Latest news with #BanffAcademy
Press and Journal
21-05-2025
- General
- Press and Journal
Retiring teacher Mrs Fulton will be 'truly missed' after 45 YEARS at Banff Academy
When Evelyn Fulton got the chance of a few weeks of teaching work at Banff Academy in 1980, she hoped she would make a good impression. To say it went well was an understatement: Mrs Fulton has just retired after 45 years at Banff, helping thousands of pupils achieve their potential. Colleagues and pupils describe her as 'the beating heart of the school', and queued up to talk about her 'unwavering kindness and quiet strength'. Now, as Evelyn makes plans to be a motorhoming 'lady who lunches', she reflects on four and a half decades – an entire career – at Banff Academy. 1980 was a big year for Evelyn: as well as starting her career, she married welder Alex. In the June, she got the chance to join Banff Academy's geography department on a temporary basis. By August – 18/8/80, to be precise – she became Mrs Fulton, English teacher at Banff Academy (she was qualified in both subjects). Over the next few decades, she spent most of her time teaching English. Evelyn, 66, said: 'I was always very happy at Banff, I must admit. 'I was never one looking for promotion – I preferred the contact with children in the classroom.' She is probably best known as an English teacher – but for the past decade Evelyn has changed her focus. Ten years ago, she moved to working with children with complex needs – and then two years ago, she was headhunted for a new support hub. So which part of the job gave her most satisfaction? She said: 'I'm equally proud of them all. 'I've always worked hard and done my best for people regardless of ability.' Evelyn saw six head teachers during her career, and probably hundreds of colleagues, never mind thousands of kids. Evelyn's English department colleagues described her as 'the beating heart of the school'. A close colleague said: 'I've never worked with anyone who is so universally loved by pupils and staff at all levels.' The Additional Support for Learning (ASL) department put together a big binder with comments from pupils and teachers. Head teacher Alan Horberry said: 'Evelyn's unwavering dedication, kindness, and quiet strength have shaped generations of students and inspired every colleague lucky enough to work beside her. 'After 45 years of teaching English and ASN with heart and grace, she leaves behind a legacy of compassion, wisdom, and deep respect from all who know her. 'She will be truly missed and forever remembered.' Evelyn also got a 'beautiful glass' plaque, which will have 'pride of place' at home. But what does Banff Academy's Evelyn Fulton think of all the plaudits? She said: 'I do my job and I just do the best I can. 'Patience has always been one of my virtues. I've always looked for the best in everybody. 'I'll miss the place – it has been an important part of my life.' The Fultons live in Buckie – in the same house for '30-odd years', and brought up daughters Elaine and Claire there. But what will Evelyn do with her time now? 'There will be no alarm clocks for a while – in school you're ruled by clocks and bells.' She is looking forward to spending more time with her grandsons Louis, 10, and seven-year-old Charlie. Alex retired last year and the Fultons also have travel plans. Evelyn added: 'We have a motorhome, but we haven't been out of Scotland in it yet – we might be a bit braver now. 'Apart from that, I have so many former colleagues I'm going to meet up with, I think I'm going to become a lady who lunches.'
