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Inverness High School?


SMEE

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Would i be right in saying that IHS is the oldest secondary school in Sneck? The reason I ask is....almost daily, i pass the shiny new Milburn Academy which is being built. I find it very hard to belive that A) Milburn Academy pre dates IHS and B) Milburn was/is in a more delapidated state than IHS. The High School is a complete embarrasemnt to Inverness

I wonder if its because Milburn is a more affluent area?

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Why is Academy Street called Academy street?

Inverness Royal Academy used to be in the building building between the entrance to JJB sports and Strothers Lane, I believe this is the oldest Secondary School site in town.  Think by the time my dad went to the IRA it was up the hill in Crown?  That wouldve come much later though, if it did at all (my memory pretty fuzzy about Inverness these days!).

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Would i be right in saying that IHS is the oldest secondary school in Sneck? The reason I ask is....almost daily, i pass the shiny new Milburn Academy which is being built. I find it very hard to belive that A) Milburn Academy pre dates IHS and B) Milburn was/is in a more delapidated state than IHS. The High School is a complete embarrasemnt to Inverness

I wonder if its because Milburn is a more affluent area?

More to do with the population shift than age of the building which incidentally will probably survive the one under construction all it needs is refurbishment unlike millburn.

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Inverness Royal Academy was founded in 1792, originally on Academy Street (in the building where Pivo is). It moved to the top of Stephen's Brae in 1895 and has been at Culduthel since 1977.

In Olde Inverness there were other institutions such at Bells School and Heatherley but the Royal Academy is the oldest. It also has as its predecessors a Grammar School and a Monastic School which take its history right back to 1233.

Inverness High School (Technical High School for many years... hence The Teckie) used to be based in the now Crown Primary but shared some accomodation at Midmills with the Royal Academy. It moved to its present site in the mid 1930s.

After the 1944 Education Act, if you did well in your 11 plus you went to the Royal Academy, otherwise to the Teckie where you did either Technical or Commercial courses, or General. In 1961 Millburn Junior Secondary School (and I love reminding Millburners of that name!) was opened to accommodate those on the east side of the Ness who were designated General, ie did not make the Royal Academy nor the intermediate Technical or Commenrcial courses in the High School.

During the 70s there was a steady transition towards comprehensive education which included the construction of Charleston and Culloden Academies and since about 1979 there have been five comprehensives in Inverness.

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Guest eliza

What a cheek!  I'm not dense, I passed the 11 plus, but my mother wanted me to take commercial so I went to the Teckie.  Anyway, no-one in my wee primary school out in the country wanted to go to the Academy - we were told it was for those who had folks with money who could afford to go to university afterwards (not us).    Class distinction was rife even then in the 50s and 60s.

However, I think I had a good education both at primary and at the Teck but was bullied at the Teck as a "country bumpkin" - at that time I was shy and quiet - hard to believe now!

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Appreciate the precis of the history of these schools, Charles.

I thought for long enough that, as I did at the time, one had to express a preference before the 11 plus exam results were forthcoming as to which school you wanted to go to--Academy or Techie.

Eliza ,my recollection of my time at the Academy is that if you were able to get a pass for University in your exams that the higher education there was free--one of the marvellous free opportunities that simply does not exist in Canada currently where what passes for education is astronomically expensive.

And Eliza I echo what you said in your last sentence. :021:

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The fee paying issue latterly became an Inverness urban myth. Fees were abolished in the upper school around 1908 and in the lower school after the 1944 Education Act which led to entry to the Royal Academy being purely on merit in the 11 plus (which wasn't all that accurate since a lot of future graduated etc went to the Tecky... despite the IHE windup which I knew was inevitable when I wrote the original post!) This also meant that you could get quite a few thick, rich kids at the Academy in the old days.

I'm not sure if fees were still paid in the Royal Academy primary which was phased out between 1955 and 1961.

However the school's fee paying past did mean that an aura of snobbishness continued, certainly into the 60s but I think it was well on its way out, for instance by the time I left in 1971. However, there were staff there who really thought that kids from the "G and T belt" in the Crown were a cut above the rest and similarly boys who played football were also looked on as som,ehow inferior to the rugby team who were "the chaps".

Also, once you got into the Royal Academy, there was intellectual stratification even among the alleged "elite".... but I can't for the life of me remember which of these strata IHE aspired to.  :015:

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Both Eliza and The Scarlet Pimpernel are correct in their statements regarding the route for admission to the the Academy and Technical High School in the 1950s (and probably into the 60s and even 70s). As Scarlet Pimpernel pointed out the primary school pupil's preferred option of secondary school was noted prior to taking the 11 plus. I left the Merkinch School in 1950 having passed the 11 plus. My chosen path was a Commercial course at the Technical High rather than the Academy - the same route as Eliza took. There was three streams at the Technical High namely Commercial, Technical and Practical. Generally speaking those who passed the 11 plus were taught to university entrance level in the two Commercial and one Technical class for the first three years (out of a total of 14 classes). Those in the Commercial and Technical streams who passed their lowers at age 15 (at the end of their third year) had the option of staying on a further two years to take highers and thence university. One Commercial class was dropped at this stage. At the top end of the scale the Techie pupils were on a par with the Academy. Many of the old Techie pupils went on to greater things.

