The team are now top of the league with 12 points after having played 5 games with 2 games still to play.

Good Luck Team!

Albyn pupils have always shown a strong interest in all the sciences and in the coming year the addition of 3 new science labs only goes to reinforce Albyn’s dedication to this area of the varied curriculum available at the school.

Check back in a few weeks with further updates on Formula 24.
 

With these grades the pupils have gone on to very competitive courses across the UK including Engineering, Medicine and Law. Further destinations can be found on: http://www.albynschool.co.uk/destination-of-leavers

Well done to all our pupils!

The Scotsman Exam League Tables 2009-09-04

Highers- Passes

School % Gaining Grades A-C

Highers-A-Grades

School % Gaining Grade A

Advanced Highers

School % Gaining Grades A-C %     Gaining Grade A

Behind the Queen’s Road buildings, and in an effort to meet the needs of the youngest members of the Albyn community, the School’s two nurseries will be brought together onto one site. This serves to free up more playground space for the youngest children. For the senior pupils, three additional laboratories and a classroom block are being created to allow the teaching of a greater range of science, technological and arts subjects. The School achieved the best Higher results in the city of Aberdeen in 2009 and is keen to ensure that in the years to come, its facilities match its academic performance

The Headmaster, Dr Long commented. ‘I have been keen to preserve that sense of the city’s heritage that is inherent in the Queen’s Road buildings and I am really pleased that the west end of Aberdeen still has room for schools as well as offices. We want to deliver science, technology and the arts to our pupils in an appropriate environment but recognise that as the School changes we have to be sensitive to the life and work of our residential and commercial neighbours. I am very keen that we do not make their lives more difficult and are soon to launch schemes to take some of our school-run traffic off the local roads.”

Good Luck!

It is very nearly a year since the last Lunchbreak Concert given by pupils of Albyn School. Last year Laura Jarret was accompanist. She is now in full charge of the choir so her role at the piano has been ably taken over by Craig McDermott. I was once again impressed not just by the superb quality of the choir but by its size. This year it included just a few more boys in its ranks too. One of the boys, Josh McLullich was an impressive soloist in the opening piece, A Canadian Song –Mary Anne. I was immediately struck by the freshness and confidence of the singing and by the brightness and enthusiasm that shone from every face in the choir. The young singers clearly respond well to Mrs Jarret and enjoy singing for her. Not just harmony but quite difficult counterpoint in several of the arrangements such as Swing Low Sweet Chariot or again in the exuberant sequence of Five Sea Songs When the Boat Comes in- proved no difficulty for the choir as they really got down to delivering the hearty spirit of these songs.

Gentler items like Mendelssohn’s Oh for the Wings of a Dove with Arianna Bewick and Sophie Glenn as soloists or Amazing Grace featuring Oliver Kinghorn as soloist were supported by beautifully transparent choral singing as well. Laura Jarret’s expedient of having two singers double the solo part together is a splendid idea. It helps build confidence in the young singers so that they can go by themselves in the future. (I remember not being happy at all when as a boy I had to sing by myself, and funnily enough, neither was the audience back then.)

The Albyn pupils are all probably much too young to remember the Swingle Singers but in The Sailor’s Hornpipe and in Tom Cunningham’s splendid foot-tapping arrangement of Scottish Reels entitled Duke of Perth and other Scottish Reels the choir brought that idea vibrantly back to life. The audience obviously enjoyed these items especially and so it seemed did the choir.

Once again this year we were reminded that music at Albyn is not just limited to singing so we heard a lovely smooth alto saxophone solo from Shonagh Russell and a fine performance of the slow movement from Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto played with considerable sympathy and understanding by Julie Marshall.

Another fine vocal solo, this time from Katy Johnston concluded the concert. This was Defying Gravity by Stephen Schwartz from his musical Wicked the prequel to The Wizard of Oz.

There was a rumour circulating that schools no longer teach “proper” singing these days. This concert certainly dispelled that idea and Laura Jarret is to be congratulated for keeping the flame very much alive at Albyn anyway.

The Cross Country Race at Lathallan on Friday has been cancelled due to underfoot conditions being icy and unsafe.

Mrs Jarret, Director of Music and Drama at Albyn said: “This is set to be one of the most exciting years yet! And on the 18 March there will be the full Music Department Concert at the Music Hall at 7pm. This will feature all choral and orchestral groups including a new smaller vocal group ‘Cantabile’ and Ceilidh Band and Blues Band. “