Inverness Royal Academy

Inverness Royal Academy
Scottish Gaelic: Acadamaidh Rìoghail Inbhir Nis

Motto	Labore et Virtute
Established	1792
Type	Secondary
Rector	Alastair McKinlay
Medium of education	English, Gaelic
Location	Culduthel Road Culduthel Inverness IV2 6RE
Council area	Highland
Country	Scotland
Staff	c. 120
Students	c. 990
Ages	12–18
Scottish schools online	Inverness Royal Academy
Website	IRA

Inverness Royal Academy (Scottish Gaelic: Acadamaidh Rìoghail Inbhir Nis) is a secondary school (comprehensive) located in the Culduthel area of Inverness, Highland, Scotland.

Admissions

Catchment area

The school is a six year comprehensive school serving an extensive area. The associated primary schools are Aldourie, Cauldeen, Farr, Foyers, Hilton, Holm, Lochardil and Stratherrick. Children living within the catchment area who attended St. Joseph's and Bishop Eden primaries also transfer there after Primary 7. Parents living outwith the catchment area can request that their children be placed there. At present around one hundred children live outwith the catchment area and attend the academy.

History

Tracing its history back to the school established by Dominican Friars in 1223 through the town Grammar School in 1668 to the founding of the Academy in 1792, the school has been located at the following locations around the city.

• Friars Street area (Dominican Priory) 1223-1668
• Church Street (now the Dunbar Centre) 1668-1792
• Academy Street (formerly New Street) 1792-1895
• Midmills building (currently of UHI-Inverness College) 1895 - 1980 and
• Culduthel Road (current building) 1977–present

The school's continuous existence as a developing institution cannot be demonstrated from the surviving evidence, and it is probably safer to interpret that as a succession of educational provisions in and mainly for the burgh, rather than the survival of a single school. There is, however, evidence that concentration on a single site and within a single building was favoured increasingly (as was the pattern elsewhere in Britain and the transatlantic colonies, from which many of the early Academy subscriptions came) in the later eighteenth century, and that the grammar school would be the focus of this, notably during the Rectorship of Hector Fraser, who taught many of the merchants and lawyers involved in the establishment of the Royal Academy, which was from the first an innovative and self-contained project aiming, as its first minute book amply demonstrates, to provide something like a stepping stone to full university status for the burgh, with a curriculum designed in the light of the ideas of the Enlightenment and dominated not by the Classics but by the sciences and mathematics.

For the first quarter-century of the Academy's existence something like this ideal was sustained, and the appointments of its Rectors showed a bias towards the emerging sciences - for example that of Alexander Nimmo, who became a disciple of Telford, and left in 1811 to work on civil engineering projects in the West of Ireland. He was followed by a mathematician, Matthew Adam.

The Academy was open to girls from the start, and in its English, writing and drawing classes provided the sort of education for girls that middle class parents were happy with, although there seems also to have been an enthusiasm for geography. In the mid-nineteenth century one girl was adjudged the best mathematics pupil in the school, but could not be awarded the appropriate medal, which went only to boys.

From the opening of the Academy in 1792 (when pupils came from all over the Highlands and across the Atlantic, especially the Caribbean - some are shown in the surviving rolls as "coloured") a continuous existence can safely be traced, in which major milestones after 1792 were the adaptation to compulsory schooling after 1872, and the demands of the professions generally, which led to the establishment of the new building on the Crown in 1895.

The school's management was by the Inverness School Board after 1910, and later by Inverness County Council and Highland Regional Council.

On Saturday 28 April 1962 when the school's outdoor club was climbing on Stac Pollaidh, a 15-year-old boy slipped and fell 40 feet to his death.

Comprehensive

There was movement in the 1950s and 1960s (when Gaelic speaking pupils from the Western Isles were still accepted and housed in the Hostel on Culduthel Road) from fee-paying and selectivity to the status of area comprehensive in the mid and late 1970s, again on a new site.

On 26 June 1992 the school was visited by Prince Andrew, Duke of York to celebrate its bi-centenary, with Lachlan Mackintosh of Mackintosh. On 23 November 2009 his brother, Prince Edward, visited the school, having also visited on 11 June 2003.

Curriculum for Excellence

The curriculum is based on three distinct but interlinked sections. The S1/2 curriculum has many subjects; in S3/4 pupils study Standard Grades and/or Intermediate I or II, while in S5/6 pupils study National Qualification courses at Higher and Intermediate levels with Advanced Highers available in S6.

The school's belief is that each pupil should have an opportunity to pursue his or her subject choice and chosen career free from discrimination of any kind.^{[citation needed]}

The school's belief is that each pupil should have an opportunity to pursue his or her subject choice and chosen career free from discrimination of any kind.^{[citation needed]}

Years 1 & 2

The subjects first studied in First Year combine to form a common course. This course provides a basis for later study and is also a period in which a pupil's own capabilities and interests can be identified and assessed. At the end of Second Year pupils choose eight subjects to study over the next two years.

Years 3 & 4

In Third and Fourth year pupils take Standard Grade and/or Intermediate level subjects. These awards are recorded on the Scottish Qualifications Certificate issued by the Scottish Qualifications Authority. They also get the chance to do the Duke Of Edinburgh award.

