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Headmaster's Notes

THE VICTORIAN

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experiences of the material, however the spiritual dimension must nevertheless be related to those experiences otherwise it has little value within their everyday lives. I am always grateful for having had the background of industry and technology because this provides a bridge across which there can be an
exchange of ideas. I have learned a great deal in this last year about how the modern young man ticks - it has been quite a revelation! The Chapel has welcomed a number of eminent and
interesting preachers in the last year to its pulpit. The Revd Peter Price, Principal Chaplain, Church of Scotland and Free Churches, Royal Navy, gave us much to think about, especially the matter of our IDENTITY! The Revd Charles Stewart, Chaplain aboard the Hermes in the South Atlantic, visited us in the Easter Term and recaptured something of the tension and drama of those days. The corporate worship of our School, although often
under criticism, is laying a foundation upon which many a boy's life will be built. I am proud to be associated with this aspect of the School's life and hope and pray that I can Play an effective part in its development.
Eric G. Milton,
Chaplain.

Headmaster's
Notes

The School is 75 years old. Long live the School! Both halves of this sentence are important to us, for they are expressions of pride in the past and expectation for the future. As the present members we should celebrate with admiration and interest the 75 years of this
School's foundation and progress. Yet also we should see that it is just as important that we look confidently forward to the next twenty-five years. In looking back over the years to 1908, I can only write as a mere newcomer. Nevertheless, it has been with great interest that I have spent much time these last months reading what is at present the only 'history' of the School: its magazines, its photograph albums, and the accounts and anecdotes that, piece by piece, I have gathered from the many Old Victorians that I have met and spoken with. I have been made conscious on the one hand of the enormous contribution made by generations of staff. School, Uniform, and Administrative, to the establishing and maintaining of this special and unique school with its own personal character and finely performed traditions of ceremony and dress. Upon the other hand, I have also been made aware of the fierce pride and loyalty of those who have been pupils here: it is, for so many of them, their boyhood home, and the Old Victorians quite rightly do not

let us, who are now its custodians, forget our responsibility to maintain the high regard and reputation that this School has for them and for the Scottish people. We should be justly proud of all those past boys and staff who made QVS its name. Yet we must also look to the present and have thought for the future. Even as I write the week for interviews for next year's new boys is very close, reminding us all to consider the kind and quality of education and boarding life these small ten-year-olds would best benefit from, leaving this School, as many of them will, in 1990. One clear development will benefit present pupils as well as those who join in 1983. I wrote in the magazine in 1981 that the School was too small at the top - there were then 17 boys in Fifth and Sixth Years. In Session 1983/84, the Senior House, Haig, will expand to 70 boys, allowing thirty boys to continue their education beyond school leaving age and SCE '0' Grade. Having first set up a separate study centre for Fifth Year in September, 1981, this year we have been provided with a spacious new building as a Fourth Year Recreation room, hence releasing the previous room for added dormitory accommodation. The arrival of that new building in six sections, swung over the top of the main building by the largest crane anyone here had ever seen, was a sight causing amazement and much photography. Certain educational improvements have also been made, others are in sight. An amount of up-to-date and essential audio-visual and scientific equipment has been received, more is expected. Three more Link computers are promised to supplement the large computer: the next step forward must be the provision of a separate computer studies room. A start has been made in refurnishing the Classroom Block; one would hope that by the end of Summer 1984 the last of that process will be completed with the up-dating of the Chemistry and Biology labs, and a completely renovated Theatre. The year 1984 will be of some moment; it will not have escaped parents' notice that in the summer of that year our 'little charges' will be their 'little charges' for an extra three weeks of summer holiday. This is to allow major works to be carried out; new boilers are to be installed. the second and major phase of improvements to the Teaching Block building will take place, the first being the new mechanical ventilation system to be installed this summer. One hastens to add that the academic year will be made up by adjustments to term dates! Nevertheless, it is not in terms of fabric that we
will see the greatest alteration in the teaching side of the School. September 1984 marks the implementation of the Munn & Dunning proposals for the curriculum in S.3 and S.4 of Scottish schools. Put in the simplest terms, this means the introduction of and eight 'made' syllabus within which pupils must study definite names subjects: English, Maths and Science, with additional selected options. These subjects can be studied and examined/assessed at three levels: Foundation, General and Credit. The Teaching Staff are aware that new

 

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