High School of Dundee

Edit links
Coordinates: 56°27′46″N 2°58′23″W / 56.4628°N 2.9730°W / 56.4628; -2.9730
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The High School of Dundee
Rector
Lise Hudson
GenderCo-educational
Age3 to 18
Enrolment1000 (Approx)
HousesAirlie, Aystree, Lindores, Wallace
Colour(s)   
Websitehttps://www.highschoolofdundee.org.uk

The High School of Dundee is a

co-educational, day school in Dundee
, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private school in Dundee.

The school's rector is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

The school has been registered as a charity in Scotland since July 1897.[2]

History

The Grammar School

The school has origins in the Grammar School of Dundee founded by the

Gregory IX on 14 February 1239. It is from this bull that the school's Latin motto "Prestante Domino", translated as "Under the Leadership of God", is taken. Little information survives about the early grammar school: it would have taught a Latin curriculum to boys from Dundee and the surrounding area. In 1434, the teaching methods of the Master, Gilbert Knight, were challenged by John, Bishop of Brechin, who conferred Laurence Lownan as the new Master in Knight's place.[3]

Dundee was a hotbed of the Reformation, and St Mary's Church had, according to John Knox, the first truly reformed congregation in Scotland. The school itself was the earliest reformed school in the country, having adopted the new religion in 1554 under the master, Thomas Makgibbon, with the assistance of the (by-now Protestant) Dundee Town Council. However, John, the Abbot of Lindores, stepped in to take control of the school which his predecessors had founded, replacing Makgibbon nominally with the Vicar of St. Mary's, John Rolland, who was given the power to appoint substitutes; this he did, his substitutes opening schools in opposition to the Grammar School, poaching its pupils. In the ensuing furore the Town Council, which approved of Makgibbon's methods, intervened to prevent rival schools.[3]

Among other early masters was John Fethy, who left Scotland for

The Gude and Godlie Ballatis, one of the most important literary works of the Scottish Reformation. After the Reformation, the Grammar School came under the auspices of Dundee Town Council. Greek was added to the curriculum shortly after 1562, under the Master Alexander Hepburn, who would author Grammaticae Artis Rudimenta Breviter et Dilucide Explicata, a Latin primer, in Dundee, and become bishop of Ross in 1574. Mary, Queen of Scots, also made an annual grant to the school in 1563, from the revenues of the church.[3]

The school moved into its first permanent home in 1589, a building in St Clement's Lane demolished to make way for the City Square in the 1930s. Among the masters here were

Charles I at Holyrood. Pupils were still expected to speak only Latin – to ensure which, their schoolmates were to act as "clandestine captors". Boys entered at the age of eight, and stayed for seven years (two years longer than in other Scottish schools: in 1773, this was reduced to the customary five) at which point the boy could proceed to university. A boy had probably only two teachers in all this time: each of the three assistants, known as doctors, taught one class for three years, after which the rector would teach for two years.[3]

Dundee Academy

The English School was founded by the burgh council in 1702, and was the successor to the pre-Reformation "Song School": it acted as a sort of elementary school for both sexes. It stood in School Wynd, by the city churches, near to the present site of the

Mercat Cross. The Grammar School shared a building with it from 1789, though the two remained separate.[3]

In 1785, Dundee Academy was opened in the Nethergate, in a hospital building built by the Trinitarian Friars before the Reformation; today it is the site of St Andrews Roman Catholic Cathedral.

Regius Chair of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews in 1820 the school suffered. The author Robert Mudie
also taught at the academy from 1808 to 1821.

Dundee Public Seminaries

For some years it had become apparent that the educational needs of the rapidly expanding burgh were inadequately met by the three burgh schools.

neo-classical building designed as part of the civic improvements in Dundee.[3]

The school was opened on 1 October 1834.[3] The total cost of the building, including the playground and enclosure (not completed until 1837) was £10,000, the greater portion of which was raised by public subscription. Though it had one building and one management, the three schools remained more or less distinct; conflicting claims for precedence led to no rector being appointed. The centre was assigned to the academy, the west wing to the Grammar School, and the east wing to the English School; the eight or nine headmasters acted independently, but presided in rotation over a Censor's Court, which dealt with matters of common concern. To this day, the heads of individual departments within the School are known as Headmasters, a unique reminder of this arrangement. From 1840, one of the directors was to exercise general supervision over the school as governor, or superintending director, with powers to "reform all abuses and irregularities".

