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Queen Victoria School's academic session 2002/3 will be notable to any future historian of the School because our Establishment Development Plan was put together, accepted by Her Majesty's Commissioners and put forward to the Adjutant General. Having taken over a School in 1994 which had been subjected to piecemeal development and, with the introduction of co-education and the building of Trenchard, to a certain extent, having continued that trend, it was extremely important to look to the future development of the School.
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I do believe we are at a pivotal point in Queen Victoria School's history. If we continue with the piecemeal approach we will, inevitably, continue to lose money and not support more of the Armed Forces families eg this year we had 151 applicants for admission, from which we took 44, quite a change from 1994 when we took 34 out of a total of 35 applicants.
Our Establishment Development Plan (EDP) will provide QVS with a new teaching block, up-to-date IT facilities, and another boarding house. In addition, the Centenary Appeal will aim to raise £2.5 million to build a new music centre and auditorium.
The EDP offers a cost effective way of moving forward and a very strong 'spend to save' argument. Clearly, it will depend on the timing and money being made available by AG but I can assure you that, whatever happens, the School will continue to move forward.
2003 will also be notable for the Iraq War. This had a big impact on the School, as very close relatives of a lot of our families from army, navy and airforce were involved. Fortunately, the main
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fighting has moved into another 'peace-keeping' exercise. However, all such situations have their inherent, very difficult problems and knock-on effects on the families. We should all be extremely grateful for the continuing role played by our Armed Forces and thankful that an establishment like Queen Victoria School exists to support and act as an anchor of stability for the children of our Armed Forces families.
The overall impression of the 2002 exams results was very good and in S5, excellent. At Standard Grade, 70% of our presentations in S4 were in Credit with only 14 below a 3 and 1 no award. 68% gained 5 or more passes in Grades 1 and 2 (National Average is 33%). In S5, 69.6% of the year group gained 3 or more Higher passes at A to C (National Average is 22%) and the pass rate on presentations was 85.8% The overall pass rate at Higher for S5 and S6 was 77%, compared to 75.9% last year. For both Standard and Higher Grade, Queen Victoria School was in the top National
Comparison Decile.
In our efforts to improve academic life we are working to a Service Level Agreement with Stirling Council to benefit from
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