Wednesday 12 August 2009

I remember Primary School.







This school photo was taken when I must have been aged about 9 or 10, at Primary School, the parish school called Portmoak in the village of Scotlandwell. I am middle, front row with dark cardigan and dark socks. The boys seem to be wearing suits, which would have been tweed and not manmade fibre as it hadn't been invented!!!


I liked this little 2 room school with it's 2 teachers, one of whom was the schoolmaster. He had taught himself to play the piano and I still remember him thumping out "British Grenadiers" from the "National Songbook" while we yelled at the top of our voices.


Those were the days before school dinners and if you couldn't get home at lunchtime you carried your "piece" in a tin box. There was no plastic!


We ran about all over the village at lunchtime and were recalled by the headmaster's whistle.


There was also the "moss" behind the school where some of the villagers cut peat for their fires. This was also a place of great attraction but we were warned not to play there as there were some dangerous boggy parts. In winter there was great excitement when the nearby curling pond froze over and we could go sliding. The headmaster tested it first!.


When it rained there were drips coming through the ceiling but strategically placed pails caught the water.


When we had "painting" we had to wear gym shoes as we had to go out to the front of the class for every dip of the brush as the poster paints were on a big table in front of class. There was a huge box of khaki coloured gym shoes and you had to rake around to find 2 which fitted. They had the size marked in a large figure above the toes!


There was a huge coal fire in the class room and we used to stand at the firguard to dry our works of art. I remember one pupil setting hers alight.


Now there is a much newer school with no leaks and a very modern interior and visiting and specialist teachers. It was built in the neighbouring village of Kinnesswood.


I bet the pupils have no more fun than we had in our old leaky building!



For more reminiscences visit here.


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4 comments:

Nicole said...

You all look so well behaved :D

Gail said...

Sounds like a wonderfully amazing childhood. I also bet you learned more in that classroom than anyone would learn today.

Sally in WA said...

Great picture and story to go with it! I look at the expressions on the faces of the kids and chuckle. Some are hams, some can't wait to get away.

Thanks for sharing this and playing along this week in Remember Whensday.

Neil Tasker said...

Lovely remininscences. I love the fire in the classroom. Imagine that today?.....Health and Safety? We're all so busy wrapping kids up in cotton wool we've taken the fun out of their childhoods