Millburn Academy

[RednBlackComeback]

As a former pupil, I took the opportunity to have a final look around the school last night as part of a 'nostalgia tour', before the demolition of it begins in a few weeks time.

Quite a surreal experience, seeing as I haven't set foot in the place since the day I left nearly 20 years ago! Evoked memories I didn't even know I had! Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!! Had a peak into some of my old classrooms too and, apart from a change in colour, it was like a timewarp.

They also had team photographs from bygone years on display. Funny how you can still put a name to a face you haven't seen for 20 years ! :o

Or am I just getting old ? :thumb04:

[MrAsterisk]

As a former pupil, I took the opportunity to have a final look around the school last night as part of a 'nostalgia tour', before the demolition of it begins in a few weeks time.

Quite a surreal experience, seeing as I haven't set foot in the place since the day I left nearly 20 years ago! Evoked memories I didn't even know I had! Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!! Had a peak into some of my old classrooms too and, apart from a change in colour, it was like a timewarp.

They also had team photographs from bygone years on display. Funny how you can still put a name to a face you haven't seen for 20 years ! :o

Or am I just getting old ? :thumb04:

You are just getting old :018: Never heard re demolition though

[RednBlackComeback]

Millburn Academy

Aye those buildings will soon be history. A new school is built on what was the playing fields and the existing school is to be demolished to make new playing fields !!

[Charles Bannerman]

Pity I missed that. As a frormer member of staff at "Millburn Junior Secondary School" I would like to have had a final wander round myself. However I find the demise of the old Royal Academy Playing Field to accommodate the new Millburn even more traumatic. Six happy years I spent there lapping the track and chucking a rugby ball about and it's very sad to see that disappear, as RBC says. Even when I returned after University to do my year's Missionary Work (VSO?) :thumb04: over the green fence, before returning to the place at the top of Stephen's Brae and then to Culduthel, I still used to get the chance to trot round the old track and change in the old changing rooms. Greatly missed.

Edited October 9, 2008 by Charles Bannerman

[CaleyHE]

Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!!

Bang on their mate, the top floor usually smelt of puff after the art teachers had had their lunch!

21 yrs since i left. and i aint going back for anyone!

Edited October 9, 2008 by CaleyHE

[+CaleyD]

Fond memories of whipping Milburn Academy at Rugby on their own turf on a few occasions.

First time I played Rugby for IHS we went there and beat them by 50+ points

[reefinweedallday]

Fond memories of whipping Milburn Academy at Rugby on their own turf on a few occasions.

First time I played Rugby for IHS we went there and beat them by 50+ points

That's only because nobody wanted to play rugby in Millburn because Baillie was a C*** :thumb04:

[Charles Bannerman]

First time I played Rugby for IHS we went there and beat them by 50+ points

First time I played rugby for the IRA we didn't go to the IHS because they didn't even have a rugby pitch so we played them at the Bught instead and absolutely hammered them! (And in these days it was just 3 points for a try.)

Edited October 14, 2008 by Charles Bannerman

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

"Knowing the people I've been acting for I think they always wanted it to happen deep down, and tonight seems to have removed a lot of the anxiety that existed and I think things will go through a lot more straightforwardly." (Deryck Beaumont 26.1.94.)

Charles - glad to see you are getting into the spirit of things :thumb04: ....and still not lost any of that old vitriol (hic....quite apt for an alchemist)

Whatever happened to Hamilton and the other one....with the big mop.... they tried unsuccessfully to convert me to 'chase the egg' but after one game played in a foot of snow enough was enough. Give them their due though I do look forward to the Six Nations each year and will hopefully be up north to see Sale v Munster this weekend....

The real fun was had beating Milburn at football - but that wasn't usually too difficult.... :018:

[+CaleyD]

First time I played Rugby for IHS we went there and beat them by 50+ points

First time I played rugby for the IRA we didn't go to the IHS because they didn't even have a rugby pitch so we played them at the Bught instead and absolutely hammered them! (And in these days it was just 3 points for a try.)

Think we only ever played the IRA two or three times before it was decided that games between us should be banned. Was hardly surprising though as they weren't really rugby matches, and more of a blood bath. I still have a lump behind my ear from someone jumping two footed on my head...although my "revenge" did result in a visit to casualty for the other lad.

Think it was 1990 we (as in the team I played for) first played Millburn, so the scoring then would have been 4 & 2 as it never changed to 5 & 2 until 1992 season....I'm guessing you would have had the 3? points for a goal from mark rule when you were playing.

Unfortunately Rugby Union has become a bit stale, with most points in games coming from penalties and field goal, it's definitely in need of (another) revamp.

[Charles Bannerman]

Whatever happened to Hamilton and the other one....with the big mop....

"Chunky" Hamilton left in 1991 to become Head of PE at the International School in Brussels. As a result, instead of away games at Millburn, IHS or if you were lucky Gordonstoun or The Abbey, his very quickly became Switzerland, Germany, Holland etc etc. He has just retired and will be staying in Belgium. He was back over a few months ago and I had a good reunion with him.

"The other one... with the big mop" was probably Gerry Finnegan but since I'm not sure exactly how old you are, it might just have been George Gray. Gerry left many years ago to become Principal Teacher of PE soemwhere down south.

Caley D... when I was playing it was often against William Webb Ellis himself! :thumb04: It was 3 points for a try, a penalty goal and a drop goal and 2 for a conversion .... yes that long ago. In fact the IHS were just starting rugby at that time so weren't all that good although they got a lot better later on. Our main local rivals were Millburn Junior Secondary School... a title which seems to have been airbrushed out of recently related folklore. :018:

[Scotty]

the IHS 1st XV from 1981-82. A few well known faces in there including Colin McNeil (Judge Dredd Artist and designer of Eastgate Centre logo), Mike Edwards of STV and T.A. fame, and of course myself

[FortressICT]

Is that Zander Sutherland on the right?!

