Newlands Primary School

Newlands Primary School
The generous LORD NEWLANDS donated this fine building in1896. He instructed the stonemasons to carve 'NEWLANDS PUBLIC SCHOOL' into the sandstone. Welcome all visitors! Click on the link "COMMENTS" below each Post to read what others have to say. And leave a Comment of your own too while you're here!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

June-Elizabeth MacWilliam - Newlands 1954 Infants Class


This Grannie was known in her schooldays as "June MacWilliam," to anyone who can remember me.

A switch to my middle name of Elizabeth (Liz) plus the acquisition of a married name along the way, have resulted in a totally different name than I used back in August 1954 when I marched into the Girl's Entrance at Newlands for the first time with my classmates.

I can remember as a child of 3 or 4, sometimes walking past Newlands at Playtime with my mother. She would stop for a minute or two and say Hello to one or two older girls from our close at 18 Edmiston Street.

I stared through those railings at Playtime where a really big party appeared to be going on. As the only child of my parents for their first ten years, I had no siblings to share games with at home, so I longed to start school - simply for the social aspects of course!

Another treat for me was having my wee leather satchel strapped to my back like the bigger kids. At age five, I had finally arrived.

I soon was glad to discover that I had a willing accomplice in my milk scam. Miss Bone insisted on every child collecting and consuming his or her own milk, but I couldn't drink warm milk, so the noble young GARY NOLAN came to my rescue by gurgling down his own bottle, then quietly & calmly disposing of mine, using a fair degree of skill in deception for a five year-old, for he had to avoid detection by the sharp-eyed old witch, our Headmistress. I loathed that warm white sickening stuff that everyone else was drinking like nectar.

When shortly after lunchtime, the ferocious Miss Bone dismissed our class, I felt very let down. I longed to stay the whole day in this new and exciting world of Newlands School and attend the big parties in the Playground.

A few months later I got my wish as the Infants Class day was extended to 3:00pm, an hour before the regular dismissal. This simple strategy avoided bullying by smart-alec older kids during our journey home. I think we may have been dismissed an hour earlier for the whole of our first Term, but I'm not really sure.

How about you? Can you remember anything else from our beginnings at Newlands?

...........Thanx to Stew for his magic with all of the photos in this blogsite......

7 comments:

Brian Charlton said...

I don't know why you did not like the school milk, especially in winter when it was lovely and cold. In fact we often had to sit the crates next to the radiator to thaw the milk enough to drink. If you were good that day you would be given any extra bottles to drink.

Scotbandit said...

Brian - you have succinctly outlined my case AGAINST the school milk! Sitting the crates beside the radiators produced a tepid white liquid that was enough to give me the boak.....

Stew (Meggs) Merrilees said...

You should have tried the milk in Australia. Even though they put ice blocks on top of the crates the milk was hot enough to make a capacino.

Stew

Scotbandit said...

Good Grief! Drinking warm/tepid milk like that is enough to cause food poisoning in young children.....

magsse said...

Can you remember the gold taps they were great a mad rush for them

Mags

Brian Charlton said...

Aye ah kin remember them gold taps well and when the boatles froze the mulk wid be like a wee tower stickin oot aboot 2 inches frae the tap oh the boatle wi a wee gold hat oan the tap.

Anonymous said...

I loved the milk in winter Brian is right it was freezin and the only way i could drink it gold tops or not

 

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