Inverness Royal Academy of Olde

[Charles Bannerman]

This lot were on fire

Aye... mainly because they couldn't put their fags out properly when the Smokers' Union, some 20 yards over the photographer's left shoulder, was raided by prefects!

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Undefeated ALL year I recall in the North ?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Taken on the same month that I was born and became a daily voyage to the Hay Loft !!

[Charles Bannerman]

Taken on the same month that I was born and became a daily voyage to the Hay Loft !!

Or as the old school song used to say -

 

"There is a happy land

Up Stephen's Brae

Where we get fried eggs

Five times a day."

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

There is a happy pub

Down Stephens Brae

Where we get double chips and beans.

And a pint of guid ale.

[Scarlet Pimple]

Sounds awfully good to me

 

Why not phone Step'n Fetch-it from American T V  'cos it's likely his service will be unequalled.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

And where you went if you failed the 11 plus

[dougiedanger]

It wasn't all dunderheids at the HS, plenty of gifted students chose to go there for a technical education, normally driven by their parents for practical reasons, the need to bring money into the family. 

 

Equally, the Academy was not entirely populated by the razor-sharp minds of the Sneck intelligentsia, as is evidenced on many a thread on CTO. 

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

LOL ya dunderhead

[+bughtmaster]

You shouldn't have told them DD they'll sulk now. 

[dougiedanger]

Didn't go to the HS masel like, but my Dad did and he was one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. Had to get out to work asap to get money into the hoose, while the Aacdemy fops lounged in the common room.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

It isn't a picture of the High School !!

[dougiedanger]

Where the feck is it then?

[+bughtmaster]

The approved part of the RA ?

[Charles Bannerman]

It isn't a picture of the High School !!

It's the now demolished original 1961 Millburn Junior Secondary School building, before the CLASP block and the huts were ever thought of.

Millburn (pron: Mull Baarn) was built to house pupils from the East side of the river who did indeed fail their 11 plus, which many at the High School actually passed although not by enough to be selected for the Royal Academy.

What happened in Inverness was that if you were in roughly the top 15% in the 11 plus, you were offered a place at the Royal Academy. If you missed that but were still in the top maybe 40% you were recommended for a Technical or a Commercial course (almost always girls and boys respectively) at the High School. All of that was irrespective of where you lived within the Inverness "catchment area".

But then if you failed the 11 plus you went into a General course - at the High School if you lived on the West side of the river or at Millburn if you lived on the East.

This meant that the Royal Academy took the highest achievers from across the entire area, the High School took the next tier from across the area plus the lower achievers from the West side while Millburn only took lower achievers from the East side. That was why it was originally called a Junior Secondary School.

However a certain number of those offered the Academy course turned it down in favour of the High School. In addition to that, the 11 plus sometimes got it wrong which meant that the High School got further unintended higher achievers while the Academy got not a few complete duffers. It was also alleged that the said Academy duffers were supplemented by posh kids with influential parents who managed to pull strings to get them in, including in the earlier days not very bright kids who had gone to the Academy primary school which was fee paying.

I do have to say that I did come across a few duffers who should never have been at the Academy in the first place.

The flaw in the system was the "SPL principle" - there was no promotion or relegation. If you had been misplaced in the High School, as far as I am aware there was no facility to change, and similarly if you bombed the Academy, you couldn't be thrown out.

[IBM]

I think I just missed the 11 plus but went to the High School from the Merkinch.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I think what CB is trying to say is Academy = intelligent with potential academia ; High School / Millburn = thick or lazy.

 

Good job one of the elements of the 11 plus was not to recognise school buildings in Inverness.  

[+bughtmaster]

I think what CB is trying to say is Academy = intelligent with potential academia ; High School / Millburn = thick or lazy.

 

Good job one of the elements of the 11 plus was not to recognise school buildings in Inverness.  

 

 

OOOOOOHHHHH! don't think you got that one right, my parents pulled strings to keep me out of the RAthouse  

[dougiedanger]

What did ye get in yer O Grade(s) and Higher(s) IHE? Musta been pretty spectacular.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

10 O' Levels - (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Psychopathy, Psychology, Alter-Ego attachment and Disinhibition) and 3 Highers (Psychoanalysis, The Art of Sarcasm and the Art of Manipulation)

[Charles Bannerman]

I think what CB is trying to say is Academy = intelligent with potential academia ; High School / Millburn = thick or lazy.

 

 

I think what CB is trying to say is Academy = a reasonably accurate selection of the highest achievers at age 11 in addition to a few complete duffers who should never have been there. High School = middle order achievers at 11 and some genuine higher fliers who were there by choice or error, plus lower achievers from West Inverness. Millburn = lower achievers from the East side.

 

The last intakes of this nature were in 1970 and by 1980 Inverness had become fully comprehensive with Culloden and Charleston Academies added to the three older schools.

[Charles Bannerman]

10 O' Levels - (Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Psychopathy, Psychology, Alter-Ego attachment and Disinhibition) and 3 Highers (Psychoanalysis, The Art of Sarcasm and the Art of Manipulation)

You forgot to mention your "A" pass in Sixth Year Studies Debauchery.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

1967 was a fine year fer Scottish football

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Just found one of my old medals in the attic

[Charles Bannerman]

Aye, right. But this is quite interesting since I have never come across this award as a teacher or as a pupil there nor whilst researching earlier years. I think it must be post 1890s since it has a school badge.