Talk:Aberdeen Grammar School

message: The validity of the above section is questionable. Significant chunks of the text held within this category are without any citations and some of the section I know to be assertion, with special reference to the initial quote (below). The reference to the school magazine is a farce when put in the context of recent years; where the official magazine was 2/3 years late, although 6th year publication was made this year. 
I am however reluctant to edit outright.
The school encourages certain maverick elements through the publication of a self funded sixth year magazine. In this regard groups of pupils - editors - have devised, secured the finance, edited and published annual obscurely named journals (Sagsagas, The Ulimate Deterrent, 100 Degrees Proof, X5 W/D, Red Tape) for sale to the school. Current technology obscures the challenges that this presented in the pre-digital age. Regardless of which, each year produced a profit to support the funding of the subsequent publication. Despite the underground nature of the venture many editors subsequently became establshment figures in the law, politics, medicine and academia.
In keeping with embracing the Scottish Liberal tradition the school's oldest "great offices" are President of the Literary and Debating Society and President of the Dramatic Society. Although colours are usually restricted to sporting prowess in Rugby and Hockey.
The dramatic society has often benefited from external expertise and inspired internal leadership that have resulted in beyond the expectation and years of their young performers. These include Waiting for Godot (1972), Journeys End (1976), Our Town (1976), The Insect Play (1977), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1978) and others. The production values were as high as the personal rewards to the pupils and staff who participated.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bagpipes1 (talk • contribs) 14:46, 17 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Houses and Extra Curricular Activities

message: * Whilst I was at the school it was said (perhaps just an urban myth) that despite his statue in front of the school Byron had infact been a bit of a misfit and was in the end expelled for taking opium and lewd behavior. I have only got one search engine hit on the subject and its not a quotable resource, the other sites seem to be Byron idol sites and make no mention of it. Has anyone else heard this/know if it is true? Bobbacon 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I too heard said rumour. WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN 22:02, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lord Byron 

message: * The school's motto is 'Bon Record' what does this actually mean? Bobbacon, 28 March 2006
* As far as I can see, it is quite simply French for "Good record" (in the sense of record-breaking, being best), i.e. "High achievement".  But it would be helpful to know how old the motto is, and whether "record" meant anything else in Older French.  --Doric Loon 21:36, 28 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Motto 

message: * Can someone put up a photograph of the facade of the school? It would enhance this article no end, and also augment what is going on at Scottish baronial style.  Also, how about some more FPs?  There have been some very eminent FPs besides Byron and the moderators.  I don't have an FPs' Club magazine to hand, but information about them must be easy to get.  --Doric Loon 01:54, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Photo and style

message: Aberdeen Grammar School (Start/mid) A very old school founded c.1257. Alumni include Lord Byron but there is a surprisingly short list for such an old school. The school is probably more important than is apparent from the present article. A good start at referencing. This really should be a B but more is needed on the pre-1863 history of the school and there is rather too much trivia (school colours, etc) which needs to be cut. Dahliarose 10:23, 18 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Assess

message: So what happened to the photo of the school?  It was obviously somebody's snapshot, so it can't have been copyright.  --Doric Loon 13:00, 28 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm assuming it's back now... WBOSITG (talk) 22:13, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Photo

message: Per the quick-fail criteria of the GA process, any article that has cleanup banners (such as the one marking the trivia section) must be failed immediately and does not require an in-depth review. Please remedy any issues brought up by such banners, and remove them before choosing to renominate. If you feel this decision was in error, you may seek a reassessment. Thank you for your work so far, VanTucky talk 22:44, 27 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Quick-failed "good article" nomination

