Life at Hutchesons’

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S6 from a Pupil's Point of View

The following is taken from a presentation by a S6 pupil to Hutchesons' to parents of S5 pupils in June 2008. His message to pupils: Get involved!

At the end of fifth year, I was glad to get my important exams out of the way, and was looking forward to a relaxing summer.  However, I knew that I was in no way ready to go to university, thoughts shared by my peers. 

Sixth year is an intermediate period between Highers and going into the big world and university.  The freedom that is given to you is second to none, and you are given a lot more responsibility in an attempt to prepare you for life.  A minimum of three subjects is expected, but there are many extra-curricular activities which you can take part in.  I think my final year has been made enjoyable by me taking part in as many of these activities as possible.  The wide variety of activities on offer is brilliant and I will outline some of them to you.

Having been elected prefect by peers and teachers, I was looking forward to tasks that I would have to fulfil which would contribute greatly to the running of the school, both during school time and also at parents' evenings and various other events.  My work load however was increased when I was elected as a house captain, which involved organising and running sporting events for both Kingarth Street and Beaton Road pupils.  I thoroughly enjoyed carrying out both of these roles, as they made me feel as if I was giving something back to the school that has been home to me for the past 13 years.  It also taught me that organisation was key to most things in life and made me appreciate just how much time and effort the staff put into running events in the school.

The buddying system was around when I was in S1, but it was most certainly not as well executed and organised as it is today. Each S1 form class is allocated two S6 pupils, known as buddies, who visit the class once or twice every week.  The pupils know that we are there to help them with any problems that they have or just want someone to talk to.  It is not easy coming into a new school, especially when you have come from outside of Hutchesons' and you are in unfamiliar surroundings.  In all honesty, even though I very much enjoy the roles of prefect and house captain, buddying has been my favourite aspect of sixth year.  Getting to know and guiding new pupils in the school has been a tremendously rewarding experience and I would strongly encourage your children to sign up when the time comes.

I also took part in the Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award this session.  Mark Scott was a Glasgow teenager, not much younger than me, who was killed in an unprovoked sectarian murder in the east end in 1995.  Since then, his parents have strived to bring together young people, who otherwise might not socialise, in order to achieve a project which is beneficial in a community.  Having completed a week long training module at the Outward Bound Centre at Lochiel in September last year, the rest of our time was spent fundraising and planning what we were going to do for our project.  My team and I have only last week redesigned a sensory garden at a special needs school in Crookston. It is almost finished, but it is extremely rewarding to see the transformation that has already taken place from an old, unkempt jungle, to somewhere where the children can play, but also learn about wildlife thanks to the creature attracting plants that have been installed.  However, the most rewarding of all was seeing the faces of the children when they saw their new garden for the first time.  It was really wonderful.

A friend once said to me that the number of badges of my lapel was inversely proportional to my IQ.  If, like me, you are sitting there wondering what he was talking about, it means I have an IQ of one-third.  Yes.  One-third.  But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that I have thoroughly enjoyed my final year at Hutchesons'.  I hope I have not bored you all too much, but given you a slightly better insight into what sixth year is all about and what can be achieved in that time, both academically and socially.