Fettes News: Issue 1 October 2008 [411709kb] - Fettes College

Fettes News
ISSUE 1, OCTOBER 2008
Exam success for the IB pioneers and excellence
at A Level and GCSE
Fettes College is proud of its academic
tradition and the 2008 results for IB,
A Level and GCSE exams reflect the
hard work and determination both of
our students and of their teachers: all
their concentration, encouragement and
enthusiasm paid rich dividends.
The first cohort of IB students all
achieved the IB Diploma with scores
significantly above the world average.
Five students scored over 38 points
(the normal Oxbridge entrance
benchmark) and three students scored
Salvete
A grand total of 148 new students joined Fettes College this
term. This is the largest intake Fettes has had and numbers at
the College are at an all time high.
We also welcomed 14 new members of the teaching staff, all of
whom bring a rich variety of skills and experience to the College.
A new School Year heralds the appointment of two new Heads
of School. Congratulations to Velocity Airey and Sam Hunt on
becoming Head Girl and Head Boy respectively.
over 40 points. 40% achieved the
equivalent of AAA at A level. High
marks were gained in a range of subjects
but those in History were particularly
outstanding with 77% of the students who
chose that subject achieving the highest
possible mark (7).
At A Level 60% of the grades achieved
were A grades, with 85% being A or B
grades. These were our best A Level
results in recent years and Fettes College
has once again topped the A Level table
amongst Scottish schools, an accolade
held for well over a decade. We are also
proud that Selegne Wong was one of the
top five students nationally out of more
than 4,000 candidates who sat AQA A
Level Art.
Results at GCSE were equally
impressive. 35% of all grades were A*
with 67% being A* or A. These excellent
results were by some margin the best
achieved in Scotland and they compare
extremely favourably with other
leading UK boarding schools. Warmest
congratulations to all concerned!
“When these results are taken in the context of the busy social, sporting and charity activities undertaken at Fettes
College the results are even more impressive.” MCB Spens Headmaster
Welcome to the first issue of Fettes News
We are aiming to give you an insight into what life at Fettes is really like, highlight our students’ successes and provide a snap-shot
of events and occurrences from the past quarter. If you have any comments on the newsletter we would be delighted to hear from you.
Simply email fettesnews@fettes.com
We look forward to welcoming you to the Fettes College Open Day on Sunday 12 October from 1.30pm.

FETTES NEWS
An Indian Summer
Since introducing the IB in 2006,
Fettes College has run a service trip
in the summer holiday giving pupils
an opportunity to serve people in
an overseas environment, this year
travelling to Bangalore in Southern India.
Working in two local government
schools our pupils were involved in
painting a classroom with various themes,
as well as playing games, doing dramatic
pieces and interacting with the local
Indian children.
It was without a doubt an enormous
cultural shock and the living conditions
were at times testing but it was all part
of the experience and our pupils were
allowed a small glimpse of what it was like
for the majority of the Indian population
every day of their life.
But it wasn’t all hard work. There
was time for sightseeing in and around
Bangalore including visiting temples,
experiencing the Indian nightlife, eating
traditional food and watching a Bollywood
film. They also visited Delhi spending
a day visiting the Taj Mahal, one of the
Thirty seven boys and five members of
staff left for a South American winter,
rather happy to see the back of the
incessant Edinburgh rain that had ruined
our pre-tour training day.
seven modern wonders of the world, as
well as seeing other sights such as the
India Gate and the Qutab Minar. In Delhi
they enjoying the very kind hospitality
of one of our current Fettes families to
whom the whole group was exceptionally
thankful.
Our pupils raised over £6000 for
Peace Child India which was gratefully
received and will go a long way to
continuing to provide necessary resources
in the future.
L Von Hoff, CAS Co-ordinator
The South American Rugby Tour
After nearly a full day of travel, we
awoke to see the sunrise over the peaks of
the Andes, realising that the longest of our
eleven flights on tour was at an end. Some
three hours later we were training for the
first time on a beach in Vina del Mar, on
the Pacific Coast of Chile; that session was
ended with a rather biting dip in the ocean.
The time spent in Chile was shaped by
the genuine warmth and hospitality of our
hosts there; in the coastal resort of Vina,
and the rather larger Santiago, Chileans
were always willing to help and to show
an interest in our party. The boys enjoyed
their first taste of ‘real’ South American
culture when they were hosted by schools.
They left their first hotel nervous at the
prospect of sharing the homes and lives
of strangers but by the end of the tour
they all admitted that they were returning
home with life-long memories.
The rugby in Chile provided our boys
with a good warm-up for the domestic
season, although we were to face much
sterner tests in Argentina. At both the
Cordoba Athletic Club and the final games
against St John’s and St George’s College
North, Buenos Aires, the boys were
stretched to their fullest. In style, the South
The manner in which our pupils
played with the children and worked
hard at the tasks asked of them
was highly impressive.
Americans tended to be more naive but
they certainly provided a strong physical
test.
Respite from the rugby was brief but
well received; a pleasant afternoon spent
in the vineyards of the Chilean plains
between the coast and Santiago, the
boat ride under the stunning waterfalls
of Igauzu and the hospitality of the
Argentinean barbeques all remain fresh in
the mind.
The end of tour was welcome to all
forty-two tired bodies but our minds will
long be alive with the memories and
experiences of a fortnight spent in South
America.
D Harrison, Head of Rugby

