Meeting of the Parliament 06 February 2024
I, too, take the opportunity to congratulate Dunoon grammar school. I congratulate Donald Cameron on bringing the debate to the chamber, and I am happy to support his motion. I also add my thanks to all at Dunoon grammar school for their hard work and their dedication and commitment to the community, and for providing a school-age learning experience that spans a lifetime for the pupils.
The school’s many achievements, which have been well rehearsed by Donald Cameron, are testament to its ethos of continually improving and doing all that it can to ensure the best outcomes for young people.
Dunoon grammar school has a long and distinguished history spanning more than 350 years of growth, of which high standards of academic and personal development have been the hallmarks. A huge well done goes to all in the school community.
In preparing for the debate, I had a wee discussion with my head of office, who attended Ayr grammar school, and we had a blether about the history of grammar schools in Scotland. Scotland has many schools, including Ayr grammar and Dunbar grammar in my South Scotland region, which are called grammar schools but are now essentially the same as other state schools. Although, historically, those grammar schools would have acted independently and are, in some cases, still viewed as providing high-quality academic education, it is important to note that they are not the same as grammar schools in England and Northern Ireland.
With that in mind, I will share some of the exceptional work of schools in the South Scotland region, which are working to provide the best possible educational outcomes.
One such school is Lockerbie academy in Dumfries and Galloway, under the leadership of Brian Asher. Lockerbie academy is very much an integral part of the town. It embraces fully the town motto, “Forward”, building on its vision around improving the future of the local area for pupils and the community.
Lockerbie academy has a
“twin purpose, to be a place where pupils feel cared for and above all, come here to learn”,
which drives their desire to be the best that they can be.
Every year since the Lockerbie air disaster, the academy has worked with Syracuse University in New York as part of an exchange programme. Two pupils from Lockerbie travel to Syracuse, and vice versa, to lay a wreath on behalf of the town in remembrance of all those who died in the air disaster. That is massively appreciated by the town and the wider community, and it has led to the school being nationally recognised by Education Scotland for its leadership of that scheme.
Other fantastic examples are Dumfries high school and Kyle academy in Ayr, both of which have been leading the way with the vision schools Scotland programme. The programme aims to encourage and empower Scottish schools to enshrine Holocaust education in the curriculum, in order to ensure that every young person learns of the horrors of the Holocaust.
Just last week, I had the opportunity to meet Dumfries high school secondary 6 pupils Brogan Matthews and Katie Donald, and their teachers—Lizzie Smithard, who is their history teacher, and Philip Cubbon, who is the headteacher—at Dynamic Earth for a vision schools Scotland award ceremony.
Brogan and Katie have been leading the way with Holocaust education in the school, and they had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz earlier this year. That work is vitally important, and I thank the pupils and the school communities of Dumfries high and Kyle academy for their work.
Finally, I mention Stranraer academy, which was recently awarded the Young Enterprise team programme award. Stranraer academy stands now where my first secondary school was a long time ago. It runs a programme over a full academic year that involves students from S5 and S6 starting their own student company. The pupils go through key milestones of developing an idea, conducting market research and creating the product or service. Ultimately, it is then promoted and traded. The award that those pupils received was well deserved.
In closing, I put on record my thanks to all our fantastic schools, and to Donald Cameron for lodging the motion, bringing the debate to the chamber and raising the profile of Dunoon grammar.
17:07