My oldest memories are of being in Mrs Vert's room in Primary 1. There we learnt to read, write and count. Reading was done at Mrs. Vert's desk.... "The cat sat on the mat".. and spelling was "d...o...g... spells dog" etc. The times tables were learnt by rote, sitting chanting tables in unison. By the time you left Pr 2 you knew all the tables up to 12 times. Adding was learnt on the abacus and simple sums written on slates. I cannot remember how we moved from the abacus to writing our sums on slates. Would the children of today believe we used a piece of slate and a slate pencil! The only time we used paper was a small, thick paper book. This was used with chalk to write and draw. I have an example of this somewhere.
You were not allowed to talk to each other in class. Discipline was strict. Classwork was done in silence. This all helped instil a work ethic which stood me in good stead all my life. At break time we had milk...frozen in winter and warm in summer. At lunch time some pupils went home and others had school dinners. That was followed by a playtime.
By the time we moved into Pr 3 in the middle room with Miss Hardgrieve, we could read and write to a good standard. I cannot remember what Miss Hardgrieve taught us, except how to write with a pen and ink. That I cannot remember anything else is strange, because I can remember quite well what Mrs Vert taught. Perhaps we started learning geography and Scottish history.
The top room was for Prs. 6 &7 under headmaster Mr Rankine. He taught History, Geography, English and Grammar. I never quite grasped grammar but I enjoyed history, geography and essay writing. Everything was geared for our first big exam....the eleven plus. This decided what class we would be in at the High School.
Every game we played at school had it's own season. How the season was decided I do not know. Girls and boys played separately except for "tig" and two games I vaguely recall... "Last to the den bar the door" and "The farmer's in his den". We played "marbles", "cops and robbers", "cowboys and Indians", "fox and hounds" and went mining for bullets where the rifle club targets had once stood. We climbed the rocks and used the old buildings as our for. The pupils in the top room had organised football and cricket under the supervision of Mr. Rankine. Most of the things we did would not be allowed now-a-days. They would be politically incorrect or banned by "health and safety".
Discipline was strict but never harsh. The "Tawse" was employed, but only for serious offences. "Schooldays" was a good and happy time, with no thought of what the future would bring. We were worked hard a our lessons but we were happy. I believe that the education I got, stood me in good stead for the rest of my life.
This article was first published on page 11 in the April 2024 edition of The Gowk.