My old (very old) school

Between the years of 1984 and 1987 I attended The Royal High School Secondary School in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Royal High School is one of the oldest schools in the worlds and dates back almost 900 years to when it was founded on 1128 by the Abbots (monks) of Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh after they received royal permission from King David 1^st. Traditional subjects were religion and Latin and many years later expanded to include Greek and French. During the time of the last Queen of Scotland (Mary Queen of Scots) in 1556 the school came under the control of the local town council.

For hundreds of years the school flourished and gained an international reputation for its literature and educational studies, attracting many foreign students and even royalty. However the school remained a private school and only the wealthy could afford to attend. It was also a single-sex school, only accepting boys. It wasn’t until the mid-1960’s that school became co-educational and started to accept girls as pupils. This was a major transitional period for the school as it also ceased to become private and became a state school (government non fee paying school). Nevertheless, the school produced many famous people including writers (Sir Walter Scott), doctors, television personalities and even a Prime Minister!

Many of the schools in Edinburgh are identified by their uniforms. The colours associated with The Royal High School are black and white and have a castle as their emblem. This also happens to be the colours and emblem of the City Of Edinburgh. The school offers all subjects in the national curriculum and Latin was a compulsory subject for the first two years of school up until recently. The school has an old song written in Latin which every pupil must learn and is sung on special occasions at the school. It also has its motto in Latin “Musis Respublica Floret” which means, “The State Flourishes with Muses”. The modern day Royal High School is located in a leafy suburb of the city but the old and very grand school can still be seen on Calton Hill in the centre of the city.

D. Lindsay