The High School of Dundee

In 1859, a

Act of Parliament, the William Harris Endowment and Dundee Education Act, 1882. This act led to the appointment of a single rector of the High School of Dundee, and the foundation of Harris Academy. Thanks to Margaret Harris, who waived her right to a life-rent of her brother's estate, a girls' school was built across Euclid Crescent in two stages between 1886 and 1890. A further Act was passed in 1922, and the school's current constitution is embodied in 'The High School of Dundee Scheme, 1987', sanctioned by an Order of the Court of Session made under the Education (Scotland) Act 1980
, in May 1992.

The school church is Dundee Parish Church (St Mary's), continuing a tradition that has existed since its foundation in the thirteenth century, and services and concerts are regularly held in the church.

The school has a total of 1040 pupils in prep-school and the senior school. Fees for the 2021–2022 session range from £9 618.00 to £13 650.00 per annum, depending on the year of study.[4] The High School of Dundee was among the first Scottish charities investigated by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator for the public benefit derived from their tax-exempt status, and was the first independent school in the United Kingdom judged to have demonstrated its charitable aims and "local and national benefit". The High School was voted Scottish Independent Secondary School of the Year 2008 by The Times.[5]

School houses

The four school houses of High School of Dundee are:

  •   Airlie
  •   Aystree
  •   Lindores
  •   Wallace

Buildings and grounds

The Boys School of 1834

The High School of Dundee is situated in seven buildings in the city centre:

  • the Main Building (traditionally the Boys School)
  • the Margaret Harris Building (the Girls School)
  • the Robert Fergusson Building, housing the English department
  • Trinity Meadowside, a former church, designed by David Bryce, housing the hall, library, drama department and recording studio
  • Bonar House
  • Baxter Hall
  • the Lodge
  • Mayfield

There are also two main playing grounds, Dalnacraig and

houses
compete against each other throughout the day.

Staff Bullying

In 2019, the school was required to pay £60,000 as a result of unfairly dismissing the principal teacher of religious, moral and philosophical studies. The court found that the rector's treatment of the teacher was "extremely threatening and unpleasant".[6][7] Judge Ian McFatridge said that evidence from Dr Halliday and Lise Hudson, his deputy and named successor, was not credible or reliable: the school did not contest the ruling.[8]

Notable alumni

See also: Category:People educated at the High School of Dundee

See also

References

  1. ^ "High School of Dundee – Coat of arms (crest) of High School of Dundee". heraldry-wiki.com. Heraldry of the World. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  2. ^ "Corporation of The High School of Dundee, SC011522". Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Our History". High School of Dundee. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  4. ^ "High School of Dundee: Fees". High School of Dundee. Highschoolofdundee.co.uk. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  5. ^ "The Times & The Sunday Times". The Times. London. Retrieved 2 January 2015.[dead link‍]
  6. ^ "Mr Daniel Goodey v The Corporation of the High School of Dundee: 4112626/2018" (PDF). GOV.UK. 2018–2019. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 October 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  7. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived
    from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  8. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived
    from the original on 28 January 2022. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
  9. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 2 January 2015. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  10. ^ "Former SFA chief executive David Taylor dies suddenly aged 60". STV News. Retrieved 16 January 2017.[permanent dead link‍]
  11. ^ Lacey, Hester (29 July 2016). "The Inventory: KT Tunstall". Financial Times. London. Retrieved 16 January 2017.

Further reading

  • The Dundee High School Magazine 1934
  • The High School of Dundee Prospectus 1964
  • Durkan, J., "Education: The Laying of Fresh Foundations", in J. MacQueen (ed.), Humanism in Renaissance Scotland (Edinburgh, 1990).
  • Durkan, J., "The cultural background in sixteenth-century Scotland, in David McRoberts (ed.) Essays on the Scottish Reformation, (Glasgow, 1962), pp. 274–331.
  • Maxwell, A., Old Dundee prior to the Reformation, (Dundee, 1891).
  • Stephenson, J.M.W., Education in the Burgh of Dundee in the Eighteenth Century, (Edinburgh, 1973).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=High_School_of_Dundee&oldid=1283701993"