Wallace Hall | |
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![]() Current Wallace Hall building (2010), showing ELC and Primary wing. | |
Address | |
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Station Road Thornhill, Dumfriesshire , DG3 5DS Scotland | |
Coordinates | 55°14′31″N3°45′25″W / 55.242°N 3.757°W |
Information | |
Type | Comprehensive |
Motto | "Together we grow, learn and achieve" |
Established | 1723; 301 years ago |
Founder | John Wallace |
Authority | Dumfries and Galloway Council |
Head Teacher | Barry Graham |
Staff | 126 |
Years | Nursery - S6 |
Gender | Mixed |
Age range | 2–18 |
Enrollment | 709 |
Language | English |
Colour(s) | Dark blue, light blue, and green |
Website | www |
Wallace Hall is a 2-18, state-operated comprehensive school in Thornhill, Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. The school serves all school-aged children in the local area, with three distinct schooling types operating under one building. These are; The ELC (Early Learning Centre or Nursery), Primary School, and Academy. The ELC and Primary School serves children aged 2–12 located within Thornhill's local catchment area, whilst the Academy serves children aged 11–18 located within Thornhill's local catchment area, [1] as well as a plethora of surrounding rural located Primary schools. [1] [2] As of September 2023, the school operates with a roll of 551 pupils (secondary), [3] and 158 pupils (ELC and primary). [4]
The original Wallace Hall was founded by John Wallace, a merchant in Glasgow and a native of Closeburn, who, in 1717, endowed £1400 for the purpose of erecting the school, on the basis for it to teach English, Latin, Greek, Writing, and Arithmetic, all for the children of Closeburn. [5] [6] Upon his death in 1723, his executers purchased five acres of land, as well as farmland providing income for the rector, a year later the first schoolmaster was appointed. [5] The school established itself over time as its reputation increased, in 1817, it was described as "indeed, one of the most celebrated academies of Scotland". [5] In 1911, a new building was constructed which would home Wallace Hall until 1978, [6] and now lives on as a Category B listed building, [7] styled as Closeburn Primary School. [8] The original building is now a Category A listed [9] privately owned specialist education centre styled as Closeburn House. [6] Furthermore, the John Wallace Trust continues to support young people in the Thornhill area by offering bursaries to help with the cost of higher education. [10]
Until the early nineteen seventies, there were two secondary schools in the local area: the six-year Wallace Hall at Closeburn and the four-year Morton Academy in Thornhill. In 1972, the two schools amalgamated and the new school at Thornhill took on the name of Wallace Hall. [5] Prior to this amalgamation, an extensive building programme was started in 1970 and completed in 1978 in order to accommodate the pupils of both schools. The school continued to flourish on this site until, however, as part of Dumfries and Galloway Council's £100 million project to build nine new schools, this building was replaced with a new Wallace Hall School, which was built opposite the original school, beside the school playing fields. [11] The construction of the building started on 16 January 2008 and the new school opened in January 2010.
