training orchestra and Murdo Elwishas also been selected to play in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra.Perth and EdinburghCompetition FestivalThe speech and drama classes in “Perform in Perth” and the EdinburghCompetition Festival have brought successes for Strathallan pupilsonce again.In Edinburgh Alison Forsyth won two medals for the recitationof “The Smoky Smirr o Rain” by George Campbell-Hay and for areading from the “Book of Ecclesiastes”. Joanna Barrack won theJunior Verse Medal for her recitation of “The Gowk” by Perth poet,William Soutar.In Perth, Oliver Wale achieved three firsts, including being awarded“honour”, over 90%, for reading “At Grass” by Philip Larkin andfor a speech by Puck from “ A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. FrancesMyatt came first in both the bible reading and prepared readingclasses in her age group. In the same disciplines in the 15 to 17 agegroup, both firsts went to Josiah Bircham. Sam Lipworth with aspeech entitled “Clouds” won the Public Speaking class, age 15 – 17,and Millie Galashan, the verse speaking for age 13 -14 class. HenryMelville came first in the Soutar poems age 13 -14 class.

Strathallan EcoSchool CommitteeThe Strathallan EcoSchool Committee has now been active for over two years, meeting regularlyand trying to reduce the School’s carbon footprint by encouraging more people to recycle.Strathallan is a Scottish EcoSchool and we have achieved Bronze and Silver flag status. It is ouraim to be awarded the great flag by the end of this academic year. This is the top level of schoolecology and we would be the first independent Scottish school to achieve the award. Membersinclude teachers and pupils from Riley and Seniors. We have been involved in litter picking, the‘Rag Bag’ appeal, ‘take your phone to work day’ and a number of other events designed to reuseand recycle our waste. There are a number of longer term aims including setting up a recyclingcentre outside the dining hall which we are currently discussing with Perth & Kinross Council.250th Anniversaryof the birth ofRobert BurnsThe 250th Anniversary of the birth of Robert Burnswas celebrated by the Sixth Form and staff at theannual Burns Supper in the Music Room. TheImmortal Memory was proposed by Morag Elwis.Mrs Irene McFarlane, chaired the evening andintroduced Adam Michie who piped in thehaggis which was addressed by Mr AnthonyGlasgow. The Chaplain delivered the SelkirkGrace. Henry Jones proposed The Toast to theLassies and Vicki Gow replied. The Toast toStrathallan was proposed by William Farmerand the reply was given by Mr David Barnes.Songs and traditional music were providedby Natasha Potts, William Campbell-Gibson,Sam Lipworth and Morag Elwis. Ollie Waleand David Cameron gave recitations and JayneCarmichael delivered the vote of thanks.Boys Tennis U18Strathallan Senior Boys’ 1st IV Tennis Team of Michael Wells, Christian Kolb, RuairidhWatson and Alastair Hunt (Captain) qualified for the British Finals of the Senior StudentNational Championships. This is the second year running in which a Strathallan team hasmade it to the finals.PerthCompetitionMusic FestivalFifteen pupils were entered for the PerthCompetition Music Festival, held at PerthConcert Hall and St. Leonard’s-in-the-Fields in March. Winners included RossMcGarvie in the beginners drum kit soloclass, Oscar Mansfield in the beginnersolo snare drum, Chris van Dort in theelementary solo snare drum and LindaGordon in the elementary solo flute.