Edited October 15, 2008 by roscoe23

[+CaleyD]

That's some pose you've struck there Scotty

And the guy at front centre is going to be mightily cheesed off when he goes to get up and realises his guide dog has run off.

[The Mantis]

81-82? That's the year I started teaching although Bannerman would have you believe otherwise.

I take it Zander is Scotty then?

[Charles Bannerman]

81-82? That's the year I started teaching although Bannerman would have you believe otherwise.

You poor sod! That means you're going to have to put up with the Curriculum for Excellence for quite a few years before you escape. You'd better refine your poster making skills then.

Edited October 16, 2008 by Charles Bannerman

[Tichy_Blacks_Back]

"Chunky" Hamilton left in 1991 to become Head of PE at the International School in Brussels. As a result, instead of away games at Millburn, IHS or if you were lucky Gordonstoun or The Abbey, his very quickly became Switzerland, Germany, Holland etc etc. He has just retired and will be staying in Belgium. He was back over a few months ago and I had a good reunion with him.

"The other one... with the big mop" was probably Gerry Finnegan but since I'm not sure exactly how old you are, it might just have been George Gray. Gerry left many years ago to become Principal Teacher of PE soemwhere down south.

Thanks Charles - Gerry Finnegan is yer man....both Highland RFC men if I remember correctly.... :thumb04:

PS - Scotty you've not changed much....

Who's the lad with the excessive hair - looks kindae familiar?

Edited October 16, 2008 by Tichy_Blacks_Back

[johnnykipper]

Is it true that most of the existing fixtures and fittings from Millburn are being given away on a first come first served basis? No doubt most of the decent stuff has been snapped up by now.

[The Mantis]

You poor sod! That means you're going to have to put up with the Curriculum for Excellence for quite a few years before you escape. You'd better refine your poster making skills then.

Do I detect a whiff of cynicism there :thumb04:

Ah but I was 26 when I came in so 7 years (tops) left for me

[Charles Bannerman]

You poor sod! That means you're going to have to put up with the Curriculum for Excellence for quite a few years before you escape. You'd better refine your poster making skills then.

Do I detect a whiff of cynicism there :thumb04:

Ah but I was 26 when I came in so 7 years (tops) left for me

Cynicism only just begins to define my perception of CFE (sorry CfE).

Did you hear the one about the CfE History class when the wee boy put his hand up and said "Excuse me sir, but what do you think might have been the implications for the post Revolutionary Soviet Union if Trotsky and not Stalin had gained power on the death of Lenin?"

To which the teacher replied - "Never mind about that sonny, just keep colouring the men in on your poster!"

[Scotty]

PS - Scotty you've not changed much....

Who's the lad with the excessive hair - looks kindae familiar?

I will need to find the original photo. I can remember most, but all the names are n the back of it !

[ALSY]

As a former pupil, I took the opportunity to have a final look around the school last night as part of a 'nostalgia tour', before the demolition of it begins in a few weeks time.

Quite a surreal experience, seeing as I haven't set foot in the place since the day I left nearly 20 years ago! Evoked memories I didn't even know I had! Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!! Had a peak into some of my old classrooms too and, apart from a change in colour, it was like a timewarp.

They also had team photographs from bygone years on display. Funny how you can still put a name to a face you haven't seen for 20 years ! :o

Or am I just getting old ? :thumb04:

I don't know what I'd have done if I'd been around to take that opportunity... would be interesting to see the old place again, but I didn't particularly enjoy my years there, and I suspect it might have been depressing as I seem to have stumbled into teaching as a career rather than seeing it as my vocation, and still kind of kid myself that I've not really crossed the rubicon and become the boring b*stard in front of the blackboard.

The thing about nothing seeming to have changed is interesting though - the place I'm in now is a really traditional old school, and depending where you walk, you're still assailed by the smells of old gym shoes, or wood shavings, or sulphur. It's very evocative: occasionally I'll turn a corner and be teleported back to Millburn and imagine that Baillie is approaching with knuckles outstretched...

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

I always thought that the Millburn was a Special Needs school and its only use was the Playing fields where the likes of Urquhart, Milroy and MacKenzie used to terrorise and dominate the North of Scotland Schools competition.

[reefinweedallday]

As a former pupil, I took the opportunity to have a final look around the school last night as part of a 'nostalgia tour', before the demolition of it begins in a few weeks time.

Quite a surreal experience, seeing as I haven't set foot in the place since the day I left nearly 20 years ago! Evoked memories I didn't even know I had! Thing that got me was it smelt exactly the same, sounds weird but each floor of Millburn had a different smell, tech dept, science dept, etc and that hasn't changed!! Had a peak into some of my old classrooms too and, apart from a change in colour, it was like a timewarp.

They also had team photographs from bygone years on display. Funny how you can still put a name to a face you haven't seen for 20 years ! :o

Or am I just getting old ? :thumb04:

I don't know what I'd have done if I'd been around to take that opportunity... would be interesting to see the old place again, but I didn't particularly enjoy my years there, and I suspect it might have been depressing as I seem to have stumbled into teaching as a career rather than seeing it as my vocation, and still kind of kid myself that I've not really crossed the rubicon and become the boring b*stard in front of the blackboard.

The thing about nothing seeming to have changed is interesting though - the place I'm in now is a really traditional old school, and depending where you walk, you're still assailed by the smells of old gym shoes, or wood shavings, or sulphur. It's very evocative: occasionally I'll turn a corner and be teleported back to Millburn and imagine that Baillie is approaching with knuckles outstretched...

Sounds like you were bullied at Millburn :018: