Senior Prizegiving 2024
Our senior prizegiving will take place on Thursday 29 August 2024 from 7pm - 8:30 pm. Guests are asked to be seated from 6:30pm.
All prize winners are invited to attend prizegiving.
A full list of prizewinners is available here.
Award winners
Awards will be presented at our prizegiving ceremony on the basis outlined below:
Subject prize for SCQF level 4/5
Awarded to the top performing young person in each SCQF level 4 and 5 subject.
Subject medal for Higher/SCQF level 6
Awarded to the top performing young person in each Higher subject.
Subject prize for Advanced Higher/SCQF level 7
Awarded to the top performing young person in each Advanced Higher subject.
Certificate of Excellence (Achievement)
Awarded to the top performing 25% of pupils in their SQA examinations for any given subject (all levels).
McNaughton Dux Medal
The 'principal award for scholarship', the McNaughton Dux medal is awarded to the young person who has achieved the highest academic results over S5 and S6, using the following criteria:
Higher A pass - 33 points (UCAS tariff)
Advanced Higher A pass - 56 points (UCAS tariff)
Higher Subject medal - 10 points
Advanced Higher Subject medal - 17 points
Stirling High School Staff medal
Endowed by past members of staff of The High School of Stirling and presented to the Proxime Accesserunt (runner up to the Dux).
Special Awards
All staff are invited to nominate pupils for the following Special Awards:
The Sarah Speake Award for Services to Music
Presented by Sarah Speake, Head Girl 1988
The Nathan Murray Collier Memorial Award
In memory of Nathan Murray Collier, a sixth year pupil who tragically lost his life in 2005. Awarded to a pupil who works with the ASN department and has shown considerable effort over the past year.
The W G Malcolm Prize for Service to the School and the Community
Endowed by Mr Malcolm, Dux medallist in 1933, when he returned to school for the Anniversary celebrations in 1987. Awarded annually to the School Captains who have given valuable service to the school over the past year.
The Dr Kanaan Memorial Prize for Music
Presented to the pupil showing most progress in instrumental music.
Global Citizenship
Awarded to a pupil who is aware of and understands the wider world and their place in it. Who takes an active role in their community and works with others to make our planet more peaceful, sustainable and fairer.
Janette Clark Memorial Award
In memory of Janette Clark, a valued Stirling High school teacher who sadly passed away in 2016. Mrs Clark was a member of the ASN department, a champion of young people who require a little extra support. Awarded to a pupil who works with the ASN department or Eco Club.
Stirling Round Table Community Service Award
Presented by the Stirling Round Table in 2007 in acknowledgement of work carried out in the school community by a pupil.
Confucius Award for Mandarin
Presented by the Confucius Hub for special recognition in Mandarin.
Frank Wild Award for Courage and Determined Optimism
Sponsored by the family of Tristan Nunn. Frank Wild was Shackleton's Second in Command on their Endurance expedition around the Antarctic. He was left in charge of 21 men on Elephant Island, over winter, with no food and just upturned rowing boats for shelter, and through sheer force of will, intelligence, humour, care and calm, kept them all alive whilst Shackleton and 5 others made the amazingly perilous journey to seek rescue. The esteem and warmth that Shackleton held Wild in, was second to none.
Awarded to a young person who has demonstrated courage in the face of adversity, refusal to give up or care of others that are struggling.
The Dave Eccles Award for Science
David Eccles was a Stirling High School pupil, teacher, Principal Teacher and Chief Invigilator who passed away in 2020. Mr Eccles served our community for many years & supported our pupils throughout their exams.
Guildry of Stirling History Prize
The Merchant Guildry of Stirling created a Trust in 1985 to fund projects in the local community, this includes the History Prize which is awarded annually to a senior pupil(s) for an extended History essay,
The H. W. Ewing Memorial Prize for Creative Writing
Presented by the family of the late Hugh Ewing, a former pupil of the school and awarded for imaginative writing.
The J Lockhart Whiteford Prize
Awarded in recognition of hard work and effort. Lockhart Whiteford was educated at Hamilton Academy and graduated from Glasgow University with an honours MA in history. Mr Whiteford's university degree was interrupted by the Second World War, when he served in the Royal Artillery both at home and in India. He started his teaching career at Wishaw High School in 1950, moving to Larbert High in 1960, and then on to his first headmastership at Eyemouth High School in 1965. He moved to the High School of Stirling in 1969 where he stayed until his retirement in 1982.
McNaughton Dux Medal
Charles Randolph was a former pupil of the Burgh Schools of Stirling. In 1879 he bequeathed £250 to the Town Council of Stirling to be used to purchase annually a gold medal to be presented to the best scholar in Stirling.
Born in Stirling in 1809, Charles Randolph became a great engineer, and founded the firm which became the famous Fairfield Shipbuilding Company. As well as remembering the pupils of his old school, he endowed a Chair of Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Glasgow, where his memory is perpetuated by the well known Randolph Hall.
Duncan McNaughton was welcomed in to the Primary High School by Miss Nairn, whose Infants’ Class he joined in 1915.
Thus began a distinguished academic career which developed during his schooldays as a Pupil of the High School of Stirling, when he seldom failed to appear in the Prize List.
He left school in 1928 and, following graduation, he completed Teacher Training and began to seek employment at a time when there was a two year waiting list for teaching posts in Stirlingshire.
In April 1937, he responded to an invitation to join Miss May Lindsay, at that time Head of the History Department. Duncan jumped at the opportunity to return to his Old School as her Assistant.
He spent the next ten years at the School as Head of History, where his love for the old cloistered building developed still further, together with many friendships formed in the staffroom at the foot of the Observatory Tower. So deep were his feelings that he has written his memories of the times he spent at the School, both as Pupil and Master, from which it is evident that he never forgot those days or the people around him.
In 1991, after the Grand Reunion in the then new Stirling Highland Hotel in the Old School Building in Academy Road, negotiations took place with the Secretary of the Former Pupils’ Association concerning his desire to recognise the High School in his Will by bequeathing £20,000 from Duncan McNaughton’s Estate to his beloved High School of Stirling.
The legacy was lodged in a high interest account with the Bank of Scotland in February 1997. It has been agreed with the executors of Mr McNaughton’s estate that the interest from the capital sum will be used to provide prizes for all our senior school prizewinners and also provide an additional award for the Dux of the school in accordance with Mr McNaughton’s wishes. This arrangement commenced as from the Prizegiving of 1998 when the Duncan McNaughton Bequest was awarded for the first time thus ensuring that Duncan McNaughton’s name will live on in the High School of Stirling in years to come.