Fettes College

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Fettes College

Motto	Industria
Established	1870
Type	Independent school (UK) or Public School
Headmaster	Michael Spens Esq.
Founder	Sir William Fettes
Students	circa 600
Location	Carrington Road, Edinburgh, Scotland
Mascot	a Bee (also crest)
Newspaper	'The Buzz'
Magazine	The Fettesian
Website	www.fettes.com

Fettes College is an independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is often referred to as a public school in common with the traditional independent schools in England and Wales, although in Scotland, as in most of the English-speaking world, "public school" usually refers to a state school.^[1]

Contents 1 Overview 2 History 3 Curriculum 4 School culture 5 The Boarding Houses 5.1 Boys 5.2 Girls 5.3 Boys and Girls 5.4 also 6 Architecture 7 Fettes and Bond 8 Fettes College Grace 9 Fettes Tartan 10 Headmasters 11 Famous Old Fettesians 12 References 13 See also 14 External links

[edit] Overview

There are 640 students at Fettes; these consist of 490 boarders and 150 day pupils. Fees per term are £7,442 for boarders and £5,280 for day pupils, with three terms a year.^[2] Discounts are available if children from the same family attend the school and for children of members of the armed forces. There are scholarships which cover up to a third of a pupils fees, with bursaries available for scholarship holders which can provide further assistance up to the full value of the fees.^[3]

An all-boys school until 1970, when female pupils were first admitted for the final year - Fettes has been co-educational since 1983 . Fettes, the face of Tatler's School Guide 2007^[4], is known as the "Eton of the North"^{[5][6][7] [8]} highlighting the school's strong reputation. It is also ranked in the top ten, out of 950 schools, in the ISN Rankings for Mixed Schools in the UK.^[9]. The current Headmaster, Michael Spens, was appointed in 1998.

[edit] History

To perpetuate the memory of his only son William, who had predeceased him in 1815, Sir William Fettes (1750-1836), a former Lord Provost of Edinburgh and wealthy city merchant, bequeathed the then very large sum of £166,000 to be set aside for the education of poor children and orphans.

After his death the bequest was effected and invested and the accumulated sum was then used to acquire the land, to build the main building and found the school in 1870. Fettes College thus opened with 53 pupils (40 were Foundation Scholars with 11 others boarding & 2 day pupils).

Fettes has been referred to as "the most prestigious school in Scotland"^[10] and indeed over the last decade Fettes candidates have regularly achieved very high academic standards at A level and GCSE as evidenced by:

• In 1998 Fettes was placed 4th in the Daily Telegraph league table of Schools
• In 1999 Fettes was placed 5th in the Sunday Times list of top mixed independent schools in the UK
• In 2001 Fettes was declared "Scottish School of the year" by the Sunday Times.^[11]
• Fettes is regularly placed first in the list of Scottish Independent Schools by the Sunday Times.^[12].
• Fettes is currently ranked 3rd in the ISN Rankings for Coed/Mixed Schools in the UK.^[13].
• Fettes is the face of the Tatler's School Guide 2007^[14]

The Headmaster who provoked most controversy was Anthony Chenevix-Trench (1971-79), formerly of Eton. The investigative journalist Paul Foot wrote an expose in Private Eye detailing his excessive use of corporal punishment while he was a Housemaster at Shrewsbury School. Tim Card, a former Vice-provost of Eton College, said Chenevix-Trench's resignation from that school was caused by his heavy drinking and his overuse of the cane.^[15] Chenevix-Trench did reveal, at the 1974 Commemoration Dinner, that he had been glad to have left Eton as its form of administration was not something he lived with happily.

Fettes is renowned for its distinctive chocolate and magenta coloured blazer. It is said that Fettes, which "used to have a hearty, rugger-bugger, Caledonian image"^[16] chose these colours to represent the mud and the blood of the rugby field.

In 2002, a couple of incidents involving drugs occurred at the school. Three sixth-form boys were excluded from the school over drugs: two were caught with Cannabis at a school event, while the other failed a drugs test while on a school trip. A female sixth-former was expelled for revealing details of these exclusions to the media. Writing a letter to parents, the Headmaster described her actions as "despicable", "reprehensible" and "well beyond the pale".^[17] A physics teacher, who claimed to have suffered from leukaemia for the past four years, was found to have been faking her illness (shaving her head, appearing to faint in the classroom) and was asked to leave the school.^[18] In April of that year, a pupil was shot by another pupil with an air pistol - the incident was not reported to the police and was dealt with by school authorities.^[19]

In early 2007, videos made at the school- which were apparently based on the television programme Jackass- were posted to the video-sharing website YouTube. These videos featured stunts such as pupils smashing branches over their heads and walking on banisters, as well as nudity and the consumption of alcohol. A local newspaper reported that Fettes pupils were being investigated by school authorities over the incident.^[20]

[edit] Curriculum

Fettes College has always followed the English, rather than the Scottish education system. Pupils take GCSEs rather than Scottish Standard Grades and, due to the recent removal of the Scottish Highers examination, students now have the choice between the A Level exam system or the new International Baccalaureate Diploma, but cannot take Scottish exams.

