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Dollar Academy

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Dollar Academy
Address
Map
Academy Place

Dollar
,
Clackmannanshire
,
FK14 7DU

Scotland
Information
TypeIndependent Day and Boarding School
MottoJuventutis Veho Fortunas
(Latin: "I bear the fortunes of youth")
Established1818
FounderCaptain John McNabb
Chairman of GovernorsJohn Cameron of Balbuthie CBE
RectorDavid Knapmann
GenderCoeducational
Age5 to 18
Enrollmentc. 1250
HousesAtholl
Mar
Stewart
Argyll
Colour(s)    Navy Blue & White
PublicationFortunas (biannual publication)
School newspaperThe Galley
Former pupilsFormer Pupils
Websitehttp://www.dollaracademy.org

Dollar Academy, founded in 1818 by Matthew Orr (Rapey Matt) , is a co-educational day and boarding school in Scotland. The open campus occupies a 70-acre (280,000 m2) site in the centre of the town of Dollar in Central Scotland. The school is located at the foot of the Ochil Hills and surrounded by Clackmannanshire countryside.

Overview

There are over 1250 students at Dollar Academy, making it the fourth largest independent school in Scotland, on a single campus, it is divided into three separate schools: the Prep School (Preps I to V for ages 5–10), the Junior School (Juniors I and II for ages 10–12) and the Senior School (Forms I to VI for ages 12 going on 18).

Around 100 of the students are boarders; the rest are day pupils, either from the village of Dollar itself or from the surrounding counties of Clackmannanshire, Stirlingshire, Perth and Kinross and Fife. Just 20% of the boarding students are from overseas, representing less than 4% of the total school roll. Foreign students come from a range of countries, including France, Spain, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, as well as the United States and China. The remaining 80% of boarding students are UK nationals.

Dollar Academy has over 70 sports and recreational activities on offer to students after the school day and over the weekend. Dollar Academy has produced international competitors across many disciplines, most notably in rugby and shooting.

Academic

Dollar Academy follows the Scottish education system, with students sitting a mixture of Standard Grades and Intermediates at the end of Form IV and Highers at the end of Form V/VI. Most courses in Form VI are at Advanced Higher level. A number of students study the Scottish Baccalaureate. All standard subjects are on offer at Dollar Academy. The school also teaches Classical Studies, Latin and Greek, ITC training is provided to all students, and music, art and drama is mandatory.

Specialised courses and industry placements are available to senior students who wish to study medicine, law, engineering and business. The Governors' Bursary of £500 is awarded to those students who attain 5 As at band 1 in their Highers.

Extra curricular

The school has a pipe band, which has won the Scottish Schools CCF Pipes and Drums competition every year since 2000.[1]

Dollar Academy's CCF (Combined Cadet Force) have won the Scottish Schools' military skills competition (formerly the Highland Cadet Tactical Competition) several times. The school was also the first Scottish school to win the Ashburton Shield at Bisley.

The School Day

The school day begins at 8:45 am, when pupils must be in Registration in their Form Tutor Groups to be registered at the beginning of each day. In each year there are around 8 or 9 such classes, each of about 17–20 pupils. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays pupils attend Morning Assembly from 9:00 am to 9:15 am. This consists of an academic parade, a hymn, a bible reading and a prayer, followed by announcements about the forthcoming days. On Tuesdays and Thursdays there is extended registration which lasts until 9:00 am, with classes starting five minutes earlier than usual.

There are five periods in the day, each lasting one hour. First period begins at 9:15 am and finishes and 10:15 am, and is followed by second period which ends at 11:15 am. Between 11:15 am and 11:30 am is morning break (there is extended break on a Friday lasting an extra five minutes). Third period is from 11:30 am to 12:30 am, and is followed by lunch, which finishes at 1:25 pm. Fourth and fifth period follow, ending at 3:25 pm. Buses leave Dollar at 3:35 pm. After-school activities usually take place between 3:30 pm and 4:45 pm. 'Late buses' leave Dollar at 5:15 pm.