Years 5 & 6

In general terms the curriculum in years 5 and 6 is designed to allow pupils to study a smaller range of subjects in depth. Pupils in Fifth Year take 5 courses at Higher or Intermediate level. Pupils who successfully complete their Higher Grade courses in Fifth Year may proceed to Advanced Higher in Sixth Year. Some may take up new Higher courses.

School Building

The School has 3 floors for a variety of subjects as well as a number of huts located at the back of the school. The first floor has the maths, English and CDT classrooms as well as the reception in the front concourse. The first floor is home to the geography, history, modern languages, computing, (soon to be discontinued) Admin and home economics. The second Floor has the science classrooms and art department.

The school is to receive 35 million pounds to improve the condition of the building. In a five year spending plan by the Highland Council The school was made a priority by the Highland Council's ruling administration. The money is to be spend over the period of the five years to help improve the school facilities and building.

Notable former pupils

See also: Category:People educated at Inverness Royal Academy

• Prof Sue Black OBE
• Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP since 2001 for Mid Scotland and Fife
• Iain Gray, Labour MSP since 2007 for East Lothian and Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999–2003
• Dr Jane Elizabeth Waterston (1843–1932), first woman doctor in South Africa and one of the first to qualify in the UK.

Dr John Macdonald, played football for Scotland against England in 1886.

Grammar school

• Peter Anderson, Registar from 1918-26 of the University of Aberdeen
• Rev Prof Donald Baillie, Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of St Andrews from 1935–54
• Very Rev John Baillie, Professor of Divinity in the University of Edinburgh from 1934–56, and older brother of Donald
• Evan Barron, Editor from 1919-65 of the Inverness Courier
• Prof G.W.S. Barrow, Sir William Fraser Professor of Scottish History and Palæography from 1979-92 at the University of Edinburgh
• Donald Bentham-MacLeary OBE, ballet dancer
• Sir Gordon Beveridge, Vice-Chancellor from 1986-97 of Queen's University Belfast, Professor of Chemical Engineering from 1971-86 at the University of Strathclyde, and President from 1984-5 of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE)
• James Burns CBE, Chairman from 1967-69 of the Southern Gas Board, and President from 1957-8 of the Institition of Gas Engineers
• William Chalmers CB CVO CBE, Director-General from 1956-75 of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• Prof George Duthie, Regius (Chalmers) Professor of English Literature from 1955-67 at the University of Aberdeen
• William Esson, Savilian Professor of Geometry from 1897-1915 at the University of Oxford
• Very Rev John Annand Fraser MBE, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1958–59
• James Gordon (Upper Canada politician)
• Robert Patterson Grant
• Hamish Gray, Baron Gray of Contin, Conservative MP from 1970-83 for Ross and Cromarty, and Lord Lieutenant of Inverness from 1996–2002
• Eva Hanagan (nee Ross), novelist
• Derry Irvine, Baron Irvine of Lairg, Lord High Chancellor of England and Wales from 1997–2003
• Maj-Gen Robert McAfee CB, Director-General from 1993-5 of Army Training
• Fred MacAulay (1925–2003), BBC broadcaster, and former Manager from 1980-83 of BBC Radio Highland
• John A. Mackay, missionary, ecumenist and Third President of Princeton Theological Seminary
• Prof James MacDonald, Professor of Botany from 1961-77 at the University of St Andrews
• James David Macdonald (ornithologist)
• Elizabeth Mackintosh, author who wrote under the name Josephine Tey
• Alistair MacLean, famous novelist
• Ranald MacLean
• Prof William MacLean MBE, Professor of Fine Art from 1995-2001 at the University of Dundee
• Murdo Allan MacLeod, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1984-5
• Fiona MacPherson, Editor from 1994-2000 of Harpers & Queen
• Iain MacPherson, economic historian
• Sir Roderick MacSween, Professor of Pathology from 1984-99 at the University of Glasgow Medical School
• Prof Angus Matheson, Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures from 1956-62 at the University of Glasgow
• Sir James Matheson
• Very Rev James Matheson, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1975-6
• Sir Duncan Michael, civil engineer, Chairman from 1995-2000 of Ove Arup Partnership
• Angus Reach, journalist
• Prof Donald Reid, Professor of Epidemiology from 1959-77 at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and expert on the aetiology of bronchitis
• Rev Prof James Robertson, Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism from 1938-45 at the University of Aberdeen
• Prof James Robson, Professor of Arabic from 1949-58 at the University of Manchester
• Anthony Ross (rector)
• James Ross (Canadian businessman)
• Sir Ian Scott CMG, Ambassador to Norway from 1965-8, to Sudan from 1961-5, and to the Congo from 1960-1
• Prof Alex Crampton Smith, Nuffield Professor of Anaesthetics from 1965-79 at the University of Oxford, who developed the NHS's first intensive care units in the 1960s
• Donald Waters, Chief Executive from 1987-97 of Grampian Television
• James Wright CBE, Vice-Chancellor from 1992-2000 of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne
• Prof William Wright, Professor of Engineering from 1957-85 at Trinity College, Dublin
• Douglas Young (lawyer)

See also

• Education in Scotland

References

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Home/School-to-get-36m-upgrade-5965205.htm

External links

• Inverness Royal Academy website
• Inverness Royal Academy's page on Scottish Schools Online