FETTES COLLEGE

'Fettes College' is an independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is sometimes 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

Overview

History

Curriculum

School culture

The Boarding Houses

Boys

Girls

Also

Architecture

Headmasters

Famous Old Fettesians

Fettes and Bond

Notes

External links

Overview

There are 600 pupils at Fettes; these consist of 460 boarders and 140 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 multiple children from the same family attend the school, as well as for children of members of the armed forces. Scholarships are also available which pay up to a third of a pupils fees, with bursaries available for scholarship holders which can provide additional assistance, up to the full value of the fees.^[3]
Fettes was an all-boys school until 1970 when female pupils were first admitted, for the final year; and since 1983 the school has been co-educational. The current Headmaster, appointed in 1998, is Michael Spens, previously Head at Caldicott School.

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).
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''.^[4]

★ Fettes is regularly placed first in the list of Scottish Independent Schools by the ''Sunday Times''.^[5].
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. 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. ^[6]
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 Head described her actions as "despicable", "reprehensible" and "well beyond the pale".^[7]
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.^[8] In April of that year, a pupil was shot by another pupil with an air pistol - the incident was not reported to the police but was instead dealt with by school authorities. ^[9]
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. The videos also included a pupil having his head flushed down the toilet, a form of ritual hazing. A local newspaper reported that Fettes pupils were being investigated by school authorities over the incident.^[10]

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.^[11]

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 Phillip, 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

The Boarding Houses

There are currently seven houses; four for boys and three for girls. 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 being built for both boys and girls in their last year at Fettes, and scheduled to open September 2007.

Boys

★ 'Carrington '[1] (Dark Blue)

★ 'Glencorse'[2] (Sky Blue)

★ 'Moredun'[3] (British Racing Green)

★ 'Kimmerghame'[4] (Mustard Yellow)

Girls

★ 'Arniston' [5](British Racing Green) – Tony Blair's old house, (when it was a boys' house)

★ 'College East' [6](Maroon)

★ 'College West' [7](Black)

Also

★ 'Craigleith' is for the whole upper sixth form opening in 2007.

★ '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.

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 an Edinburgh landmark.

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

Famous Old Fettesians

★ Lieutenant-Colonel William Herbert Anderson, VC, awarded Victoria Cross ^[12]

★ Tommy Armour, golfer

★ John Arbuthnott, 16th Viscount of Arbuthnott, KT, CBE, notable businessman

★ Fereydoon Batamanghelidj, Persian/Iranian doctor

★ John Hay Beith, (Ian Hay) writer

★ 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 and brother of Tony Blair

★ 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, Canadian. Chairman Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, Northern Ireland peace process

★ Sir Bill Gammell, Scottish rugby international and oil magnate

★ George Campbell Hay, poet in English and Scottish Gaelic amongst other languages, who wryly called Fettes College a little piece of "Forever England".

★ Commander Alexander Mitchell Hodge, GC VRD, awarded George Cross ^[13]

★ Ross Leckie, writer (not to be confused with Canadian writer of same name)^[14]

★ The Rt. Hon. John Selwyn Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd CH PC, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer

★ Lieutenant Donald MacKintosh, VC, awarded Victoria Cross ¹²

★ Lieutenant Hector Lachlan Stewart MacLean VC, awarded Victoria Cross ¹²

★ The Rt. Hon. Iain Macleod, Minister of Labour, Colonial Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer

★ Major Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn, VC, awarded Victoria Cross ¹²

★ Sir David Murray, Chairman & Managing Director, Murray International Holdings; Chairman, Rangers Football Club plc

★ Lord Normand, Scottish politician and judge.

★ David Ogilvy, founder of Ogilvy, Benson & Mather, advertising pioneer

★ W. C. Sellar, co-author of ''1066 and All That'', Head Boy 1917 and taught at the school.

★ The Rt. Hon. John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, in Churchill's Government, Home Secretary,Foreign Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Chancellor

★ Tilda Swinton, screen actress, attended in sixth year.

★ 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 of Old Fettesians for details.

Fettes and Bond

Whilst expanding on James Bond's backstory, Ian Fleming wrote in ''You Only Live Twice'' that the spy had attended Fettes College after having been removed from Eton.
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.

Notes

1. ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989, s.v. "Public school", available here.
2. See http://www.fettes.com/information/fees.htm.
3. See http://www.fettes.com/information/scholarships.htm.
4. See Sunday Times 21 October 2001
5. See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/scotland/article393673.ece
6. See http://www.archivist.f2s.com/cpa/pubschools/press2.htm
7. See http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=233&id=188012002.
8. See http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=233&id=188022002.
9. See http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=233&id=468292002.
10. See http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=347332007.
11. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4799959.stm.
12. See ''OLD FETTESIAN NEWSLETTER'', Number 46, January 2004 (OLD FETTESIAN ASSOCIATION)
13. See George Cross Database
14. See http://www.fettes.com/foundation/interviews/leckie.htm

External links

★ Official website