Former Pupils' Newsletter

McLaren High School Former Pupils’ Newsletter June 2010 2 Editorial Moyra McLaren Dear Former Pupils Welcome to the 2010 edition of the McLaren High School Former Pupils’ Newsletter. Thank you to all the Former Pupils who have contributed to this edition of the Newsletter. As always I would welcome contributions for the next Newsletter! If you would like to submit articles or photos for next year’s Newsletter I can be contacted at the school or by e-mail at [email protected] As in previous years we have decided not to charge for this edition of the Newsletter. However, if you would like to make a contribution towards the cost of producing this publication please send cheques to the school. An electronic copy of the Newsletter will be available on our website at www.mclarenhigh.co.uk We are always looking to increase the number of Former Pupils on our database. If you know of anyone who is not currently on our mailing list please forward their details to me at the school. I look forward to seeing you all at the reunion in September! Moyra McLaren Contents Page 4 Rector’s Message, Peter Martin 5 School Reunion 25 July 2009, Allan Jack 6 My Literary Calling, Gemma Marshall 7 My Musical Journey, Saul Davies 8 Memories of the North Train, Gavin Dorey 10 Congratulations to…. 11 Obituaries 13 Reunion Information 14 PTA Draw 3 Rector’s Message Peter Martin, Headteacher Dear Friends of McLaren High School 2009/10 has been another very busy year at McLaren High School. On Tuesday 11 November 2009 current pupils were reminded of the former pupils who had given everything for our freedom and asked also to think of the young people currently serving in the armed forces. A one minute silence was held throughout the school with S6 pupils gathering in front of the school’s memorial plaque. Seventy poppies surrounded the memorial, each represented a former pupil who had died in both World Wars. The silence was broken by the playing of the Last Post and the Head Boy and Head Girl laid a wreath at the memorial. Holocaust Memorial Day, commemorated internationally each year on 27 January, urges everyone in the UK to pause and reflect on what can happen when racism, prejudice and exclusionary behaviour are left unchecked. This year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day was Hope and to mark this all S1 pupils had the chance to attach their hopes for the future to a balloon and release it into the sky. S4 pupils from English created a mini museum and classes within the Social and Moral Faculty wrote their hopes for the future on a white template which was used as the feathers of a peace dove. Music and sport continued to play key roles in the life of McLaren over the last year. Several fundraising concerts have taken place to raise funds for the Orchestra Tour to Italy in the summer. Pupils also participated in a Jazz Workshop and the Senior Choir performed Schubert’s Ave Maria on board the SS Sir Walter Scott at the launch of the Great Trossachs Forest Project. Our school show this year is West Side Story. Pupils continue to participate and excel in various sporting activities, including rugby, football, dance, athletics, skiing and canoeing. Our pupils have been involved in a number of fundraising activities throughout the year, including Jeans for Genes, Children in Need, Sports Relief and Pink Breast Cancer Awareness Day. In December, pupils collected 65 shoeboxes packed full of goodies to be sent to disadvantaged children in Africa, Central Asia and Eastern Europe as part of the Samaritan’s campaign. In January, pupils and staff took part in a ‘Battle of the Bands’ contest in aid of the earthquake survivors in Haiti, raising over £1,000. In May, all S1-3 pupils participated in our annual sponsored walk through Coihallan Wood and Invertrossachs Road. The funds raised support our additional pupil activities. Each December S4 and S6 pupils are given the opportunity to participate in an Outward Bound residential course at Loch Eil. Over the course of the week pupils were given the opportunity to leave their comfort zones including the now infamous ‘jog and dip’ in Loch Eil. Pupils were encouraged and challenged to develop a wide range of highly transferable skills from effective communication to problem solving and diplomacy. It was inspirational to watch as groups evolved. Pupils from S2 and S3 have also had the opportunity to participate in Outward Bound activities over the last year. During the week at Loch Eil, pupils also took part in the John Muir Award, an environmental award scheme which promotes an awareness and responsibility of the natural environment, in the spirit of fun, adventure and exploration. Pupils in the Eco Group also carried out an environmental review in November and have been actioning the points raised in the review. In addition, all S2 pupils also took part in an event to measure their carbon footprint and in March over 80 pupils took part in the Callander Spring Clean event. I enjoyed very much meeting the FPs who attended the reunion in September last year and look forward to meeting everyone again at the reunion later this year. Meanwhile our present school community send our best wishes to all our Former Pupils. Peter Martin Headteacher 4 School Reunion 25 July 2009 Allan Jack, Former Pupil What do you say to someone that you haven’t seen or contacted for over 40 years? If you ever are faced with that dilemma, let me tell you that, if you’re lucky enough to have spent your formative years with those folks at McLaren High, the years fall away, the bald heads suddenly are hirsute again, hair magically loses any grey tints it might have, the middle age spreads disappear and it’s as if the years have never passed. That’s what happened to a bunch of us when we met up at the Dunblane Hydro on 25 July 2009 for a couple of drinks, some dinner and chat. How we chatted! Stories that some of us had forgotten, others hadn’t. People who should have remembered others suddenly went, “Are you sure, you’re ………?” Laughter rang out spontaneously and I heaved many a sigh of relief. It can be a bit difficult trying to organise a reunion from Saudi Arabia but thanks to email and the internet, not as difficult as it would have been 40 years ago! It is fair to say that very few of us would have been in contact at all if the internet and email didn’t exist. Looking back through the decades, any reunion in 1969 would have been announced, perhaps, with a notice in local shop windows or, daringly, even with one in the Stirling Observer! This reunion was originally for the class who arrived at MHS in 1963 (in the old building down by the Teith) and, for those who stayed for six years, left in 1969. However, boundary lines get fudged after so many years that ex-pupils two years on either side were made welcome. Families moved in the sixties so we had those who started with us but finished their schooling elsewhere. People travelled from all over to attend the reunion. The home towns included Edinburgh, Ayr, Falkland, Greenock, Kelty, Middlesbrough, Dunblane, Ocala in Florida and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. We had good wishes from people in Canada, Australia and New Zealand who weren’t able to make it but wished they could. We did have a couple of late unforeseen call-offs which were unfortunate but we quickly overcame the slight disappointment. Gathering in the lounge of the hotel, it wasn’t long before we had the place taken over. As nearly everyone had brought a spouse, the volume of the chatter was rising and rising as people recognised one another. The restaurant was ready to sit us down and so through we went. The next two and a half hours were spent, as all good evenings should be, with good wine, excellent food and great company. What did we talk about? Everything and nothing. We were just glad to be meeting up again. And then it was suddenly time to say goodbye. We had lost track of time and the hotel staff were moving us out as they needed to get the restaurant ready for breakfast. Those that were travelling home made their farewells promising to stay in touch and those who were staying in the hotel went back to the bar where even more stories came out. And it didn’t stop there as some met up again at the breakfast table. We probably could have spent days talking without repeating ourselves. Will we meet up again? There’s every chance we will. When? That’s for the future and perhaps for others to propose and organise. After 50 years, perhaps, or sooner? Before I end, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff of the Dunblane Hydro, especially Arnelle Hall, for all their hard work and contribution to a wonderful evening. The class of 1963-1969 broke up at the end of June 1969. We walked away from MHS into the big bad world and we’ve survived one way or another. Only a few weeks later, someone uttered the immortal words, “That’s one small step for Man, one giant leap for Mankind”. Now, who was that again? Must be getting old but we don’t forget our old friends and this reunion showed that friendships made when you’re young last for ever.

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