Talk:Stewart's Melville College

A messy Page
This could do with a full rewrite if anyone from the school gets time, it is missing the formality expected and serves as a very bad "advertisement" for the school, it is filled with grammatical innacuracies and unnecesary links I have today edited the sections about the school plays and musicals, but I think we do need to work this out, it's giving the school a bad name as it stands.


 * I don't know who you are as you post anonymously, but I think your comments are misplaced. First, this article is not intended to be an advertisement for the school, or representation of it in any way. That's what the school website is for. The content of this article cannot give the school a bad name, since it is not produced by the school, but may be edited by anyone who can read it.
 * I accept that this article is far from perfect, but in the several months since I have been watching it, it has more than doubled in size and scope, and is still very much a "work in progress". There is still a lot of ground to cover, of course, but currently it is a good reflection of the school's breadth of activities.
 * Finally, before you start casting aspersions, check out your own punctuation and grammar, which leaves a lot to be desired. For example, your remark above should be spread over at least five (perhaps six) sentences (you give one); and it contains elementary errors like "innacuracies" and "unnecesary". Your edits in the main text also introduce, rather than correcting, errors. Preacherdoc 16:18, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
 * I was of the opinion, which I find fairly accurate, that this page was being edited mainly by school pupils, as such the mistakes reflect upon the school. I will admit my spelling and grammar is less than perfect but there are some glaring mistakes that have been introduced in the past by people trying to be funny and not corrected by subsequent revisions, the majority of which are simply clumsy ways of putting points across.
 * I may have been a little too harsh with my statement above, I understand it is a work in progress and not an advertisement and I will retract my complaints on that front. However as we have both stated there is certainly room for improvement in the article. Perhaps instead of picking apart each others spelling and grammar we should create a plan as to what could be done to this article. I am willing to put a few hours work in next weekend if we can come up with things that need done. As my suggestion I would ask whether a section on offered subjects would be welcome. 21:43, 3 December 2006
 * I assume this is still the same poster, as you are still anonymous. In looking at the history of the article, it is impossible to tell whether contributors are pupils or not, since many (most?) are anonymous. If school pupils want to edit the article, good luck to them. They are probably better placed than anyone else to do so. If their style is a little colloquial or jocular, or if a few spelling mistakes or typos creep in, I don't see this as a terrible problem. The style and content can only reflect badly on Wikipedia as a medium, not the school as its subject. If you were to read an article about the school in The Scotsman, which was badly spelt and punctuated, you would conclude that the newspaper, not the school, was at fault.
 * Finally, you don't need to wait until "we can come up with things that need done". You can make any edits you like, as often as you want, at any time. You should make any changes you feel are appropriate, and leave the rest to Darwinism. Preacherdoc 14:39, 5 December 2006 (UTC)

This is becoming an advertisement. Is this statement: "As is the case with many public schools SMC has exam results well above the national average. The vast majority of all pupils will go onto Higher Education" verifiable? If so, where is a reference?

The various documents located on this page justify this statement.

Someone's being silly......
Someone (or possibly more then one person) has been adding fictitious information to this page in an attempt at humour, this is probably due to the URL being posted in the schools forum on bebo.

If anyone who reads this page and finds obviously fictitious information (such as references to magical powers) could they please remove them and return he page to the way it was before.


 * Don't worry, I've reverted the page twice in the last hour only, and I'll add it to my watchpage. Should the "humorous" vandal return, I'll revert him again. Cheers, --  Phædriel  *whistle* 11:34, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I changed references to the Pipe Band as being "one of the best in the world"- such grandiose statements without evidence are questionable. Similarly removed reference to Juvenile band as in the "top ten best in the world"- such an (official) top 10 does not exist!

Famous FPs?
Would it be appropriate to add in a list of famous former pupils? This has already been done on other private schools' Wiki pages. Two which spring to mind (which are also on Wikipedia) are Doddie Weir and Dario Franchitti, but there must be many more. Preacherdoc 16:20, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

A list of notable alumni would certainly be an appropriate addititon. Perhaps the school itself could provide a more comprehensive list barring legal restrictions? 20:10, 23 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm not certain the school itself will nominate anyone. Meantime, perhaps interested parties could suggest other names here? Kheredine Idessane is a sports correspondent for the BBC, but doesn't yet have his own Wiki page. Does anyone know if the swimmer David Wilkie is an FP of either DSC or MC?Preacherdoc 16:02, 26 September 2006 (UTC)


