Robert Gordon's College


Robert Gordon's College is a private co-educational day school in the heart of Aberdeen, Scotland. The school caters for pupils from Nursery through to S6.

History

It originally opened in 1750 as the result of a bequest by Robert Gordon, an Aberdeen merchant who made his fortune from trading with Baltic ports, and was known at foundation as Robert Gordon's Hospital. This was 19 years after Gordon had died and left his estate in a 'Deed of Mortification' to fund the foundation of the Hospital. The fine William Adam-designed building was in fact completed in 1732, but lay empty until 1745 until Gordon's foundation had sufficient funds to complete the interior. During the Jacobite rising, in 1746 the buildings were commandeered by Hanoverian troops and named Fort Cumberland. East and West wings with classical colonnades were added to the original Auld Hoose in 1830-33, partly funded by a large bequest by Alexander Simpson of Collyhill and designed by the architect John Smith.
Robert Gordon's aim was to give the poor boys of Aberdeen a firm education, or as he put it to "found a Hospital for the Maintenance, Aliment, Entertainment and Education of young boys from the city whose parents were poor and destitute". At this point all pupils at the school were boarders, but in 1881, the Hospital became a day school known as Robert Gordon's College. In 1903, the vocational education component of the college was designated a Central Institution. Boarding returned in 1937 with the establishment of Sillerton House. In 1989 RGC became a co-educational school. In 2009 the school officially opened the new junior school and six years later the Wood centre for science and technology opened alongside the Craig centre for performing arts by Princess Anne.
The modern school is divided into a Nursery, Junior School and Senior School, and caters for boys and girls from 3 to 18 years. Robert Gordon's College follows the Scottish curriculum.
The Head of College, Simon Mills, is a member of Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.

Arms and motto

The coat of arms shows the boar of the Gordon family, and a fort or keep on a red background, similar to the towers on a red background on the coat of arms of Aberdeen.
The current coat of arms dates from 1917. They were changed when it was discovered that the college had not registered the coat of arms that were previously in use as was legally required. A new college seal was produced once new arms had been approved by the Lord Lyon.
The Latin motto of the college, "Omni nunc arte magistra" translates to "Now is the time for all your masterly skill"; it is more commonly presented as "Be The Best That You Can Be". It dates from 1882, after the school had been converted into a day school and a new coat of arms and seal came into use. The motto was suggested by William Geddes, a professor of Greek at Aberdeen University, and comes from the Aeneid, reporting the words of the god Vulcan. The original seal of the hospital contained the motto "Imperat hoc natura potens", translating as "by nature's sovereign command", which was taken from the Satires of Horace.

House system

The school operates four houses, to one of which each student is allocated upon entering the school. The houses compete in various activities throughout the year and gain points which contribute to the annual John Reid Trophy award. The house system was introduced at Christmas 1928 to encourage competition in various sports.
The four houses are:
Former pupils include: