School of excellence: Fettes College

Published on Tuesday 22 April 2008 20:08

SOMETIMES traditions need to be broken – and Fettes College in Edinburgh did just that this year with its newest boarding house.

Separating the upper sixth form pupils from the rest of their younger colleagues ended 130 years of traditional all-age houses.

The idea, explains headmaster Michael Spens, is to prepare them for university, to try to build a bridge between more structured learning and independent living.

Mr Spens says: "In many ways, they are prepared, having lived away from home and having some independence. But what they found hard was going away from the very organised environment of school, to almost structureless university.

"Now they can take more responsibility for their own lives and decide when they work and when they don't. It's given them that sense of responsibility."

An appreciation for responsibility is also emerging from the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme, which was brought into Fettes College two years ago – and carries a key component of 50 hours of community service. Whether that is work with the Duke of Edinburgh Award, Adopt A Beach programme or teaching in the nursery school, there's an expectation that Fettes pupils will be heavily involved in the world outside the college's famous gates.

"The International Baccalaureate prepares our pupils well for university," says Mr Spens. "It really encourages you to think for yourself – and the universities really like it for that reason.

"The community service was there before, but the level has increased and the reaction is extremely positive."

Mr Spens continues: "Our ethos is to encourage our pupils to challenge themselves, to set their own bar higher than what they might have done. That ethos applies across the board.

"Confidence without arrogance – that prepares them very well for the world into which they go."

Fettes – well-known as the former school of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as actress Tilda Swinton – is also famed for attracting pupils from across the world.

It is now in the process of a ten-year redevelopment of its facilities for art, music and drama, and the constant drive for improvement is seen as one of the major attractions to pupils from 35 countries, as far away as Japan and Australia, to complement young Scottish and UK talent.

As Mr Spens sums: "The past year has been extremely busy, but we're always on the move."