Born in Edinburgh in 1967, I was brought up in Linlithgow and attended Preston Road Primary there for five years. My parents – dad a car salesman and mum a schoolteacher turned housewife – then decided that I should attend DSMC from P6 onwards in order to stretch me academically. That decision presented a couple of challenges to the young me – I would need to get the train to school and would also need to make a whole new set of friends.
I think the move to attending DSMC went pretty well – new friends were rapidly made – but things were thrown into turmoil when my dad died suddenly in 1981. I was in Third Year at that point. I have no idea how my mum was placed financially at that time but am pretty sure that a return to school in Linlithgow was very much on the cards. That would have been easier from a logistical perspective – I could walk to Linlithgow Academy in 15 minutes from my house – but would have been very difficult on a personal level. I would have met many of the children I knew from Preston Road Primary but a warm welcome would in no way be guaranteed.
It therefore came as an immense relief to both me and my mum when I was offered an Assisted Place that would allow me to continue my studies at DSMC despite the recent change in our family circumstances.
It was only in later life that I considered that there might be a link between the Assisted Place and my excellent academic record at the school. I think I must have absorbed my mum’s gratitude and relief at the Assisted Place being offered and I subconsciously decided to focus on my studies to thank the school for what they had done for me.
Long story short, I got an A in every exam I sat at DSMC and ended up becoming Arts Dux in Sixth Year. That may well have happened even if my dad was still around but I certainly wasn’t taking the Assisted Place for granted. I think it’s fair to say that my exam results might have taken a major hit if I’d had to readjust to attending school in Linlithgow.
I went on to study English Language & Literature at St Andrews, meeting my now wife on my third day there in 1985. Again, that might all have come to pass even if I had transferred to Linlithgow Academy in 1981, but I am very happy that I didn’t need to go down that road.
I think it’s also that sense of gratitude that has kept me connected to the school 40 years on. Despite my less than stellar sporting career at DSMC, I’ve now been President of the rugby club twice and still follow the 1st XV home and away during the season. Both of our children were brought up around Inverleith and spent many happy Saturdays on the bus transporting the players to away games around the country. Another happy consequence of being able to stay at DSMC.
In conclusion, I don’t think it would be accurate to say that being granted an Assisted Place at DSMC changed my life; it’s more the case that, because I was granted an Assisted Place at DSMC, my life did not have to change despite the recent upheavals in my family life. I will always be grateful for that.
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