Amy Costello (Class of 2016), Ellie Mackenzie (2020), Ava Findlay (2021), and Connie Roxburgh (2023) touched down in Hyderabad, India on 8 March with Scotland’s senior women’s hockey team. Their goal was to qualify for the 2026 FIH Hockey World Cup. And that’s exactly what they did.
After a semi-final win against Uruguay, Scotland faced Italy in the final round. Amy smashed a penalty strike into the bottom right corner, ending the game 1-0. The win clinched Scotland a World Cup berth, the first since 2002.
“It was amazing watching how the girls did in India and to have four former pupils so heavily involved in the qualification. We are just so proud of their achievements,” says Valerie Thomson, Deputy Head of Student Experience and former Head of Physical Education at Erskine Stewart Melville.
Amy, Ellie, Ava, and Connie will play for Scotland at the FIH World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands this August.
The success of these FPs is a testament to the legacy the School has built around sports, and hockey in particular. All four FPs were coached and mentored by talented players, including Mrs Thomson herself, who played for Scotland at the 1998 World Cup in the Netherlands, PE Teacher Claire Biagi, who played on the 2002 squad at the World Cup in Western Australia, and Director of Physical Education and Sport Nichola Aitchison, who plays for Scotland at the masters level.
The FPs have continued this chain of mentorship by working with and inspiring current students. While they were in Hyderabad, the FPs sent our girls’ 1st XI team a message before they played in the Scottish Schools Cup final. “That was so special for the team to see,” Mrs Thomson says.
The FPs have even helped inspire one another. During some team bonding in Hyderabad, Amy brought out an old picture of herself visiting the School and speaking to a group of S1 hockey players. Amongst that group was Connie.
Connie, in turn, now helps coach some of our hockey teams. “[Our students are] able to work with her and say, ‘OK, maybe one day that might be me’. It seems tangible to them because she has been in their shoes,” Mrs Thomson says.
By continuously raising the bar, our FPs make more and more seem possible for current students. And their list of accomplishments is ever growing.
In 2024, Amy was selected to represent Great Britain at the Paris Olympics. This winter, Connie captained Scotland’s U21 team at the Junior World Cup in Santiago, Chile, alongside recent leaver Emily Morris (2025) and current Sixth Form 1st XI captain Jen. And just recently, Ellie, Ava, and Connie were invited to join Great Britain’s Elite Development Programme, a world-leading initiative aimed at creating future Olympians.
In many ways, these accomplishments are the result of a love of sport, nurtured during their time at school, and why Mrs Thomson encourages students to get involved. But sport isn’t all about making it to the international stage, she explains. It’s also about making friends, staying active, and being part of a team. This is particularly true of hockey.
“I think in hockey, there’s tradition there, there is history there, and it is just a wonderful game to be involved in,” Mrs Thomson says. “To this day I quite often see former pupils and they say, ‘I still play hockey now for this club or that club and I do so because I loved playing it at school.’”