Fettes is an IB World School, one of only three schools in Scotland to have attained this status.^[21]

[edit] School culture

Some major events in the life of the school include:

• 1875: 200 boys were enrolled.
• 1887: November: the installation of a telephone
• 1890: May: the burning down of the School Swimming Baths
• 1921: The School's War Memorial was unveiled
• 1939: Building of six bomb-proof shelters by Main College Building and an air raid occurred
• 1946: Kimmerghame House derequisitioned by Royal Navy and re-opened with 64 boys
• 1955: Visit of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh
• 1967: Glencorse caught fire but a game of cricket continued un-interrupted
• 1970: School centenary, and visit of Queen Mother, and girls first appeared as pupils
• 1980: First computer introduced
• 1984: School House closed for boys and re-opened for girls
• 1987: Running track sold
• 1992: First female Head of School
• 1996: Link established with Ying Hao School, Guangdong, China and Fettes tartan introduced
• 2002: Opening of the new Sports Centre, Westwoods Health Club^[22]
• 2007: Opening of Craigleith, Mixed Upper Sixth House

[edit] The Boarding Houses

There are currently eight houses; four for boys, three for girls and one for boys and girls. The houses are named after the estates of the first Trustees. The male houses are large period buildings which stretch from East Fettes Avenue to Carrington Road; two of the female houses are in the upper floors of the main College Building and the third is in a modern building in the eastern part of the grounds. An innovation, reflecting the changes in responsibilities of teenagers in the school and society, is the Upper Sixth Boarding House, for both boys and girls in their last year at Fettes, which opened in September.

[edit] Boys

• Carrington
• Glencorse
• Kimmerghame
• Moredun

[edit] Girls

• Arniston
• College East
• College West

[edit] Boys and Girls

• Craigleith, Mixed Upper Sixth Form House

[edit] also

• Dalmeny was renamed to Carrington in 1873 due to a post office confusion.
• Inverleith was the previous name for the Preparatory School, now an entity in its own right.
• School House split into College East and College West.

[edit] Architecture

The college's main building by David Bryce (built 1863-9) blends the design of a Loire château with elements of the 19th century Scottish Baronial. The combination of styles and the site of the building make, what a modern architectural expert has praised as, "undeniably one of Scotland's greatest buildings"^[23].

[edit] Fettes and Bond

Whilst expanding on James Bond's back story, Ian Fleming wrote in You Only Live Twice that the spy had attended Fettes College, his father's old school, after having been removed from Eton. "Here the atmosphere was somewhat Calvinistic, and both academic and athletic standards were rigorous. Nevertheless, though inclined to be solitary by nature, he established some firm friendships among the traditionally famous athletic circles, at the school. By the time he left, at the early age of seventeen, he had twice fought for the school as a light-weight and had, in addition, founded the first serious judo class at a British public school."^[24]

While Fleming never claimed there was any other source for the name of Bond than James Bond an American ornithologist, there was a real life James Bond who did attend Fettes. He was a frogman with the Special Boat Service, much as the fictional character Bond has a naval background. The school actually has his Who's Who entry copied and framed in one of its main corridors.

[edit] Fettes College Grace

BENEDIC, DOMINE,

HUNC CIBUM ET GAUDIUM NOSTRI CONVENTUS

UT SEMPER NOS

ET OMNES ALUMNI HUIUS COLLEGII

MEMORES SIMUS TUI AMORIS

ET TUAE MUNIFICENTIAE

PER IESUM CHRISTUM DOMINUM NOSTRUM

AMEN

[edit] Fettes Tartan

A school tartan was designed in 1996 at the prompting of the Headmaster, Malcom Thyne. It is a fine balance between the traditional kilt colours of green, blue and black and the Fettes colours of chocolate and magenta, with white stripes to add brightness.

