The Miller Academy House Teams
At
the closing Prize giving of Miller Academy, before the school split into Thurso
High School and Miller Academy Primary School, the winning house for that year
was Holburn. With the log-book for
this period missing, little information is available on the House Teams at that
time. It is known that the three
teams were Holburn, Pentland and Clett
and that they competed for The Scrabster Shield.
The first winner was Pentland, in session 1954-55, and the last name
engraved on the shield is Clett, for session 1970-71.
This shield now hangs in the entrance hall of the Primary School main
building having been returned to the school.
A picture of the shield is shown below along with the Morrison and Miller
Shields.
During
Mrs McCracken’s time as Head Teacher of Miller Academy, a ‘House’ system
for the School was introduced by Depute Head Teacher, Mr Budge.
The system was seen as a good vehicle to motivate pupils in both academic
work and sporting activities. Mr
Budge was instrumental in the naming of the House Teams after he had researched
the names of individuals with a connection to the school.
The four house names chosen were Fletcher,
MacKenzie, Ruby and Sandison.
Photographs of Lieutenant John
MacKenzie and Flight Sergeant Peter
Sandison and information frames about Maggie
Fletcher and Margaret Ruby hang
in the lower corridor of the main teaching block.
The
teams compete for two house shields. The Morrison Shield for sports events, in
the summer term, and the Lt.-Col. John Miller Shield for other school
activities, throughout the year. All
members of staff, including the Head Teacher, Secretary and Janitor, allocate
points during the session to individual pupils and those points are recorded for
the individuals and their houses. An
individual’s points are used as a reward system to encourage improved academic
performance, good behaviour and a helpful attitude at school.
The total points accumulated by the House Teams are displayed in the
lower corridor and the House with the highest total is awarded the John Miller
Trophy.
The
House Captains for each of the houses are chosen by the pupil members of the
house in a secret ballot.
Fletcher
Fletcher
was named after Maggie Fletcher, the first female teacher at the school.
Miss Fletcher was appointed in 1883 and remained at the school for nearly
four years. Soon after her
appointment girls were admitted to the school for the first time.
MacKenzie
is named in memory of Lieutenant John MacKenzie who was an English Master for
seven years at the school before he lost his life in World War One.
Lieutenant MacKenzie was in the 8th Battalion of the
Northumberland Fusiliers and was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme on
September 26th, 1916. His
body was never found and he is commemorated on the large memorial at Thriepval
in France and on the Miller Academy Memorial in the Thurso Library, formerly the
Miller Institution. Lieutenant
MacKenzie was a native of Lybster, Caithness.
The
poem below was submitted by Patricia
Robertson (Simpson),
Aberdeen who was a pupil in the school from 1930 to 1936.
It was composed by John MacKenzie, in 1913, for the autograph book of the
then Miss Riach, Secondary Teacher at Miller Institute 1910 – 1915.
She later became Mrs Simpson, Forss Mill (mother of Mrs Robertson).
In
Vestigus Deorum
by J. MacKenzie, Thurso
August 25th, 1913.
O,
Town by the delorous Northern Sea,
Town
by the Northern River,
Long
hast though stood by the sheltered bay,
Long
shalt thou look on the restless deep,
Town
of Thor forever.
Here
dwelt of yore the Kingly God,
God
of the Viking bold,
Who
sailed the sea in the pride of his heart,
With
helm on head and dragon at prow,
Warrior
– robber of old.
By
the rolling waves and the sounding beach,
By
the headlands winding way,
By
echoing cave and standing stack,
Have
trod the feet of the mighty Gods,
Gods
of the Elder Days.
Their’s
the joy in the roaring gale,
And
the flashing Northern Lights,
In
the spouting reef and the sheering gull,
The
thundering surf or the silent calm,
Of
peaceful star-lit nights.
Heroes
and Gods in Valhalla they dwell,
Warriors
now as then,
Yet
still as we tread where they trod before,
With
like emotions our hearts may throb,
The
puny sons of men.
Ruby
remembers a pupil, Margaret Ruby, who died at six years of age of Spanish
‘flu’ on 25th October 1918.
Margaret is buried in Thurso Cemetery and her parents and brothers are
remembered on the gravestone.
Sandison is named after a former pupil killed in World War Two. Sergeant Peter Sandison, a Flight Engineer in the Royal Air Force, was reported missing, presumed killed on September 16th, 1942. His body was recovered from the sea by Germans four days later. He was on his fifth operational flight after serving ten years in the RAF. Sergeant Sandison had married only five days before his death on the return from a raid on Essen. He was the youngest son of Donald Sandison and Mrs Sandison, Framside, Thurso.