Only a few staff from Our Lady and St Patrick’s High, Dumbarton knew that Francis Healy, lead singer and songwriter for the Glaswegian rock band Travis, would be visiting the school’s songwriters’ club.

Fran is a friend and past student of principal teacher of art Gerry Kelly. You only need to browse through the March issue of Mojo, the music magazine, to see how he regards Gerry as his formative muse. Gerry used to spend time discussing song writing as an art and helping Fran to shape some of his ideas for lyrics.

Fran has come a long way since those early days but believes that all young people should be given a chance to flourish artistically.

Our Lady and St Patrick’s High boasts about 10 rockpop bands and many solo artists, so a songwriters’ club was a natural extra-curricular step for the school .

Plans for Fran’s visit were kept closely under wraps. Headteacher George Dunn and senior management staff guarded his entry to the music department. He arrived laden with goodies for the club, including two Tascam multitrack tape recorders and microphones, to which he wants the pupils to have easy access.

The regular club meeting started with a chat about various artists through the past few decades before turning to a discussion on some of the lyrics of Travis’s songs. Then a teacher said: “In fact, let’s just ask Fran Healy what he thinks.”

Fran entered the room to an array of open-jawed pupils. The atmosphere was transformed as he sat down with his acoustic guitar and quietly accepted the applause. During the session, Fran proved to be friendly and unpretentious.

The school band Jaded, which has appeared at a few Glasgow venues, performed one of its own compositions, “Fire Escape”. Fran listened intently and praised how far they had come musically.

Words of advice flowed, the emphasis being not to look for fame but to learn their craft, learn to love the music and aim to perform for the love of performance.

A fifth year student, Roseanne, who with help from two of the school’s music teachers has started to realise that she has a voice to be reckoned with, gave an effortless performance of Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”. Moved by her performance, Fran said he hadn’t heard such a special voice for some time.

For two hours Fran discussed with the pupils many aspects of the pop music industry, answering all their questions honestly and humorously. His energy infected the room as he encouraged the pupils to carry on with their writing.

He entertained them with a tale about how the song “Driftwood” came into his head when he was washing dishes. He raced to record it into his dictaphone but after listening to the whole tape found a tiny fragment of the melody. Unfortunately he had pressed the wrong button and hadn’t been recording. So he had to patch it together from memory.

He revealed that “Why Does it Always Rain on Me?” was written in a hotel in Israel where it felt as if the rain would never end. He also played the first song he ever wrote, and gave some insight into a future chord progression for a song - “as long as you don’t pinch it!”

Perform from the heart was his foremost message to the club.

After talking individually to many of the pupils, Fran left the school. He invited some of them to that evening’s show at the SECC in Glasgow, where Roseanne and Jaded met the rest of Travis.

Teachers are constantly trying to inspire and motivate pupils to invent melodies and songs, because composition is an element of the Scottish Qualifications Authority exams. For pupils at Our Lady and St Patrick’s High, Fran’s visit was a practical and imaginative incitement to record their compositions.

Julie Smart is principal teacher of music at Our Lady and St Patrick’s High, Dumbarton