The Fettes Tartan is worn as a kilt by boys and as a kilt skirt by girls who do not have a family tartan. The first showing of the kilt was on the hockey/lacrosse tour of Australia and Japan in 1998. ^[25]

[edit] Headmasters

• 1870 - 1889 Alexander Potts
• 1890 - 1919 William Heard
• 1919 - 1945 Alec Ashcroft
• 1945 - 1958 Donald Crichton-Miller
• 1958 - 1971 Ian McIntosh
• 1971 - 1979 Anthony Chenevix-Trench
• 1979 - 1988 Cameron Cochrane
• 1988 - 1998 Malcolm Thyne
• 1998 - to date Michael Spens

[edit] Famous Old Fettesians

• Lieutenant-Colonel William Herbert Anderson, VC, awarded Victoria Cross^[26]
• Tommy Armour, golfer
• John Arbuthnott, 16th Viscount of Arbuthnott, KT, CBE, Director of Scottish Widows (1978-94); Lord High Commissioner of the Church of Scotland (1986-87)
• Major General (Robert) Keith Arbuthnott, 15th Viscount of Arbuthnott
• Frank Barnwell, Chief designer of the Bristol bomber, Blenheim fighter, etc.
• Fereydoon Batamanghelidj, Persian/Iranian doctor
• John Hay Beith, (Ian Hay) writer
• Sir John Blelloch, KCB, Former Permanent Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office
• Hugh Enes Blackmore, performer in the Gilbert and Sullivan operas in the late 19th century.
• The Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007, now the Quartet on the Middle East's envoy; the Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007 and the MP for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007.
• William J. L. Blair, QC, elder brother of Tony Blair
• John Cameron, Lord Coulsfield, Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland; Lockerbie trial judge; Privy Counsellor
• Norman Cameron, poet
• Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, electrical engineer and television pioneer
• Hugh Crichton-Miller, psychiatrist, founder of the Tavistock Clinic
• General John de Chastelain,CMM, Canadian. Chairman Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, Northern Ireland peace process
• Sir William Hamilton Fyfe, Principal of Queen's University and of the University of Aberdeen
• Sir Bill Gammell, Scottish rugby international and oil magnate
• Sir Josias Cunningham - Northern Irish businessman and politician.
• George Campbell Hay, poet in English and Scottish Gaelic amongst other languages, who wryly called Fettes College a little piece of "Forever England".
• William Theodore Heard, Cardinal (1959), Dean of the Roman Rota (1958)
• Commander Alexander Mitchell Hodge, GC VRD, awarded George Cross^[27]
• Richard Lambert, Former Editor of The Financial Times; current member of Bank of England MPC
• Ross Leckie, writer (not to be confused with Canadian writer of same name)^[28]
• The Rt. Hon. John Selwyn Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH PC, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Sir R. H. Bruce Lockhart Author; British rep. to provisional Czech Govt.(1940-41); Dir.-Gen. Political Warfare Executive (1941-45)
• Vice-Admiral Sir Roderick Macdonald KBE (G35) Chief of Staff to C-in-C Allied Naval Forces (1973-77), artist
• Lieutenant Donald MacKintosh, VC, awarded Victoria Cross^[26]
• Lieutenant Hector Lachlan Stewart MacLean VC, awarded Victoria Cross^[26]
• Lord MacLean, Member of the Judicial Appointments Board in Scotland. Former Head of School
• The Rt. Hon. Iain Macleod, Minister of Labour, Colonial Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Niall Macpherson, 1st Baron Drumalbyn, Under-Sec. of State, Scottish Office (1955-60); Parl. Sec., Board of Trade (1960-62)
• Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, VC, awarded Victoria Cross^[26]
• Justin Melck, rugby player for Western Province and the Super 14 side Stormers
• Sir David Murray, Chairman & Managing Director, Murray International Holdings; Chairman, Rangers Football Club plc
• Lord Normand, Lord Justice General; Lord President of Court of Session (1935-47); Lord of Appeal (1947-53)
• David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, advertising pioneer
• David Reid, Chairman of Tesco
• Sir Sidney Rowlatt, judge and chairman of the Rowlatt committee
• W. C. Sellar, co-author of 1066 and All That, Head of School 1917 and taught at the school.
• The Rt. Hon. John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, in Churchill's Government, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Chancellor, former Head of School.
• Tilda Swinton, screen actress and Oscar winner, attended in her sixth year.
• D. R. Thorpe, political biographer, including lives of Selwyn Lloyd (Old Fettesian), Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Sir Anthony Eden.
• Sir Michael Tippett, composer
• Ruthven Todd Scottish poet and novelist, known also as an editor of William Blake, and as an artist.
• Sir John Ward, Chairman of Scottish Enterprise
• Lord Woolf, lawyer, Master of the Rolls and Lord Chief Justice

Four Old Fettesians have won the Victoria Cross and one the George Cross, please see the above list for details. Former pupils of the school sometimes refer to themselves as "OF" and can use the post nominal "OF".

See also Category:Old Fettesians.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of Victoria Crosses by School

[edit] External links

• Fettes College website
• Fettes College's page on Scottish Schools Online

Coordinates: 55°57′49″N, 03°13′34″W