In July 2017, a campaign was launched to buy and transform the building that, built in 1909, [12] and Category C listed, [13] originally housed Morton Academy, and then later Wallace Hall Primary, and which up-until this point had sat derelict and disused opposite to the modern Wallace Hall building. [14] This campaign gathered steady traction over the coming months, amounting in money being awarded for the purpose of renovation and purchase, from the Scottish Land Fund, as well as the Architectural Heritage Fund and Thornhill Community Council. [12] In June 2019, a charity is formed under the name of Old School Thornhill (OST), which allows for more funding to be collected from the Holywood Trust, Dumfries and Galloway Council and South of Scotland Enterprise. [14] [15] In total, OST claims to have raised more than £2.5 million towards renovation works, of which lasted from 2022 until 2024. [14] [16] The building was officially opened for public usage on the 20th of April 2024. [16]
Throughout the first half of 2023, the school held celebrations in order to mark its 300 year old milestone. In the lead up to the celebrations, a competition was held by the Wallace Hall Community Group for current pupils to design a commerative 300 year logo for the occasion, after voting, it was won by Darach Smyth, with a 62% vote share. [17] When the celebrations did take place, they included (but where not limited to): a handbook being produced covering the extensive history of Wallace Hall, a film being produced documenting experiences from pupils past and present, with a look around the former Wallace Hall, now Closeburn Primary School, and 3 days of consecutive celebratrions being held at Wallace Hall, Closeburn Primary School, and Closeburn House. [18] [19] In addition, on the 13th of June 2023, Emma Harper, MSP for South Scotland, submitted a motion to the Scottish Parliament congratulating Barry Graham and Wallace Hall for reaching the 300 years milestone. [20]
In March 2020, the school closed temporarily following a government imposed national lockdown, as well as the announcement by the then First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, that all schools and nurseries would be closing, all to prevent the spread of COVID-19. [21] [22] During the later half of 2020 (August until December), the school reopened, however with severe mitigations in place (such as a One Way System in the corridors, staggered lesson times for each year group, Social Distancing, and later on, mask wearing), [23] [24] this following a (then ongoing) formal risk assessment conducted by Barry Graham and other senior management staff on behalf of Dumfries and Galloway Council, [25] as well as guidance issued by the Scottish Government on the matter. [26]
In March 2021, following government restrictions easing, the school reopened again, implementing similar mitigation measures (such as mandatory mask-wearing and social distancing) to guard against the spread of COVID-19. In Spring 2022, all mitigations were dropped and the school returned to normal operations.
In May 2022, the school held its first diet of SQA examinations since 2019, having returned to normal operations after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dumfries is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, 25 miles (40 km) from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the historic county of Dumfriesshire.
Dumfries and Galloway is one of the 32 unitary council areas of Scotland, located in the western part of the Southern Uplands. It is bordered by East Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and South Lanarkshire to the north; Scottish Borders to the north-east; the English ceremonial county of Cumbria, the Solway Firth, and the Irish Sea to the south, and the North Channel to the west. The administrative centre and largest settlement is the town of Dumfries. The second largest town is Stranraer, located 76 miles (122 km) to the west of Dumfries on the North Channel coast.
Kirkcudbright is a town, parish and a royal burgh from 1455 in Kirkcudbrightshire, of which it is traditionally the county town, within Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
Thornhill is a village in the Mid Nithsdale area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, south of Sanquhar and north of Dumfries on the main A76 road. Thornhill sits in the Nithsdale valley with the Carsphairn and Scaur range to the west and the Lowther hills to the east. It was initially a small village, planned and built in 1717 on the Queensberry Estate on the road linking Dumfries to Glasgow. The Earl of Queensberry initially named the village 'New Dalgarnock' however the name did not achieve popular approval.
Newton Stewart is a former burgh town in the historical county of Wigtownshire in Dumfries and Galloway, southwest Scotland. The town is on the River Cree with most of the town to the west of the river, and is sometimes referred to as the "Gateway to the Galloway Hills".
Dumfriesshire or the County of Dumfries or Shire of Dumfries is a historic county and registration county in southern Scotland. The Dumfries lieutenancy area covers a similar area to the historic county.
Gatelawbridge is a hamlet in the region of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is situated two and a half miles east of Thornhill and near the gorge Crichope Linn. The origin of the name is unknown though in the past the locals called it Gateley Bridge, so perhaps it takes its name from a type of bridge over the Cample River in the centre of the settlement. The river divides the parishes, with all those east of the river being in Closeburn Parish, and those west of the river being in Morton Parish.
Closeburn Castle is a privately owned tower house, probably of the 14th century, but possibly older, and is one of the oldest continually inhabited houses in Scotland. The castle is located 1 km east of the village of Closeburn, in the historical county of Dumfriesshire, 2 km south-east of Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.
St Joseph's College in Dumfries, South West Scotland, is a Roman Catholic secondary school. It began as a Catholic boys' boarding school run by Marist Brothers.
