As Dundee’s Menzieshill High School closes its doors for the last time, one proud former pupil looks back on its 45-year contribution to the life of the city.
When the 12-year-old Mike Hughes first stepped through the gates of Menzieshill High as a fresh-faced first year in 1974, the school was almost as new as he was.
Because the initial intake in 1971 comprised S1 pupils only, by the time he started the roll only went as high as S4. It made for a very special atmosphere, Mike recalls, and it goes some way towards explaining why he and successive generations look back on their time at the school so fondly.
“It was still a very young, very new school,” Mike, now 53, explains. “The teachers were really interested in the pupils and there was a real integration, which fostered a two-way respect.
“In many ways Menzieshill was way ahead of its time in terms of both the academic subjects and extracurricular activities it offered, and that was down to Mr Gowans, the rector,” he continues.
“It was one of the first schools to offer home economics for boys and woodwork for girls, and there was no end of after-school activities including drama, sports, art, music and debating.”
A highlight for him was when the debating team won against pupils from Dundee High School, Bell Baxter and Madras – quite a feat for a big city
comprehensive that was only about six years old at the time.
Mike left Menzieshill High at the end of fifth year and went on to work as a TV cameraman and director. Now based in Newcastle, he returns to Dundee often to visit his father and since the school’s closure was announced he has been working on a project called Bye Bye Meenie High to collate and preserve the memories of former pupils.
“Many of the people I went to Meenie with have gone on to have interesting careers and that says a lot for the school,” he says.
“The focus wasn’t only on academic success but also very much about producing rounded people who could stand on their own feet.
“The school did so much for me and made me grow as a person, and I wanted to find out if it still meant as much to other past pupils as well as those there today.
“It’s not about grieving, it’s about celebrating what it was, holding on to those memories and moving on,” he adds.
Sadness and excitement
Opened in 1971, Menzieshill High was one of Dundee’s first comprehensive schools, accepting pupils from all backgrounds and regardless of their academic abilities.
Located in the city’s Yarrow Terrace, it would provide a secondary education to more than 90,000 youngsters from the surrounding area over the next 45 years.
The school’s distinctive M-shaped badge was designed to illustrate its position at the heart of the community, the red equilateral triangle representing its
commitment to equality of opportunity, the grey trapezoids suggesting the buildings around it and the green background reflecting the expanse of grassland on which it sits.
The current school roll stands at 600, with pupils coming from Gowriehill, Hillside, Longforgan, Inchture and St Clement’s RC primaries.
The closure was first mooted by Dundee City Council in 2014, when it was proposed to transfer students to the new Harris Academy building on Perth Road.
The idea attracted strong opposition from pupils, parents and others in the community, fronted by the Save Menzieshill High campaign, who fought a determined battle to keep it open during the ensuing consultation.
However, the school’s fate was sealed in June 2015, when councillors voted by 18-14 to press ahead with the move, arguing that the needs of youngsters would be better served in a new school designed to meet the needs of a 21st century education. Pupils will attend the new Harris Academy when it opens at the start of the 2016-2017 term.
An open day has been organised for today to give former students one last chance to look around the school which played such an important part in their lives.
Tom Stewart, one of the current deputy head teachers, said: “Staff and pupils have mixed feelings, there are a lot of fond memories and a lot of sadness. But there is also a lot of excitement for the future – it is a big, big change for us.”
