Iain Sloan

Pupil from 1978 until 1984

I attended Airdrie Academy from 1978 until 1984. I was a proud member of Woodhall house. This one little request for memories has stirred so many memories of home and that wonderful time that was growing up. I know the place isn’t the same anymore (is anywhere?) but so glad to see the school still battling on and doing great stuff for the kids of Airdrie. I have a few memories to share…

At the time I was there, the school roll was just over 1600 pupils. The switch to comprehensive education in the early seventies had meant a big increase in numbers of pupils attending the school. Class sizes were big, around 30 to a group. There was a large modern style ‘house block’ with six floors, spacious classrooms and a common room for each of the six house groups: Cleddans, Monklands, Rochsoles, Faskine, Woodhall and Glentore. This was in addition to the traditional ‘A’ block, science block and technology department.

This was where I unfortunately got my nose broken. I was somewhere on the House Block top floor. For some reason I was running (yep, shouldn’t have been, I know) and someone (I strongly suspect a lad called Kenneth Cupples) grabbed my bag. Rucanor bags were a thing at the time! That motion spun me. I lost my balance and flew nose first into a big thick chunk of pine that made up the back rest of the benches that went around the walls of the stairwell. In movies when people get punched in the face they show everything going red. That’s true, that’s exactly what happened. I was taken to Tom Dingwall who applied his mad Rugby skills and packed my nose to stop it bleeding everywhere.

I also have fond memories of the text books we would be given out for some of the subjects that had been doodled in by previous owners. While it's not a big thing, I wish I knew who had the French textbook before me. Their sense of humour fitted mine and each page that had a picture on it had been creatively added to in hilarious ways. More than once turning a page had me stifling laughter. I don't know who you were and I'll likely never find out but thank you for the hours of laughter you provided me.

One really nice day, we were all pulled outside for a big game of softball (a most misnamed sport that ball is certainly not soft). There was a bunch of us, it was most likely 1st Year. The PE Teachers (Mr. Noble, Mike Rawlinson, and a couple of others were joined by Jim Smillie (Geography at the time). There had been a big thing about telling us, “When you hit the ball and run, don’t throw the bat behind you”. Up comes Mr. Smillie, Whack hits the ball and followed swiftly a second whack as the end of the bat connected with a Sam McGleish’s nose. Said nose immediately exploded, and Sam was led away. There was a thing about “See that’s what happens if you throw the bat behind you”. I’ve coached many softball teams here in the US over the years now and not one player ever suffered Sam’s fate thanks to that lesson.

Thinking of my experience of PE lessons, I wonder do they still do the Scottish Country dancing near Christmas? I’ve told so many people about that over here and shown videos (and told them about the “if you don’t pick a partner, we’ll pick one fur ye…” (Usually shouted from Paw Broon)

Teachers who made an impact include Arthur Gray, Stephen Clemmes and Kathryn (can’t remember her last name but she’s still teaching somewhere) in Music, The first time round of the ‘Moonzapoppin’ show (pre-86) I was caught wearing a half plastic football with an attached wire coat hanger on my head and a black binbag as a costume, much to the amusement of my parents in the audience.

I remember Mr Fannon who taught Maths and I believe later became Rector and Tom Dingwall. Tom taught Geography / History, was Assistant Housemaster of Woodhall and a definite rugby genius! Mr Dickson was Woodhall housemaster. Paw Broon (Mr. Brown, PE) and the afore mentioned Jim Smillie. I still talk to that man today. Thanks to Jim and Tom I still have a love for History and Geography.

What I happily regard as a turning point in my life was a class by Mr. Kerr. Back in those days, computers were very new in schools. Most schools had a BBC Micro or an Acorn (which was basically the same thing) Mr. Kerr started a computer class. It was two periods a week on a Tuesday afternoon. We worked on what is now a relic of a computer, called the Apple 2 EuroPlus. This was way before Steve Jobs and Apple made phones, iPads, and MacBooks. They produced those amazing things. Programming by us was done in Basic (the programming Language). I remember with it’s two 5 ¼ inch floppy disk drives.

That one class was the turning point of my life. It brought out an interest that was brewing in me. With that I went on to a job with British Steel, running an IBM Mini Computer (not Mini by any means, it took up a room). And from there my career grew.

Having been in IT from my early years of that old Apple computer with Mr. Kerr and moving through the IT world, the advancements I’ve lived through are astounding. I literally just trashed what was the precursor to the iPhone on Saturday (an Apple Newton Message pad). I’ve had that since I worked for a company in Glasgow in the 90’s and yet today the phones that sit beside me here at my desk could far outstrip a room full of those early Mini Computers.

These days, I’m living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, having been in the Computer industry for almost 40 years in varying positions. I’m still thankful for Mr. Kerr, that class and Airdrie Academy for taking someone that was otherwise not the most interested in school and turned me into someone who still looks back on that specific class fondly. Somewhere, even this far away, I still have an old school jotter from that class with my first “Hello World” little basic program written into it.

It’s amazing to see what’s come and gone over the years since 1984 (the year I walked out of the gates of AA for the last time), until I walked in once more in October 2001 to enrol my oldest child (all the way from Texas). And I saw people I remembered, one being John Kerr. I thanked him that day and again since when his email popped up somewhere.

As noted earlier, I was never interested in school that much. Today, I understand just how important it was in my life. How great a time it was. I do miss a lot of it, and I do miss the environment. People always said that school days are the best of your life and they truly are but you will never realise that until they are long over. Some of my friends from school I’m still in contact with, and others sadly have moved on from this realm but their memory lives on.

Since being at Airdrie Academy, I’ve been lucky enough to visit other schools here in the US and lecture on both Cybersecurity and Cyber safety for kids. However, none of them were home and that place in my heart will aways be filled by the “Academy”.

And having been over here for so long, I can still say “Scottish Schools are still so much better than American Schools”.

Congratulations Airdrie Academy on 175 years!!

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