Maxwelltown High School was a state funded, six-year comprehensive secondary school in the Lochside area of Dumfries, Scotland. Founded in 1971, Maxwelltown High School was the most recently founded secondary school in Dumfries and Galloway, before merging with other schools into North West Community Campus. It had 311 pupils as of August 2012. The roll of Maxwelltown High School had been steadily declining since 2002.
Auldgirth is a village on the A76 road in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Auldgirth village features 'The Auldgirth Inn' and the former Auldgirth Primary School, which closed in 2000. Originally inhabitants of Auldgirth located to the scheme, situated next to the A76, but in recent years this has expanded to the outlying areas due to rejuvenation programmes. The name Auldgirth is from Early Scots ald(e) girth, meaning 'old enclosure'. At one time it had a staffed railway station, situated one mile south of the village, just before the hamlet of Dalswinton. Carse Loch and the Friar's Carse country house hotel are located nearby.
Lockerbie is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, south-western Scotland. It is about 120 km (75 mi) from Glasgow, and 25 km (16 mi) from the border with England. The 2001 Census recorded its population as 4,009. The town came to international attention in December 1988 when the wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed there following a terrorist bomb attack aboard the flight.
Closeburn is a rural locality in the City of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. In the 2021 census, Closeburn had a population of 562 people.
Closeburn is a village and civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The village is on the A76 road 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) south of Thornhill. In the 2001 census, Closeburn had a population of 1,119. Closeburn is recorded as Killosbern in 1185. The first element of the name is Gaelic cill 'cell or church'. The second element is a saint's name, but none has definitely been identified.
Kirkgunȝeon is a village and civil parish in Dumfries and Galloway, south west Scotland. The village is 10.4 miles (16.7 km) south west of Dumfries and 4.1 miles (6.6 km) north east of Dalbeattie. The civil parish is in the former county of Kirkcudbrightshire, and is bounded by the parishes Lochrutton to the north, Urr to the west, Colvend and Southwick to the south and New Abbey to the east.
Brownhill Inn, now just called Brownhill, was an inn approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) mile south of Closeburn, on the A76, which itself is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built in approximately 1790, this old coaching inn has undergone extensive changes, and the south side of the original property appears little changed whilst part of the inn has been demolished. The inns facilities used to include the once-extensive 12 stall livery stables on the west side of the road, but these have been sold and converted to farm buildings after the inn closed. The inn was the first changing place for horses hauling coaches from Dumfries and closed in 1850. In 1789 an Act of Parliament had been passed that enabled the building of a Turnpike from Auldgirth Bridge to Sanquhar through Closeburn Parish and the inn was built to serve the patrons of this new road. The toll road supplanted the original post road that ran via Stepends, Gateside and Shaw that may have been of Roman origins.
Alister William Jack is a Scottish politician serving as Secretary of State for Scotland since 2019. A member of the Scottish Conservatives, he served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Dumfries and Galloway from 2017 to 2024.
Dalgarnock, Dalgarno, Dalgarnoc was an ancient parish and a once considerable sized village in the Nithsdale area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, south of Sanquhar and north of Dumfries that enclosed the parish of Closeburn but was annexed to Closeburn in 1606 following the Reformation, separated again in 1648 and finally re-united in 1697, as part of the process that established the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. It was a burgh of regality bordering the River Nith and Cample Water and held a popular market-tryst or fair from medieval times until 1601 when the Earl of Queensberry had them transferred to Thornhill, commemorated in song by Robert Burns, shortly before its demise and now only a remote churchyard remains at a once busy site.
Barburgh Mill is a hamlet composed of an old lint mill, later extended as a woollen mill and associated buildings which lies north of Auldgirth on the A76 on the route to Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire, Closeburn Parish, in Dumfries and Galloway, south-west Scotland. Its original nucleus was the old mill with associated buildings, the smithy, toll house and the miller's and workers dwellings. The site features the A76 that runs nearby, the River Nith and the Lake Burn that once powered the mill via a lade before joining the Nith. The area is famous for its association with the Covenanters. A Roman fortlet stood opposite the mill and a Roman road is thought to have run through Nithsdale at this point.