Quiet evolution of school where history is made as well as taught

Published on Tuesday 27 October 2009 20:09

ON THE edge of the Mearns coastline there lies a school undergoing a quiet evolution. For this summer, the stately corridors of Lathallan School in Angus were hushed as pupils sat formal exams for the first time. Now, after receiving their Standard grade results, those teenagers have become the first in the school's history to study for Highers.

Traditionally a primary, or preparatory school in independent-sector speak, Lathallan is making steady progress towards becoming an all-through school – offering provision from nursery age up to sixth year.

It is a highly unusual move, with any new secondary provision at an independent school in recent years created through merger, rather than individual expansion.

Part of its ability to do so lies in its geography. There is little competition close by from the independent sector and it has strong links with the local community.

Four years ago, Lathallan's S1 – or preparatory year – did not have to change schools to continue their education, as in previous years, but were able to stay on to become the school's first S2. This year, that group as S4 took their Standard Grades and next year will sit Higher exams.

Headteacher Richard Toley agrees the year group are trail-blazers. He says: "That first year group have always been the oldest in the school. They have had the benefit of being the pioneers of the senior year."

But Mr Toley is a pioneer himself. At just 37, he is widely regarded as the youngest head of any private school in the UK.

He was appointed head of the senior school three years ago, specifically to oversee its nascence, and at the end of last term he became head of the whole school.

Previous posts include seven years as director of co-curricular activity at Dundee High and a stint as history and classics teacher at the Merchant Ayres School in Liverpool – a subject background particularly appropriate, given his role in the founding of a new school history.

Almost inevitably, he has looked to ancient Rome for inspiration in creating tradition – the head boy and girl are known as consuls, the pupil council is a senate and the heads of houses are tribunes. Currently, through this structure, pupils are choosing names for a house system, which will potentially be geographical names, based on nearby localities.

And in a nod to his alma mater, St Andrews University, where he took his MPhil in Ancient History, he had two red gowns, akin to those worn by undergraduates at the Fife institution, made for the two consuls.

"It was something that would make them feel a bit special," he says.

Lathallan being a small school, Mr Toley is still able to teach ten periods a week and gives lessons in the classics to small groups of senior students in his office, which overlooks the walled garden of the former castle.

He says: "The smaller you are, the more you can get to know the children. If you can get that involved as a head, you get more out of the pupils."

As well as the importance of individual education – the maximum class size is 16 – his previous incarnation in extra-curricular activities is reflected in his current job; although he prefers the term co-curricular, viewing such activities as crucial, not additional. He finds time to coach under-nines rugby and has converted his garage into a common room for the senior boys.

Outdoor education and sport are important to the school, two of the pupils play international hockey for their age group, and citizenship and monetary skills are also key lessons on the timetable.

Mr Toley even took the whole school to the opera La Traviata in Aberdeen, after discovering two of the parents are professional opera singers.

"You are not just going to succeed in life through the academic life," he says. "It is all the other things that make up the jigsaw."

Originally from Worthing on the south coast, his long-term relationship with Scottish education began when he met his Scottish wife-to-be, Iggy, at Wales University.

The couple now have an 18-month-old daughter, called Tiger-Lily, who is thriving in the rural setting of the school.

Tucked on a hillside above the quaint cliffside fishing village of Johnshaven, the school is set in Angus woodland which Mr Toley is keen to utilise, given the current enthusiasm for environmental education. Lathallan holds eco days, has an eco-council and offers Intermediate 2 Managing Environmental Resources to secondary pupils.

Retaining a Scottish feel is crucial to the ethos of the school, says Mr Toley, and Lathallan runs its own mini Highland games, offers ceilidh dancing and, educationally, the head feels the traditional breadth and depth of Scottish schooling is at the core.

Being housed in a castle can only help with that sense of Scottishness, and the building's faade offers an imposing aspect as you approach along the driveway. It reminds the visitor that although Mr Toley is creating history, Lathallan already has a past. Created in Anstruther in Fife, the original school burned down in 1949 on 2 September, an anniversary the school still marks. On hearing of the fire, the owners of Brotherton Castle offered their building for the school, which went co-educational in 1970.

Bustling, cheerful youngsters denude the austere frontage as they wait to board buses home. Although some are boarders – from P5 up – the majority of the 154 pupils live locally and those who do board go home at weekends.

The school is looking for an eventual roll of 200, but Mr Toley is adamant it will never rise much above that. He stresses: "What I don't want to do is dilute the ethos. Five hundred pupils would be too many and then the school wouldn't work. I'm very clear it will always remain a small school."

He explains pupils come from Arbroath in the south to Aberdeen in the north and come from a variety of backgrounds – parents include local business people, oil professionals and farmers.

"We are not selective, we look at the pupils and what they can bring. We test them only to see where they are up to," Mr Toley says.

Becoming a headteacher of an independent school below the age of 40 is an unusual achievement in the private sector where schools tend towards statesman-like leaders to steer a prestigious school.

Was headship something he had hankered after?

"When I was teaching it wasn't something that occurred to me, it is more something that happened," he says. "I always looked to the job I was doing."

He adds: "This is a unique opportunity in Scottish education history in many ways, and this has not been done for a long time. It means we can develop in areas that are fairly unique."

A fairly unique leader for a singular school.