History

The Revd Dr Andrew Mylne, First Rector of the Academy
Dollar in the early 19th century

Dollar was founded in 1818 at the bequest of John McNab or McNabb, a merchant who bequeathed part of his fortune - £65,000 - to provide "a charity or school for the poor of the parish of Dollar where I was born".[2] Somewhat controversially there is strong evidence to prove that Captain McNab made much of his fortune particapating in the slave trade with the Americas and owned at least three ships employed in this[3]

McNab died in 1802 but it took another sixteen years before the school opened it doors after much debate about how to use the bequest. It was in 1815 that the Rev. Andrew Mylne, Minister of Dollar, along with fellow Trustees conceived of a great academy to educate the boys and girls of the parish, and also pupils from outside Dollar, who would board with teachers. Full fees would be charged to ‘non-residenters’, while parish pupils would pay fees on a sliding scale, with some receiving free education. To attract pupils from outside the parish, excellent teachers would be appointed.

Mylne engaged the eminent architect, William Henry Playfair, who designed a fitting structure with a splendid Doric façade. John McNab’s School or Dollar Institution (later Dollar Academy) was finally completed in 1821. In 1818, teaching started, with Rev Andrew Mylne as the first school Rector.

The original campus was landscaped into several gardens including two ponds. In the 19th century the school had a strong emphasis on horticulture, and all pupils were allocated plots in the extensive school grounds. Several curious rarities exist in the school grounds in arboricultural terms, including several sequoias. In the 19th century, Dollar pupils sat the Cambridge Examinations or the Indian Civil Service Examinations. It was pioneering in its teaching of science at a time when most private schools followed an exclusively classical education.

John McNab’s coffin was discovered in the early 1930s in the crypt under Old Gravel Lane Meeting House in London. Former pupils had his remains cremated, and the ashes of Captain John McNab now rest above the Bronze Doors of the school founded in his name.

Architecture

The library before the fire of 1961

The principal school building was designed by renowned Scottish architect William Henry Playfair. The interior of the Playfair building was gutted by a fire in 1961, but Playfair's Greek-style facade remained intact and the school was re-opened in 1966 by former pupil Lord Heyworth, having been visited by The Queen and Prince Philip in 1963. The assembly hall was rebuilt after the fire. The school library is a "whispering gallery" because of its domed ceiling.

There are numerous other buildings on the campus, including the Dewar Building for science, the Younger Building for mathematics and business studies, the Gibson Building for music, the Iona Building for home economics and the most recently built Maguire Building for sport, art and drama. There are also several rugby, cricket and football pitches, and new all-weather surface for hockey and tennis. Sport is supported by the Boys' and Girls' pavilions, the Games Hall and the swimming pool. In 2005, the new Maguire Building was opened with facilities for Art, PE and Drama and with the circular Captain’s Room for conferences and meetings.

Boarding Houses

Morning Assembly

The original boarding accommodation was built at the same time as the original Playfair Building. These houses were situated in Academy Place to accommodate teachers and boarders. Over the years these buildings have been modernised and study bedrooms introduced. The existing boarding houses are all refurbished period buildings.

The boarding houses have a notorious reputation as hot beds for drug offences. Often these are minor offences, such as the possession of a class C drug (usually marijuana). On several occasions however the offence has been rather more serious, with a boarder controversially expelled after some evidence that they had been dealing marijuana.

There are spaces for 99 boarders in the Academy's three boarding houses. Both weekly boarders (Monday - Friday) and full boarders are accepted.

  • Argyll House - Girls aged 10–18
  • Heyworth House - Girls aged 10–18
  • McNabb-Tait House - Boys aged 10–18

Though the majority of pupils do not board, every pupil belongs to a House. Originally there were five boys' houses, instituted in 1911, hence the term "quint". The Quint Cup and House Cup are awarded annually at Prize-Giving. Today there are four quints:

Female House and Male Quints

Former Pupils' children are traditionally put into the same house as their Father/Mother/Brother/Sister. The names of Quints and houses were merged in 2009; previously, male quints followed the names: Castle (Atholl), Devon (Mar), Glen (Stewart), and Hill (Argyll). The fifth male quint was McNabb (purple) but this was dropped in 1937.

Traditions

The Maguire Building

Each year Full Colours and Half Colours are awarded to senior pupils for achievement in sporting or cultural pursuits. These awards merit piping on the school blazer (blue for cultural, white for sporting) and/or a distinctive blazer badge. Sixth-year pupils are also given a distinctive silver tie, and prefects wear white and blue bands round the blazer sleeves.

The Senior Six (or "Top Six") are the most senior prefects in the school, elected by a ballot of Forms IV, V and VI. A number of those with the highest numbers of votes go through to the "College of Cardinals", among whom a Head Boy, Head Girl and two deputies for each are elected.

Two school songs were composed in 1912, but neither was officially adopted. "Here in a Fair Green Valley..." by the poet W. K. Holmes and music by Marc Anthony became the official school song sung at prize-giving each year between 1929-1993. This was then replaced by the Academy Hymn, "O God of Bethel!" until 2007, when the popularity and metaphorical significance of "Will Your Anchor Hold?" (Hymn 412) caused it to be adopted for this purpose.

The Commemoration of the Founder is said by the Head Boy and Head Girl at prize-giving:

"Let us now, in pious duty, remember thankfully all those who by their noble generosity have founded this school, and bestowed upon it great and notable benefactions...

Let us now remember all these benefactors in simple gratitude. We enjoy a great heritage. But privilege carries with it a call to responsibility. What was nobly begun must be nobly continued, in the spirit of the Elizabethan mariners who prayed in the words of Sir Francis Drake:

O Lord, When thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us also to know that it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth the true glory.

Amen."

Other traditional events in the school calendar include: annual Christmas Dances, Form VI Dinner, Burns' Supper (Form VI), the Summer Ball (Form VI), the Junior Musical, the Senior Musical, the Sixth Form Play, the Christmas Carol Concert, the Teddy Bears' Picnic (Prep School), Prep School Sports Day, Sports Weekend and the biennial Sponsored Walk.

Rectors

  • The Revd Dr Andrew Mylne (1818–1850)
  • The Revd Dr Thomas Burbidge (1850–1851)
  • The Revd John Milne (1851–1868)
  • The Revd Dr William Barrack (1868–1878)
  • George Thom (1878–1902)
  • Charles Dougall (1902–1923)
  • Hugh Martin (1923–1936)
  • Harry Bell (1936–1960)
  • James Millar (1960–1962) - Acting Rector
  • Graham Richardson (1962–1975)
  • Ian Hendry (1975–1984)
  • Lloyd Harrison (1984–1994)
  • John Robertson (1994–2010)
  • David Knapman (2010–present)

Prize Day speakers

This list is incomplete, and lists speakers from 1949 to the present. The suffix FP denotes a former pupil of the Academy.

Former Pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Dollar Academy

Politics

Sport

Royal or Noble

Literary

Business

  • David Greig, landowner
  • Charles William Maxwell Heddle, businessman
  • Lord Heyworth of Oxton, Chairman of Unilever and ICI
  • Sir Ian Morrow, businessman
  • Gregor Lawson, co-founder of morphsuits

Law

Science

Miscellaneous

Notable former teachers

  • William Tennant (1784–1848), linguist and poet (Master of Classical and Oriental Languages)
  • Andrew Bell (1753–1832), educationalist and divine (Mathematics Master)
  • Patrick Gibson (1782–1829), landscape painter (Professor of Painting)

Former Teachers

A - F

G - O

O - Z

References

  1. ^ Marjoribanks, Kaiya (2 July 2008). "Dollar Keep Tight Grip on Trophy". Stirling Observer. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  2. ^ "History of Dollar Academy". Archived from the original on 7 January 2007. Retrieved 3 August 2006.
  3. ^ Temporary exhibition "The Slave Trade" in St Katharine Docks London in 1995 cites McNabs name against three slave ships

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