Press and Journal
30-04-2025
- General
- Press and Journal
Colin Farquhar: Why Aberdeen College is a life-saver for people like this lad from Banff who daydreamed his way through school
This may, or may not, surprise you, but I wasn't really the most attentive pupil when I was at school. A touch over twenty years ago I left Banff Academy with decent Standard Grades, but only two Higher passes and Intermediates after two years of attempts to do better. Being honest I look back on my efforts at school with quite a lot of regret – I spent far too much time mucking around and not pushing myself, daydreaming at best and being disruptive when at worst. When I was nearing the end of school, I wasn't hugely sure what I was going to do next, being slightly unprepared. But I was lucky – although my qualifications, and at the time, my level of maturity, weren't likely enough to get me into University, I was accepted to a place in what was then Aberdeen College, now Nescol, to study Media & Communication. As such, I managed to leave Banffshire with a close pal, who was also accepted on the same course and moved to Aberdeen. After two years I completed my HND and aced the final project. I am still really proud of what I achieved there. I can't think what I would have done otherwise. I can't imagine I would have followed my Dad into fishing, never having the sea-legs for it. And I don't see that I would have ended up in a trade – I was always better with a pen when it wasn't stuck inside a compass. Aberdeen College was a lifesaver for me. It meant I could leave home, learn skills and crucially spend a bit of time growing up. Eventually, it did lead me to university, where so many of my smart cookie pals from school had gone two years earlier. Now, I reflect on it as a crucial point in my life; maybe THE crucial point in my life. I met friends I still have. I found that I was good at a wider range of subjects than just English. I found direction and avoided any other more destructive paths. It has left me a huge advocate for Nescol and everything it does. It's therefore upsetting to read about funding issues at Nescol and reports that it is having to turn applicants away due to a lack of resources to deliver courses. It makes me sad – the idea that others might not be afforded the opportunity that I had at the Gallowgate campus. To have the experiences I had there, learning a broad base of subjects that really built on what I was good at, in an environment that always felt more personal than the one I later experienced at uni. One recommended Belleville Rendezvous, and I may have skipped his class to catch the last screening. Sorry, Bill. I continued to have those experiences with Nescol through my working life – to do personal licence training when I started running the bar at Belmont Cinema, or to work on the Nescol Film Festival with the Creative Industries departments when I became Cinema Manager. And as for me, it's hard to exaggerate the impact that the College has on the north-east, in training and supporting our skills base in the region. Many of those students I met during the film festival have stayed working in the creative sector in the city – and some even make feature films here now and train the next generation of creatives. So hearing of financial constraints is therefore worrying. In addition to the recently announced savings drive at Aberdeen University and the redundancies at Robert Gordon University, it paints a grim picture for the north-east's further education institutions. The education sector has faced real-term cuts for years, as the costs associated with running campuses have ramped up. At times, it feels as if the whole thing is on somewhat of a precipice. Institutions are resilient and while I'm sure Nescol and the universities will emerge from the other side of current hardships, it's hard not to think about the individuals who they may be currently unable to support due to a tightening of the purse strings. Those learners, both old and young, who might need a steer at a pivotal point in their life. Nescol especially supports a huge amount of school leavers from the immediate region – 35% of them in the city and Aberdeenshire – who perhaps need those further steps in order to find themselves before entering the workforce full-time, like I did. Many of those will have additional support needs; and come from either areas of deprivation, or areas lacking in employment opportunities, as I did. I hope that resolutions can be found with funding so that everyone who wants to go on to learn there can. I'm sure the experience will be just as important for the majority of them as it was for me. Colin Farquhar works as a creative spaces manager and film programmer in the north-east culture sector
The Herald Scotland
27-04-2025
- General
- The Herald Scotland
Banff to Bethlehem project produces international artwork
Across the country, and indeed the planet, schools are asking themselves how to respond to, and help their students grow up in, a world in which the pace of change – much of it negative – only seems to be accelerating. What do young people need to know? What skills must we help them develop? How do we ensure that education is relevant to their experiences? In an attempt to answer those questions, one school in Aberdeenshire has launched a radical experiment, redesigning the weekly timetable for students in S1, S2 and S3 to include dedicated time for interdisciplinary, project-based learning (PBL). At its most effective, this approach engages students by allowing them to explore real-world issues and problems, all within a framework that blends contributions from a number of individual subject areas. A range of organisations already offer PBL courses and