Pupils do exchange visit with school across the road

Published on Thursday 19 March 2009 09:22

GOING on a school exchange usually involves packing pupils off to France or Germany to allow them to experience a completely different culture.

But for pupils at Broughton High School, foreign travel wasn't necessary as their host school was just yards away on the opposite side of the street.

Senior pupils at Broughton swapped with students at Fettes College to get an insight into the differences between state and private education.

The idea came from one S6 girl at Broughton after she watched a documentary about Glenalmond College in Perthshire, which portrayed the pupils as bullies and unmotivated.

After discussing it with headteacher Lesley Johnston, she wrote to Fettes College to see if it would be interested in a school exchange to dispel any myths surrounding state and private schools. Six pupils from Broughton joined their counterparts at Fettes on Tuesday, while the Fettes pupils turned up for classes at the new Broughton High on Carrington Road yesterday.

The Broughton teenagers got a shock when they had to be at school for 7.20am for breakfast and then chapel, while the Fettes pupils complained that their lunch break was too short.

Mrs Johnston said the pupils have bonded well and have put aside their backgrounds to form strong friendships.

She said: "Students who wanted to take part all had to write a CV to say why they wanted to have the exchange and we selected six from each school.

"Nearly all of them said they didn't have an opinion of the other school because they didn't know anything about them. It's nice that they can meet up and find that there's probably more similarities than differences.

"Our pupils found going to chapel very strict and very different because our assemblies tend to be quite informal."

She added: "While the social backgrounds of some of our respective pupils may vary, the educational needs of young people throughout the city are very similar."

Seventeen-year-old Emily Pepin was one of the Broughton pupils taking part in the exchange, and spent Tuesday night boarding at Fettes instead of going to back to her family in Portobello.

She said: "The biggest difference is that it's more like a home to them than just a school and they have to check in with their house matron three times a day.

"Staying over was really different and I kept thinking I was going home at the end of the day. I did ask them if they missed their parents but most of them said after a while they just get used to it.

"They're all pretty close and it's like a big family with the matron as a second mum.

"It's not as strict as I imagined it to be, but I did try to go there without any preconceptions."

Michael Spens, headmaster of Fettes College, said: "The idea of a swap offers the perfect opportunity to let each pupil make informed opinions about the other by experiencing what Broughton and Fettes are really like."