Founders’ Day 2022

Staff and pupils returned to Glasgow Cathedral yesterday to celebrate Founders’ Day after a Covid-enforced two year break.

The annual ceremony was cancelled in 2020 and in 2021 the event was held online. Yesterday’s service in the Cathedral marked a welcomed return to more normality, albeit facemasks still featured.

Professor Sally Stewart, C1981, gave this year’s address, recalling her own school days and how the lessons learned had helped her achieve success in her own career. She finished her talk by saying she believed the pupils sitting before her would be equipped to solve problems they had not yet encountered.

Professor Stewart, who is the Head of School, Mackintosh School of Architecture, The Glasgow School of Art, said of her time at Hutchie: “The respect for learning, the discovery of new things and the universally held belief in the transformation of knowledge can make in a person was liberating.

“When I think of my younger self, I realise how well prepared I was for the next steps, well-schooled you might say. The work ethic at school meant I had capacity and stamina to deal with the complexity and workload of architecture. The breadth of our education also meant it was easy to make connections between disparate subjects. School made me confident in my own abilities and able to hold my own. I felt I could do whatever I aimed to do to be able to follow my ambitions and that I was well placed for the next part of my life with the momentum that school had given me.“

Professor Stewart spoke to pupils about the important role they will play in the future, stating that the skills they have learnt at Hutchesons’ will equip them well.

She said: “Last year we saw Cop 26 meet in Glasgow and attempt to agree what action to take now it has been accepted that there is indeed a climate emergency affecting everyone. This will be one of the defining questions of your adult lives. No matter how difficult, we will have to radically change the way we live if we want to reduce our impact on the planet.

“Covid has also shown us what we can do when we harness medical innovation and work together to change our habits and behaviour. It has also shown us how easy it is to become isolated when separated from our friends and our wider community.

“In the past three weeks we have also seen war in the edge of Europe start. A war that appears to have no reason, no logic and one that may yet affect us all.

“I know from my own students that these things cause them huge anxieties. This is not because they have caused them but because they have realised it will be down to them and the next generation to find solutions to these problems.

“I believe you will find solutions even to problems you have not yet come across. It will take energy, ingenuity and determination all of which I know Hutchesonians have in spade loads. When we work together for the greater good we can do anything no matter where we begin or who we are.”

During the service the school choir sang ‘God Be In My Head’ and the ‘Irish Blessing’ and Head Boy Owen Gould and Head Girl Sowparnika Gopalakrishnan gave readings. Thanks also to the organist Malcolm Sim, C1992.

Rector Colin Gambles said: “It was a wonderful event and it was amazing to be back in the Cathedral for Founders’ Day after two years away.  The sense of occasion, history and continuity since 1641 was palpable. It was lovely to see our pupils once more taking part in the service which is such an important date in the school calendar. Next year will see us able to invite the more usual wider audience, and we eagerly await that day.”