message: This article failed good article nomination. This is how the article, as of December 5, 2007, compares against the  six good article criteria:
:1. Well written?: The main prose of the article could be improved in fluidity by forming whole paragraphs, instead of having a collection of individual sentences, as exists in the current version. Headings do not conform to Wikipedia's manual of style.  Perhaps the editor(s) could seek help from the LoCE.
:2. Factually accurate?: This is hard to check, as not all statements/sections are referenced. --Working on it --WBOSITG (talk)
:3. Broad in coverage?: There seems to be more attention given to trivia, in this article, than to facts you would expect to find in an article about a school - information about subjects taught, teachers, catchment and pupil demographics, and the physical structure(s) of the school should be expanded, and trivia should be reduced/removed (see Wikipedia's guidelines on trivia).  -- DONE --WBOSITG (talk)
:4. Neutral point of view?: For the most part, the article is neutral, but some non-neutral statements are suggested occassionally, such as "The school also has a very successful debating team" and "These Portakabins, affectionately known as "The Village""
:5. Article stability? The article does not appear to have any conflicts.
:6. Images?: Two images are used that meet the correct copyright criteria.
This article is beginning to take shape, but is still not quite up to the standard of a GA.  The prose does not flow, due to it being constructed from a series of random, unlinked sentences.  The lead section is very short, and does not adequately spell out the content of the full article.  Far too much trivia is contained within the article, that was tagged prior to this GA review - the tag was merely removed from the trivia, without the trivia being dealt with appropriately.  Many  sections of the article are unreferenced - even a GA should have at least one reference per paragraph. Hopefully these suggestions are helpful, and will allow improvements to be made for future resubmission to GA nomination. ~ Ciar ~ (Talk to me!) 00:47, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I would recommend deleting the entire trivia section.  --Doric Loon (talk) 10:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Will do.  WBOSITG (talk) 19:30, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

text: I am  pupil of the school and I have never even heard of the portacabins being referred to as "the village". In my experiance, they are usually called "the huts".86.129.148.96 (talk) 19:04, 11 April 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Failed "good article" nomination

message: This seems to be the only way to find anything of interest on this school on the entire internet.  This makes it damn near impossible to find any referenced information for this article.  I just don't know what to do.  As a pupil, I know what goes on in the school, there is just no way to prove it. WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDEN 19:10, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The one thing that has always been missing is a list of former rectors, right back to the beginning- it helps to prove the age of the school. As a pupil, if you could take a couple of pictures of the boards with name of the rectors and head-boys / girls from the past (if they are still there) that would be a great addition. Bobbacon (talk) 17:09, 14 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Little help? 

message: I'm not really in the mood, and have got things to do, just now, but may take a look at it later. Certainly the article looks decent enough.--h i s   s p a c e   r e s e a r c h 04:48, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, HSR, thanks.  WEBURIEDOURSECRETSINTHEGARDENwe need to talk.☆ 19:23, 7 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  I may review this later as a GA 

message: Two things first: An external link  and a reference  are 404s, and I have removed them. That said...
:1. Well written?: The incomplete "Rectors" section fails to assure me. The "Former Pupils' Club" could use some removing of redundant redundancy and expansion. 
:2. Factually accurate?: The lead needs sources. 
deserves a citation as well. 
:3. Broad in coverage?: Definitely. 
:4. Neutral point of view?: 
is slightly POV. "Infamous" is a strong word to use, and the earlier statements weren't covered by the citation given. However, everything else is quite good, so: 
:5. Article stability? Nothing much to be said here. 
:6. Images?: The latter part of the article could use some images such as pictures of one or more of the houses, or one of the "musical evenings", but this isn't necessary. 
:Overall: 
Once these issues have been addressed, you can resubmit it at WP:GAN. Good job overall. Nousernamesleftcopper, not wood 20:29, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  GA Review 

message: Two events in the school's history may need elaboration:-
*"In 1580, new pupils were reprimanded, under the penalty of £10, if they did not show good behaviour or did not listen to their Magistrates or masters.[9]" This sentence is completely without context and its significance is unclear. 
* Again, the 1612 pupils' riot lacks context - it would be interesting to develop how the riot came about. Ohconfucius (talk) 04:32, 23 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: History

message: Unexplained text removed - may refer to Byron or is Model a surname (Walter Model)?
 Field marshal model High ranking officer in the Battle of the Bulge 1906-1907
Finavon (talk) 16:25, 3 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notable alumni and teachers 

message: Our James Fordyce article claims that he was educated at "Aberdeen High School". Which school is this referring to? The source would appear to be the DNB, which is usually regarded as being reasonably reliable, but maybe slightly off on this occasion? --Mais oui! (talk) 04:25, 2 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Aberdeen High School"? 

message: Do we know for sure if Nobel prize winner John James Rickard Macleod attended this school? It seems unclear from the sources which Aberdeen school he was at. --Mervyn (talk) 13:43, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: This supports the claim. I'll add it to the article. Finavon (talk) 18:05, 9 July 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  John James Rickard Macleod at this school?