 * David Wilkie was DSC and has a wiki page David Wilkie (swimmer). The problem with famous FP's is where do you stop Dtneilson 00:45, 10 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm pretty sure Tom Farmer did not actually attend SMC... so his inclusion in the list of FPs is surely an oversight!
 * Oversight, mistake, or vandalism... these lists of alumni are very prone to subtle (i.e. hard-to-detect) vandalism. Since it's unreferenced as well as having been brought into question here, and until a reference can be provided, we could put in a citation request tag, but there's no damage to the article from going one further, playing safe and removing it in the meantime. Done. – Kieran T  (' talk ') 13:15, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Assess
A good start. More needed on the history. References are needed to advance to a B. Dahliarose 22:33, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Order of sections
I would have thought that being a schools article the sections on the pastoral care and sixth form should come immediately after the history, rather then at the very end with sport as the second section. Given that this is an article about the school I would have thought that would be of more immediate interst as it describes the overall organisation of the school. Although sport is a reasonably important part of school life it is an extracurricular activity, and only a comparatively minor one at that.

Does anyone agree/disagree?82.41.30.194 (talk) 21:56, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

Distance from DSMC to MES
On Google Maps, the linear distance from the centre of the main buildings of DSMC and MES is 1.002 miles, or 1.636km. However, travelling by road the distances will be slightly longer. I don't know how to estimate the shortest distance travelled by road. Preacherdoc (talk) 10:46, 17 December 2007 (UTC)

STEM2
In the extra-curricular section, I believe that STEM2 is now fully in colour, priced at 50p and not always self-funded as a recent glossy issue was given another budget not produced by sales of previous magazines but, generally speaking, it is still mainly a self-supporting venture. Can anyone back me up? —Preceding unsigned comment added by DebatingGreg (talk • contribs) 11:23, 8 May 2011 (UTC)

Examinations
There is a mysterious (to me) paragraph about examinations in the lead section. I have no idea what SQA, intermediate 2, Standard grade etc. mean. This paragraph to me is much too detailed and should be in the body of the article - not in the lead section which is supposed, as per Wikipedia guidelines, to be a brief summary of the information in the rest of the article. I propose moving this examinations paragraph down into the body of the article. I hope then someone will re-write it so that I can understand it. Also it is out of date. It refers to what will happen in 2013. It is now October 2014. Did whatever was supposed to happen actually take place in 2013?SylviaStanley (talk) 16:48, 21 October 2014 (UTC)

Medal for John Stewart?
There is a paragraph in the History section about a medal: "The school now has in its possession a medal dated 15 July 1870 presented to a John Stewart [9] The medal was gifted to the school by a Mrs Rose Connolly of Glasgow whose birthday is coincidentally also on 15 July." There is one reference: " Mrs Rose Connolly" Unless someone can convince me otherwise, I do not think this meets Wikipedia's criteria for notability. Also the reference is not a reliable secondary source as per Wikipedia guidelines. I propose deleting this paragraph.SylviaStanley (talk) 20:51, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100305022100/http://www.esms.edin.sch.uk:80/About-Structure.aspx to http://www.esms.edin.sch.uk/About-Structure.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20100306222914/http://www.esms.edin.sch.uk:80/SM-Results.aspx to http://www.esms.edin.sch.uk/SM-Results.aspx
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110217073929/http://www.bbc.co.uk:80/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/scotland/kheredine_idessane.shtml to http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/biographies/biogs/scotland/kheredine_idessane.shtml

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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20150927045028/http://www.smcfpclub.org.uk/smcfpclub/Distinguished%20Former%20Pupils.pdf to http://www.smcfpclub.org.uk/smcfpclub/Distinguished%20Former%20Pupils.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110725001834/http://www.library.rcsed.ac.uk/docs/GD2_Papers_of_John_Smith.pdf to http://www.library.rcsed.ac.uk/docs/GD2_Papers_of_John_Smith.pdf

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Minor Edit Tracker
Please use this section to keep track of minor edits that may or may not be introduced/rolled back.

I added a mention of the co-ed S6 in the opening paragraph which may not be necessary (although the link to Sixth Year is).

If/when the Junior School expansion is completed, please update the page when someone gets the chance. Paleclams (talk) 21:57, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Removing Dundas controversy section
I've taken this section out as it discussed the controversy over Dundas and the Melville Monument, which is covered by those respective articles. If others have points to add on how the controversy related directly to the school, please add it; however, as it stood, the section was irrelevant and gave a false impression that the school is closely linked to Dundas rather than, as is the case, being only partly and indirectly named after him.CPClegg (talk) 13:12, 21 July 2022 (UTC)