Memories of West Barns Primary School

Eventually, after much tugging and persuading, we arrived in the playground where other mothers had brought their sons and daughters for their first day at school. And so it was that we were brought before the formidable Granny Scott to have our names put in the school register.

This event still happens today, but less stressful for the young children mainly due to the fact that since toddlers they have gone to playschool and Nursery school and in most cases look forward to going to the Big school.

After a harrowing morning, much weeping and wailing with distracted mothers waiting outside, Granny Scott’s class of 37 settled down to their school days.

Miss Scott was a very much admired teacher; very disciplined and strict. She had also taught my father in his first days at school, lived in Belhaven and cycled everyday to school.

Teaching was the pointer, chalk and blackboard, mostly rhyming method. That is how I was introduced to the 3Rs: Reading, Writing and ‘rithmetic, with, of course, the help of the Tawse which she always kept handy in the drawer of her desk. No standing in the corner in those days: punishment was swift and sore. That was what was called Discipline.

It was at this time that another great character of the village was the Headmaster; non other than Paddy Mills. Not only did he keep the school in order, but the village as well.

Then at the start of World War 2 Jimmy Deans took over the mantle of Headmaster.

After the enrolment and settling in of the school’s new entrants came the school medical carried out by Doctor Milne from the Education Department. Nurse Ethorne, who was referred to by the pupils as Auld Hawthorne, assisted him. The medical was carried out with a parent present and later the nurse would visit to inspect for headlice.

One day, after visiting the school, Nurse Ethorne turned up on the doorstep of our house at Brigend to tell my mother that I had a bent right leg and would need to go to the Princess Magaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh to have it straightened. Unfortunately for Nurse Ethorne my father was in the house for his lunch and he promptly asked her to lift her long skirt to see if her legs were straight. Quite a ‘stooshie’ took place with the result my father threw the nurse and her bike into the Beil Burn, which, luckily, was shallow at the time. No more was ever heard of bent legs and Nurse Ethorne continued to visit the school all the time I was there.

Teaching went on and eventually I moved into the next school room, that of Miss Doris Angus, a heavily built woman who also cycled to school every day. She taught two classes.

By this time WW2 had started. We were fitted with gas masks, and in case of gas attacks drills were held weekly. The classroom windows were criss-crossed with brown sticky tape to prevent shattering if a bomb dropped. The spare classroom was filled with mattresses, blankets, pillows and other stores for emergencies.

New pupils came . They were evacuees, but they didn’t stay very long

My next move was into the qualifying room under the Headmaster, Mr Deans, a big man over 6ft tall, who had been a cricketer It was he who brought into being the school concert. Producing it took a whole year, the work being done generally in the afternoons: chorus, sketches, individuals, singing, reciting poetry and even telling jokes. Then, near the end of the school year, it was put on for the public in the village hall. As you can imagine the hall was packed out and daunting for those going on stage for the first time. If you ask any pupil of that time about the village school it was the concert they all remember.

The events happening beyond the school had its effect: fathers went away, soldiers were everywhere, with lorries and tanks. You could hear gunfire from the ranges at Hedderwick, and the sky at anytime filled with planes with so many airfields being nearby.

Those who didn’t go into the forces, went, like the Headmaster, into the Home Guard. My father was exempt, being an engine driver and he was in the village fire brigade. Others joined the ARP or the Red Cross, or the voluntary police force.

At night everything was dark as there were no street lights, and houses had their windows blacked out with shutters. I must admit that growing up in those conditions outside school was something else and another story.

Back at school I was getting ready for the eleven plus exam and had to pass that to proceed to Dunbar Grammar School for your final school days. I passed that exam and went to Dunbar.

I have one final memory of the last day at the village school. We had a fight out on the road throwing divots of grass. I had six of the tawse, three on each hand, so it was a warm farewell to West Barns School.

Ally Knox ( Class of '37 )