One of the oldest schools in Scotland is preparing to mark 300 years since its formation.
Wallace Hall Academy in Thornhill will host a weekend of celebration of three centuries of achievement, progress and cultural enrichment later this year.
Famous former pupils will join teachers, senior school staff, students, local villagers and farmers – with whom the school has strong links – to raise a toast to John Wallace, the successful Glasgow merchant and native of the village of Closeburn who started the story.
Events to showcase the history of the school are set to take place in May along with a reunion.
Wallace Hall Academy headteacher Barry Graham said: “The tercentenary celebrations will be a momentous weekend not only for the school but for the towns and villages which it serves, and for whose sons and daughters it has afforded an exemplary start in life.
“After all these years, the academy is still delivering an outstanding education to the students in its care, combining the best of traditional values with the very latest in teaching methods and technologies.
“There will be many events and gatherings for this remarkable occasion and we would like to encourage as many people as possible to join us on the Wallace Hall Academy – 300 Years Facebook page.”
It was in 1717, just 10 years after the Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England, that John Wallace endowed £1,400 to establish a school which would teach English, Latin, Greek, writing and arithmetic to the children of the parishes of Closeburn and Dalgarno.
When he died in 1723, his executors bought five acres of land in Kirkflatt, along with farmland which would produce an income for the rector, and the following year the first schoolmaster was appointed.
As the 1800s approached, the school’s reputation was established, its presence being a significant incentive in local farm sales, and in 1817, it was described as “indeed, one of the most celebrated academies of Scotland.”
It attracted students not just from the local countryside but from all over Scotland, including the elder brothers of Sir Walter Scott. It was not all Latin and arithmetic, however, in 1780, dancing was added to the prospectus and Wallace Hall remains a Scottish Country Dance centre of excellence to this day.
Situated as it is in the rolling green acres of Dumfries and Galloway, it was only natural that the academy established mutually-beneficial associations with the farming community and agricultural science was introduced in 1882, with the school becoming a centre for agricultural education in 1929. It even ran a short course on butter-making.
In 1965, the Scottish education department decreed that secondary education in the area would best served by one new school in Thornhill, two miles from Closeburn, to accommodate all 800 secondary pupils in the area. This came to pass in 1973 and, taking the Wallace Hall Academy name, the school now serves pupils aged from two to 18-years-old.
The list of distinguished former pupils is long and includes footballers, Olympic swimmers, cattle breeders, Lord Mayors, business executives, academics, singers and entertainers and a Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
For a small, rural school, Wallace Hall Academy has consistently punched well above its weight in providing a positive educational experience in Mid-Nithsdale, and the John Wallace Trust still supports experiences beyond the classroom.