New VIth Form Common RoomThis year has seen the renovation of the VIth Form Common Room and the results have been verysuccessful. There are two main themed common room areas with widescreen TVs and a snackbararea, plus the central dance floor space for events. Pupils can come to the Centre any timeout of lessons to relax and socialise. The space not only works well for Saturday ‘Theme nights’,but also for small informal seminars held by teachers on weeknights. Thanks go to the VIth FormCommittee and especially to Mr Paul Vallot for overseeing the re-opening of our beloved centre.BadmintonThe Badminton Team has had anextremely rewarding term playing in thePerth and Kinross Schools Championshipswhere they reached five finals. IsaacTsang made the U18 Singles Final andwas eventually beaten by a highly rankedScottish Junior International. EnochMak made the U16 Singles Final andnarrowly lost out in a thrilling threesetter, Isaac and Enoch also made it tothe U18 Doubles Final. Alison Duncanreached the U16 Singles Final and Alisonand Anastasiya Musiyachenko put upa competitive showing in the girls U18Doubles Final, all in all a great teamperformance.It was a similar story at the RamadaJarvis Junior Tournament which attractsa strong field including nationally rankedplayers from Dundee and Angus. Thistime the Team made four finals. Enochplayed in the U16 Singles, Isaac and AngelYau in the U19 Mixed Doubles, Alisonand Hannah Grant in the U16 GirlsDoubles and Angel and Sunny Sun in theGirls U19 Doubles.Equestrian National SuccessHeather Larson exceeded her own expectations at the British Eventing at Hartbury, Gloucesterwhen she and her horse Billy became the overall winners at the show jumping event. Heather won avoucher to have a lesson with a person of her choice.Andrew Glover competed in the British Dressage Championships (Scottish region) and he camesecond in the Elementary Restricted section and has thereby qualified for the British Nationals inGloucestershire in April.Isaac Tsang has recently representedPerth and Kinross Schools at the ScottishSchools Badminton Championships andgot through the group stages to the last16 where he lost to the eventual winner.Safety FirstVeronica Kinahane of the Suzy Lamplugh Trustgave an insightful talk to the VIth Form pupils thisterm entitled “Street Safety”. In her talk, Veronicaspoke of the importance of personal safety andhighlighted the possible dangers which individualscan face in everyday society. Veronica presentedpractical solutions on how to avoid violent andaggressive situations which will help pupils movingon to University after the summer to live a saferand more confident life.The Trust was founded by Suzy’s parents Paul andDiana, to highlight the risks young people face andto offer advice, action and support to minimisethose risks.Unbeaten TeamsTop of the LeagueStrathallan’s First, Second, Third and Riley Table Tennis Teams are currently undefeated in thePerth League and all are at the top of their respective leagues.In the Scottish National Championships, Josh Henderson performed very well indeed to reachthe quarter final of the Minors Boys U13. This is a significant achievement for Josh who isonly 11 years old.

Two NationalChampionshipsJoe Lipworth was recently selected to swim for the Scottish SchoolsTeam in the WISE, Home International meeting in Swansea wherehe swam very well and achieved three PB’s out of his four swims.At the Scottish National Short Course Championships held atTolcross in January Joe set a new Scottish Record for his age groupin the 200IM and came away with 2 Golds and a Silver. Joe addeda second personal best and a Silver for the 100M backstroke.Duncan Scott, one of Strathallan’s younger swimmers, was thefastest qualifier for the final for the boys U12 50 butterfly and wenton to take a Gold medal in a personal best time of 33.14.NetballThe 1st VII Netball Team has enjoyed a good season reaching the finals of theIndependent Schools Tournament and losing only one fixture in the regularseason. The girls first and second teams were both group winners in the ScottishSchools Cup. The U14 Team have recorded wins in every fixture this term.Five Strathallan girls were selected to represent Perth & Kinross, Ellaand Lucy Coleman U15, Sally Lungmuss and Lynn Howie U17 and LizVine U18.Off to Oxfordand CambridgeTwo pupils have received offers to study at Oxford University nextyear. Morag Elwis will be studying History and French and SeanMendelson Law. German student Sebastian Kremer has been acceptedto study mathematics at Cambridge.Wildlife Photography DayIn March, several pupils of various ages spent the day with Strathallian Philip Price, a professional wildlife photographer. The pupils used professionaldigital SLR cameras and were able to take some great shots of insects and birds before returning to the computers to view their photographs and learn anumber of techniques on Photoshop.

