Canisbay School was like a big family
Recorded 9 months ago
About this recording
Linda Brown reflects upon her time as a teacher at Canisbay Primary School.
“My memories of Canisbay School began in 1977, three years after the schools at John O'Groats and Canisbay amalgamated and they moved into what is the present Canisbay School. In 1977 there were over 80 pupils and four teachers. Elsie Cowe was the head teacher, Bette Brown, Christine Shearer and myself.”
Linda says, “I soon got used to life in a rural school with children who all knew each other, and it was like a big family. The old hand bell was still in use, and the children took turns at ringing the bell. This was done with much enthusiasm.”
In this interview Linda describes life in a rural school in Caithness, where Christmas Treats, Caithness Music Festival, school trips, visiting specialists, sports activities featured highly.
Transcription
My memories of Canisbay School began in 1977, three years after the schools at John O'Groats and Canisbay amalgamated and they moved into what is the present Canisbay School. In 1977 there were over 80 pupils and four teachers. Elsie Cowe was the head teacher, Bette Brown, Christine Shearer and myself, Linda Brown.
I soon got used to life in a rural school with children who all knew each other, and it was like a big family. The old hand bell was still in use, and the children took turns at ringing the bell. This was done with much enthusiasm.
The roll went down during that year to three teachers and I as the most junior member of the staff was moved to the North School in Wick. I was to return several years later when the roll went from two teachers to three. In November 1986 I returned to Canisbay.
The school had gone down to two teachers; however, it rose sufficiently to warrant a third teacher and I got the job. It was to remain at three teachers until 2010. During this time the pupils progressed with the addition of visiting specialist teachers in music, PE, art and needlework.
Our PE teacher latterly was Rachel Mennie, and she started a rural school sports competition. This was held in the summer term and each of the rural schools in the east side of the county took turns to host the event. Sports days were another annual event, enjoyed more on a fine day and supported well by the parents, some even participating and showing off their sporting skills.
Canisbay often entered a choir in the music festival, but this stopped when we no longer had a music teacher. Some children entered the verse speaking and Caithness dialect sections. Some of the dialect poems were actually written by the former head teacher Elsie Cowe.
The children mostly learnt their verses at home but were given a chance to perform to an audience at the school. Class groups took part in the singing game, the dramatised song and the popular song classes, often with great success. Dialect was encouraged and from time to time Caithness words were gathered for a display with the help of parents and grandparents.
Every second year or so the older pupils went on a school trip to Orkney where the younger children did something more appropriate for their age and closer to home. The trip to Orkney on the Groats ferry was exciting in itself, although the teachers and helpers found it a bit stressful. The children got to visit several sites of interest in Orkney, taking in the Italian chapel on the way back to the ferry.
Naturally a visit to a shop or two was also enjoyed and sometimes that was what they spoke about most on the return. There were other memorable trips for the older children, to Edinburgh, Newtonmore and Coylumbridge. The biggest event in Canisbay and other rural schools at that time was the Christmas treat or concert.
In days gone by it was an event for the whole community to enjoy and finished with a dance or a disco. It was a late night and attendance at school the next day was sporadic. A lot of work went into the show and the standard was high.
All the children would take part and there were many verses and songs to be learned. For the teachers this required writing verses, scripts, finding music, gathering costumes and the making of props and back cloths. It was a busy time, and we were exhausted but elated by the end of it.
But as time went on and with it many changes in the education system, the show had to be trimmed down. One of the original items was the primary ones introducing themselves in verse and this still continues today. Many former pupils still have their primary one verse stashed away in a safe place.
There was always a nativity, Christmas songs and class items. Some of the ones I can remember and were topical at the time were Postman Pat, the Mr Men and the Gladiators. One of the biggest changes was getting used to the new hall.
It was much bigger and the acoustics were not as good as in the old hall. This involved a lot of problem solving for the parents, putting the stage together and getting the curtain rails to work. One year we couldn't find the blue curtains for the front of the stage.
Anne Mowat, Christine Shearer and myself searched high and low for them only to discover they were brown curtains, and they were right beside us. Yeah well, we had many laughs of course with the lead up to the Christmas concert and sometimes it was quite stressful. Couldn't think straight and that particular year when we couldn't find the curtains I think Christine was writing home to the parents to see if they had any idea when we'd put them away the year before or tried everything and then the night before the treat we were there still looking but also doing other things and I think there were boxes on the stage and I just happened to look down and I thought wait a minute, there's some curtains but they're not blue and lo and behold there they were, what were we looking for but you get so sidetracked don't you.
Being in the new hall also meant we needed microphones as shouting out your lines was just not enough. There were many theatre groups who came to the school, groups from fish and sport and dance instructors. They all found Canisbay bairns great to work with and would comment on the lovely atmosphere in the school and the kids were so, they were used to entertaining quite a lot really I suppose because we had between some of the festival stuff but also the big concert so I think we might have been one of the latter schools to continue with the traditional Christmas treat as they called it but it's difficult when there's no music teacher and yes there's other pressures to cover every other subject.
For me it was a very enjoyable time all 24 years I had some great times with the staff and have some wonderful memories. I still like to hear about what's going on in the school but now mostly through my grandchildren.
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