Dollar Academy

by Stuart Crawford

In 1802, Captain John McNabb, who came from a poor family background, left a substantial part of the fortune he had accumulated to establish "a school for the poor of the parish of Dollar wheir I was born". The sum was considerable - some £40,000 - but it was not until 18 years later that Dollar Academy had been built.

The first headmaster, the Rev Dr Andrew Milne (who was also the local minister) was the man who made McNabb's vision a reality, and who also had the foresight to commission eminent Scottish architect William Henry Playfair to create the main school building in the classical mode for the then extraordinary cost of £20,000. Today Dollar Academy's Doric frontage is rightly regarded as an architectural masterpiece, but what lies within is no less remarkable.

Dollar Academy is a distinctive school, imbued with the spirit of Scottish internationalism that led to its founding in the first place. It was, for example, the first co-educational boarding school in the United Kingdom, taking girls from its opening in 1818. In the middle years of the 19th century the Academy played a significant part in the Victorian popular enthusiasm for gardening. The grounds boast many rare international species to this day, including probably the most northerly example of the tulip tree, which flowers every seven years, and a magnificent Corsican pine.

Dollar then produced pupils who went on to become Head Gardeners for Kew, Windsor, and Canada, as well as the botanical adviser to the Indian government. Other institutions, such as the Indian Civil Service, South African Railways, and tea estates all over Asia owe much to Dollar former pupils. The Academy was grant-aided until the 1970s when the decision was taken to go fully independent.

Since then the school has gone from strength to strength. Today there are some 1,130 pupils of whom slightly under 100 are boarders, but the boarding element is seen as "the grit in the oyster". Boarders are accommodated in five boarding houses - two for senior boys, two for senior girls, and one junior boys' house. All bar one of the houses are on campus. Of the day pupils who make up the bulk of students at the Academy, some 300 or so can be described as local, with the rest daily commuting from as far afield as Edinburgh, St Andrews, Cumbernauld and north Perthshire.

Such is the popularity of Dollar Academy that house prices in the immediate vicinity are spiralling in a property boom almost on a par with that of Edinburgh. The Rector, John Robertson, originally from Glasgow, was educated at Jordanhill College School and Glasgow University where he read English. His teaching career started at Stewart's Melville in Edinburgh where he taught English, became a Housemaster and subsequently Assistant Head. He left Edinburgh for Dollar in 1987 when he was appointed Deputy Rector, and became Rector in 1994. He describes himself as being "obsessed with cricket" and also having a keen interest in theatre, reading, and travel. He was also Principal Examiner for Higher English in Scotland for many years. In recent years, he has played a significant part in curriculum development both in Scotland (with SCCC) and throughout Britain (with HMC). He is currently chairman of the Scottish HMC Headmasters.

Dollar clearly benefits from his wealth of experience and educational links throughout Britain. Dollar is a big school and a big player on the Scottish educational scene. It is very strong academically, with 100% of June 1999 leavers due to attend university by September 2000, a record no other school in Scotland can probably match. In three out of the last four years the Academy has won the Scottish Independent Schools maths competition, and the sciences and art departments are particularly buoyant at the moment. Robertson says that at Dollar teachers - whose ratio to pupils is a generous 1:11 - are "given their heads" and have the ability to use their own creative skills and passions to create a climate of enthusiasm amongst their pupils.

Biotechnology is one good example of what can be achieved at this school. This department has forged close links with local industry and Edinburgh University, and has become the centre of biotechnological teaching in Scotland. Academic matters aside, nothing else is compulsory at Dollar. Music, sport, and the CCF are all voluntary, driven by the staff's enthusiasm and the pupils' eagerness to participate. In sport, the school is well known as one of the very best rugby schools in the country with the 1st XV selected in April to represent Scotland in a world schools tournament in Japan, and girls' hockey and tennis are flourishing.

Cricket - the Rector's passion - is very strong, and the team currently includes a Bajan all-rounder and future international prospect, first holder of a scholarship established to allow pupils from Barbados to study at Dollar. And in June, a Dollar girl completed an extraordinary hat-trick: she was selected for Dollar's 1st XI, for England Under 17 Girls, and won her first full Scottish Women's cap. In addition, two Dollar girls were selected this year for the British shooting team against South Africa: the only girls, and the only Scots. Finally, despite being completely voluntary, the CCF is over 240 strong, and the pipe band played recently at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh in front of The Prince of Wales.

In short, Dollar Academy is clearly in robust good health, and plans for the future are set on a bedrock of success and security. John Robertson's vision is typically outward - looking, seeking to "create greater awareness in the world of the Scottish internationalism which was fundamental to the founding of Dollar". He sees the opportunities to do this which the current Scottish mini-Renaissance has created, and would like to see the significant role which Dollar pupils have played internationally continue to develop into a truly expansive role on the world stage.

Dollar's part on the world stage is likewise assisted by the exceptional all-round talents of the Chairman of Governors, Mr John Cameron. Cameron is not only "the largest sheep farmer in Europe", but he is also an international transport consultant, and a very great presence on the world farming stage. Under his Chairmanship, Dollar Academy has flourished, and the style and tone of the school reflect Cameron's shrewd approach to building and land use. As a former boarder in Dollar himself, he puts his heart and soul into a school which he still regards as a very large family. For his pupils, he aims to open their eyes to local, national, and international events and influences, and to imbue them with the strong sense that, in Dollar at least, "the Scottish Cringe is not an option". He is keen to keep the day/boarding mix at roughly where it is at present, but would like to develop weekly boarding further.

Careful housekeeping and awareness of logical progress is the key to Dollar's success - "Dollar saves, then buys" as the Rector puts it, and the school has funded all its recent building developments through a prudent approach to its finances. Its prosperity shows in the houses as much as in the Academy itself. Longer term, the Rector wants to try to inculcate in his pupils the philosophy that those who have been successful should invest in the education of those who follow, and should do so with particular emphasis on widening the social catchment of the school. That harks back to the founding spirit, and as John Robertson wryly observes, "the founder of Dollar Academy was probably 200 years ahead of his time".

Dollar Academy,
Dollar
FK14 7DU.

Telephone: 01259 742511
Facsimile: 01259 742867

web site: www.dollaracademy.org.uk
e mail: rector@dollaracademy.org.uk

© S W Crawford 2000

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