      In 2006, fifty years after leaving the Techie, I visited the High School as guest of honour on prizegiving day. The impression I gained was that although the fabric of the building is in a poor state and the dedicated Commercial, Technical and Practical streams have been dispensed with, the standard of the top pupils remains high.

      Those who read 'The Lads from the Ferry' may be interested to know that my sixth book is due out next month. These all have an Inverness theme.  The 'Boy who saved the World' involves pupils from the High School and the other books have an Inverness based detective agency as the main characters. Visit www.alexmabon.co.uk.

      Enough of the  commercials.

           

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Many of the old Techie pupils went on to greater things.

     

Certainly the 11 plus was a fairly rough implement and there were many who went to the IHS who would have done perfectly well at the IRA where conversely there were quite a few duffers who were equally misplaced. The 11 plus didn't take account of changes in youngsters post Primary and the problem with the old Inverness system was that there was no promotion or relegation between the Royal Academy and the High School, nor between the High School and Millburn. That would have made a big difference.

One of the Teckie's more famous FPs was Sir Willie Sutherland, one time Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders. Hugh MacMillan, former CC of Northern Constabulary was also, I believe, a THSFP.

Anyone remember the rhyme: "The Caddie Rats take off their hats and bow to the Teckie teachers." ?

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No I don't Charles; in my day anyway.

What I do remember vis a vis the snobbery or elitist attiudes that may have prevailed at one time in the Academy was one in particular:

One teacher was named Curly ; His real name shall remain unmentioned in case I get sued,( :012:)

I chose Latin for the main language course and French for part time. There were five of us in his class and no doubt he was very good at his language knowledge but must have felt I did not fit in or something. The girl in my year who came out top in everything was in this French class which must have made him feel good, massaged his ego and so forth and so on.

Anyway, one day, as he sat on the front desk looking down at us five, he looked directly at me and  his face contorted into a grimace of disdain and he spoke the immortal words from lips which almost melted from the acid dripping from them  " You will never pass your Lower French he sneered ".

No doubt he was trying to inspire me to make a gut -wrenching upward leap from what he considered to be my state of gross mediocrity into the elite Froggie club under the able tutelage of Master  Kermit but more truthfully he was just a mean sarcastic elitist ****.

However for some incredible reason , although his hallowed cruel words echoed through my little brain as the Lower French Exam was about to start, I passed all right and the sweet sense of satisfaction I got from that can never be forgotten.

If I dared, in these days of forelock plucking, I would have readily surreptitiously given him the finger the next time I passed him in the corridor but somehow that joyous act eluded me . I comfort myself with the thought that after he saw the results  he decided to avoid me at all costs and that probably explains the sight of a gowned figure covering his head with his gowned sleeve that I think I saw shortly afterwards--in reality he probably never gave me a second thought  and could not care less about the whole wonderful incident. The joys of being young and impressionable, eh? :016:

But Curly just wait till I see you in the spirit world, believe me the tables will be turned  Monsieur. :blah01:

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One teacher was named Curly ; His real name shall remain unmentioned in case I get sued,( :012:)

Ellis Stuart... and we're OK... he's been dead for a few years but in any case you could plead "veritas" even if he was alive!

Yes, I did O Grade and Higher French with him too and my dislike was similar to yours, although that changed many years later.

"Curluck" could be a bully and extremely unpleasant and his manner certainly didn't help in the pursuit of the high standards he chased ruthlessly. We really didn't like him at all, but at the same time there was a sneaking admiration for something about him. He was the kind of guy who would give you an ink exercise for the night of the school dance and would complain bitterly if you wanted to be out of class for an instrumental lesson. He clearly had some kind of chip on his shoulder but also gave credit when it was due. He had an interesting past. During the war he worked behind enemy lines for MI5, in both France and Poland. He was a great shinty man and founded the Schools' Camanachd Association. He was also a rabid Gaullist and was in deep mourning when Le General died in 1970. I think I got an A pass in Higher French just to spite his cynicism about me (and many others thast he used to rap on the side of the head for each and every transgression.)

I had two encounters with him well after I left school in 1971 which changed my perception a bit.

It must have been about 1989 that a I received a call from him out of the blue, asking me to do a piece about schools shinty for the Courier. I spent quite an entertaining afternoon of interview with him. Then in 1994 when I was researching by book on the Royal Academy, I visited him in Ach an Eas Old Folks' Home where he then was. He gave me a considerable insight into his time in the school and there was a significant meeting of minds between us, although that didn't change the fact that he had been a thoroughly unpleasant teacher.

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My mother, who attended Crown Primary had a slightly different version of the rhyme; "Academy rats take off your hats and bow to the Crown School scholars".

As  far as selection is concerned my late father, who was very intelligent but a late developer, harboured a resentment all his days that, having failed to get entry to IRA in first year the injustice, as he perecieved it, wasn't remedied in later years when he began to flourish. That would have been late 1940s.

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