Cross CountryAt the Scottish Schools Cross Country Championships the Team achieved Silver in the Senior Girls and Bronze U14 Girls, U17 Girls and SeniorBoys. All seven teams were placed in the top five in the country making us the best performers overall, out of over 100 schools who competed.At the Fettes races, the girls won Gold Medals and IIona McLaren had the open girls fastest lap time.U16 and U18 Girls Midlands Cup WinnersThe Strathallan 1st XI Girls’ Hockey Team has had another successful term, qualifying for the Scottish Schools National Finals by winning the MidlandsU18 Cup Final 3 v 1 against Dollar Academy. In the finals Elizabeth Cachia was presented with a certificate for Goalkeeper of the Tournament. Thegirls also qualified for the Scottish Indoor Finals and reached the semi finals of the Scottish Youth Cup.Five Strathallan pupils were selected for the Midlands U18 Indoor District Team. Nicky Cochrane, Robynne Smith, Ciara Elwis, Hannah Cox and PhilippaOrr were all part of the winning team at the Inter District Tournament in Glasgow. Robynne Smith captained the Team and was also top scorer.The U16 Hockey Team qualified for the National U16 Finals following a win against Glenalmond College in the Midlands U16 Cup Final. A great teamperformance resulted in a 10 – 3 victory, Ciara Elwis with four goals and Philippa Orr three.Nicky Cochrane and Laura Glasgow, both goalkeepers, have been selected for the U16 Scotland Training Squad.

RugbyThe U15 Rugby Team has had another successfulterm, qualifying for the semi finals of the BellLaurie U15 Plate. The boys played KirkcaldyHigh School (the Prime Minister’s old school),Dunblane High School, Edinburgh Academy(who put them out of the Cup and into the Platecompetition), Kelso High School, LangholmAcademy and Hamilton College. Despite notplaying a competitive match during the wholeof December and the Strathallan spring termfeaturing Hockey, the players have been quietlytraining, playing and winning in the gaps in theirbusy schedules.Ryan Hood, Andrew Hall and Joe McCollhave been selected for U17 Caledonia Squad.Ryan Hood also played for Scotland U17scoring a try in his debut. Etienne Melville hasbeen selected for a third season to representCaledonia, this year for the U18 squad.FootballYet again the weather proved to be the mostinfluential “player” in the early part of thefootball season. It was only after the half-termbreak that the boys managed to get their studs(blades) dirty. Despite this slow start the teamhas performed very well with victories againstGlenalmond, Dollar Academy, St Leonards andQVS securing qualification again for the finalstages of the Independent Schools Cup.

VIth Form Ball

Ryder Cup AppointmentStrathallian Colin Montgomery, the newly appointed Ryder CupCaptain photographed by Stuart Adams at the Dubai Desert ClassicGolf Tournament in February.StrathallianLondon DinnerForthcomingStrathallian EventsRuthven House Reunion:Sunday 3rd May 2009. All former Ruthven House pupils are mostwarmly invited back to School for a Ruthven House Reunion.Strathallian Day:Sunday 7th June 2009. Come along to this family day and bring thewhole family. Spend the day relaxing in the grounds, enjoying the cricketor if you are feeling more energetic sign up for one of the Strathalliansports teams and test yourself against a current School side. For theyounger members of the family the Riley Paddock is the place to be, withnumerous activities available.The Caledonian Club was the splendid location for the StrathallianLondon Dinner on Thursday 12th March. Over 60 Strathallians gatheredfrom as far afield as Texas for drinks, followed by a delicious three coursemeal. Club President Graeme Robertson welcomed all those present andthe Headmaster presented a round up of the highlights of the School yearso far, after which catching up with old friends was the order of the day.Tables, each representing a decade, from the 40’s through to the currentdecade were lively with conversation. The evening ran on into the ‘weehours’ of the morning as everyone enjoyed the chance to relive old timesand make new connections.Strathallian Golf:Old Prestwick, Sunday 2nd August 2009 and Panmure on Sunday13th September 2009. If you are interested in playing please contactfmacmillan@stuartandstuart.co.uk.Strathallian Scottish Dinner:Saturday 19th September 2009, Strathallan School 7.30pm for 8pm. AllStrathallians and partners welcome.Girls’ Reunion:20th September 2009. Come along and help us celebrate 30 years of girlsat Strathallan. Meet up with old friends and Staff and see Glenbrae – thebrand new Girls’ House.If any of your contact details change or you know of anyone who is noton the database and would like to hear from us please let Aileen know.T: 01738 815082, f: 01738 815080, e: alumni@strathallan.co.uk.Scottish Charity No. SC008903Forgandenny, Perth PH2 9EG, Scotland, UKT +44 (0)1738 812546 F +44 (0)1738 812549E admissions@strathallan.co.ukW www.strathallan.co.uk