If you attended the old school before it was elevated to an academy you may be interested in a ledger which has been occupying a corner of the current head teacher’s office.
It contains records of all the pupils attending the school from 1957 to 1974. In addition, it provides details of academic and sporting achievements and the relative successes of Johnston, Thornton and Conveth houses.
A small group attended a meeting organised by librarian Jill Reid, and were encouraged to spread the word to come along to the library on Monday 10th December at 7.00pm, armed with your recollections of the old school.
Memories are rather fickle and recalling with any accuracy the other members of your class is a real challenge. The updated curriculum, extra years of study, changes in discipline and technological advances over recent generations have been dramatic. There seems little to connect with today’s “students”!
Comparing the differences will be very interesting.
The meeting arranged for Monday 10th December is a great opportunity to meet old friends and debate whether these were the best days of your life! See you there!
Mike Robson
I attended Laurencekirk Secondary from Feb. 1956 ((Primary 3) through June, 1964 (4th year). The one thing that sticks out in my mind is that boys and girls were separated outside of the classroom. Girls did not play football and boys did not skip rope, play netball or whatever. There was also a real separation with regard to certain classes. Boys were seen in the woodwork and metal classes whereas girls only in domestic science and even commercial subjects like shorthand, typing, bookkeeping. I suspect things are very different nowadays.
Also, there was not a whole lot of interaction between teachers and pupils. We were there to listen, to learn, not to question or debate.
Sports were not a part of the school curriculum in as much as they were played outside of regular school hours. We practiced after school and most of the hockey and football games were played on a Saturday. There were exceptions to this: the annual school sports day, the inter-school sports and, of course, the battle of the teachers versus the girls’ hockey team. I played in several of these games.
alistair henderson, I would have been in p4 in 1956. The thing that sticks in my mind from that era ,was the amount of homework some of the teachers used to give us, i thought the idea was you went to school to be taught, nae computers in our day, Sport was good football played a few games we had a good team. i suppose all in all must have learned something,