qualifications through programmes like F1 in Schools, Powering Futures and the International Sustainability Diploma, but individual schools can, and do, establish their own projects as well. Indeed, Scotland's curriculum encourages it. At Banff Academy they have gone further, creating the post of Principal Teacher of Project Based Learning that is currently filled by Stewart Clelland. Supported by headteacher Alan Horberry and Business and Community Support Officer Lucy Hogan, and thanks to funding from the Wood Foundation's Excelerate programme, he has led a curricular rethink that now sees students in the first years of secondary school spend whole days every week working outwith 'subject silos' and instead turning their attention to interdisciplinary projects. One of their most recent, and most successful, is titled 'Banff to Bethlehem' and has developed into a real-time international collaboration and exhibition linking students in Scotland with peers thousands of miles away in occupied Palestine. According to Clelland, the seeds of the project were in fact planted during a Global Learning Partnership placement in Rwanda and Uganda, an experience he says had a 'profound and lasting impact' on him and sparked a great interest in ideas of 'global citizenship, equity, and creative collaboration.' Read more: But Banff to Bethlehem, he explains, came together thanks to a chance encounter on social media. 'Basically the story is that we wanted to come up with something on sustainability. 'For whatever reason our other projects hadn't really focused specifically on art, and I really wanted the kids to be able to have experience of working with a professional artist on something to do with recycling and regeneration. 'We're also really interested in a local community and how we can regenerate our local high street. The challenges that we face through sustainability, or through climate change - what other things are stopping our community being sustainable? 'But I didn't want to make it myopic. I kind of wanted it to be looking out the way, and I was interested in trying to get an international partnership. 'I was on Twitter and saw a bakery in Inverness that had done an exhibition that had some Palestinian photographs up, and I asked them where did they get their artist from and they directed me towards an organization called the Network of Palestinian Photographers. 'So I contacted them and said that I'm a teacher, we're doing this project on sustainable communities, and I would really like the kids to be talking to somebody in a situation who's facing an existential crisis - a real attack on their community or culture - to help us think about how that might reflect on some of the challenges that we are facing up here in the North East.' A piece of artwork produced by a Banff Academy student as part of their recent project (Image: Banff Academy) Having been provided with a shortlist of Palestinian artists who might be interested in teaming up, Clelland was soon in touch with Taqi Spateen, a painter and muralist from the West Bank. They built a relationship through video calls during which they discussed the logistics of the plans. 'We decided that we could get him to tune into the classroom by Teams and hold one-to-one sessions with the kids, so they could develop a piece of art work that was informed by expert advice and had constant feedback from a professional.' Banff Academy's PBL programmes begin with an 'entry event' designed to pique students' interest in the new topic. In this case, that involved dumping a week's worth of plastic recycling from around the school on the floor of the assembly hall. The size of the pile shocked many, and from here they were guided into conversations about sustainability, creativity and community. The next step involved in-class sessions led by teachers with support from community partners including a local arts collective called The Forge. This collaboration, Clelland says, was key to engaging students while also supporting them to produce the most ambitious, expressive work possible. Students in Palestine producing artworks as part of the Banff to Bethlehem project (Image: Taqi Spateen) Remarkably, the project was carried out simultaneously with students attending the Hussan Secondary School for Boys in Bethlehem, forming a connection that also helped to illustrate the starkly different realities in Scotland and Palestine. Ultimately students were being asked to produce artwork that 'repurposed the past' by incorporating discarded materials in order to tell stories about sustainability and community. In Banff, that meant plastic bottles and newspaper clippings being used to explore climate change, renewables, and sport; in Bethlehem, some of the students used spent bullet casings in their work, and olive groves were a recurring feature. The project didn't end there. Rather than file the artworks away on a shelf, they have instead been placed on display in various locations around Banff including The Smiddy, which is – appropriately – a repurposed blacksmith's shop that had previously lain abandoned for decades. Several shops along the town's main street are also involved, displaying the artworks in their front windows. Even more impressively, their partnership with Taqi means that copies of Scottish students' art has also been placed on display on the Israeli separation wall, and the whole project has been heralded by the Bethlehem Cultural Festival. If the idea is to take learning out of the classroom and into the real world, then that has clearly been achieved. 'I never thought my art could travel so far or mean so much,' said one of the students involved. 'Seeing it on the Wall in Bethlehem felt like being part of something bigger.'