Zulu Talk at The Historical Society
The Historical Society attracted a full
house in Chapel during the summer term
when Rob Caskie came to talk about the
Zulu Wars.
Mr Caskie, of the famous Fugitives’
Drift Lodge in South Africa, is a world
expert in this topic and held the audience
of pupils, staff, OFs and parents enthralled
as he brought the events of the conflict to
life. Himself a former soldier and fluent
speaker of several African languages, Mr
Caskie described with great sympathy
the lives and violent deaths of the young
British and Zulu soldiers who fought at
Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift on 22nd
January 1879. With realistic sound effects –
the Zulu term for the sound of a thrusting
Charity work in Uganda
About 18 months ago I heard a story about child soldiers in
Northern Uganda that broke my heart.
The thought that thousands of children the same age as those
in my Prep School class, were being abducted and savagely
turned into weapons of terror, led me to wonder what Fettes could
do to help. So with nearly £8000 raised from a Fashion Show
and the subsequent sale of over 400 ‘Invisible Fashion’ t-shirts,
I headed out to Uganda this summer to hand over the money to
‘Watoto Childcare Ministries’ (www.watoto.com).
I spent my time building part of a medical clinic, working in
a babies’ home and visiting the young people who lived in the
Watoto villages. Although each child I spoke to had their own
tragic story of loss and pain, my overwhelming feeling when I left
was of incredible hope. I was humbled by so much that I heard
and saw, and feel enormously blessed to have been able to spend
time with such inspirational and brave young people.
Miss A Ferguson, Fettes College Preparatory School
and extracted assegai was particularly
striking – we were introduced to a world
where heroism and chivalry appeared
alongside blithering incompetence (the
latter, unfortunately, rather more obvious
on the British side than the Zulu).
After the exciting talk, Mr Caskie and
the school’s guests enjoyed drinks and a
buffet courtesy of the catering staff, and
he was kept busy answering the many
questions his stories had provoked. One
new piece of information he discovered
was that Fettes’ first combat death was
at Insandlwana – James Adrian Blaikie,
whose name appears on the marble plaque
in Chapel for Victorian Imperial OF
casualties. Blaikie was an ordinary soldier
Sports Roundup
FETTES NEWS
in the Natal Carbineers, who made a last
stand with their knives after running out
of ammunition. Blaikie, we were told, is
one of the few fallen to have an individual
grave, with a stone made of Scottish
granite.
Olympic Training
The Fettes girls were treated to an inspirational coaching
session from Stephen Dick of the Inverleith Hockey Club.
Stephen is not only a member of the Scottish Senior squad, but
was also in the GB Hockey team which finished in fifth place at
the Beijing Olympic tournament. Hopefully the girls picked up
some world class advice.
Fencing Form
Congratulations to both Emma Byatt and Alexander Keel-Dwyer
who competed with the Scottish fencing team at the UK Schools
Games.
Emma won a Bronze in the Individual Girls’ Epee, narrowly
losing her semi-final by two hits. She was also a member of the
Epee Team that beat England in the final to take Gold. Alexander
was in the Boys’ Foil team – and they also took Gold against
England.
A Summer of Sailing
Flora Stewart had a fine summer of sailing.
She competed in the World Championships in Athens,
finishing 13th in the Silver Fleet. She was first in the Kippford
week and 20th in the National Championships – third in the Girls.
Do the Olympics beckon?

FETTES NEWS
Fettes College on
the small screen
After 8 months of planning, script writing and casting sessions,
the new Fettes College DVD was filmed at the end of the
Summer Term.
The sun shone at all the right times ensuring the College
looked its very best and the pupils and staff tolerated the lastminute
demands and waiting around, like true professionals.
The 20-strong production team stuck to a tight three-day
schedule filming a total of 16 scenes including the opening scene
that utilised all the senior pupils, no mean feat at 8am!
Thank you to Mightysmall and Canary Films for their hard
work.
We look forward to sharing the finished film with you all soon.
“The complexity of filming for three days, in a school,
during school term time, with hundreds of actors, is a
challenging project to undertake. Except that it wasn’t.
Because the school was Fettes and clearly nothing is
beyond the pupils or the staff.” Adrian Jeffery - Mightysmall
Farewell from Fettes
On Saturday 5th July, Fettes said farewell
to our leavers and wished them every
success for the future.
The Headmaster’s speech highlighted
their achievements and was followed by
the presentation of prizes showing the
wealth of talent that Fettes has nurtured.
Our guest of the day Mr I Strachan
(Glencorse 1956-61) gave a thoughtprovoking
address to the audience who
hung on his every word.
It was the first solo Founder’s Day for
our Deputy Head Mrs Harrison
who had a unique view on the day:
“My main memories of the day include
superbly moving renditions of the
traditional hymns in the Chapel Service;
fantastic outfits on the Upper Sixth girls;
sitting down in relief once I had (almost)
got all the names of the prize winners
correct; my daughters dancing up and
down to the Pipe Band in the marquee
in their wellies and a busy and sincere
Leavers’ Tea”.
OFA News
The OFA is a network of over 7,000
members with one exclusive thing in
common – the years they spent at Fettes.
Every October many OFs return to
Fettes for the annual Commemoration
Weekend celebrations. This year’s
Commemoration Weekend will commence
on Friday 10 October with an OF Art
Exhibition in the entrance to the Dining
Hall from 7pm to 9pm and all current and
prospective parents are warmly invited.
Annually an OF Newsletter, which is
regarded as one of the best ‘Old School’
newsletters, is circulated to both OFs
and current parents. If you would like to
receive a copy of the 2008 OF Newsletter,
please contact Mrs Dawn Beaumont, OFA
Co-ordinator, e: da.beaumont@fettes.com
Foundation News
The Fettes Foundation ran its third, and
most successful, telephone campaign
during July, raising over £105,000.
We recruited 16 recent leavers to
undertake the task of making contact with
almost 1,800 Old Fettesians around the
globe. The funds raised will be directed
towards projects not covered by the
school fees, and included gifts to the
Scholarships and Bursaries Endowment
Fund, refurbishment of the Old Library
and renovation of the Science Block.