Innes Alexander (nee Smith)
Pupil 1963-1969
English teacher 1974-1982
Airdrie Academy features in many aspects of my life. I was a pupil there from 1963 to 1969, met my husband there when we found ourselves in the same class and I returned after five years study in Edinburgh as an English Teacher for my first teaching post in 1974. Subsequently I took up the post of Assistant Principal Teacher of English before moving on to posts in other schools.
When I started as a pupil at Airdrie Academy in 1963 it was a Senior Secondary School. Pupils were allocated places to local secondary schools in those days on the basis of performance in school grading examinations. As a result, only a few of my primary classmates transferred to the Academy.
The first morning there was therefore very daunting for us coming to a huge, imposing building much bigger than our Primary School where all the pupils, most of whom seemed so grown up compared to us, were smartly dressed in school uniform and teachers wore their impressive black academic gowns.
Coming from Clarkston Primary School, Airdrie Academy was in an area of the town that I didn’t know at all and much preparation had gone on at home in planning the route that I would take walking to school for the next six years.
My most vivid memories of my first day there was of feeling so totally overwhelmed and nervous that waiting for the morning bell to ring I stood with a couple of former classmates in the playground passing the time by counting the windows on this huge building whose architecture never failed to impress me. I am not ashamed to admit that as an adult I shed a few tears when that beautiful building was demolished.
One other thing that still resonates with me was the number of times, in those first days in meeting new teachers as we moved from subject to subject that the teachers asked and recorded not only our names but our father’s occupation. Even then, that seemed a bit surprising and suspect to me.
I remember vividly my teachers from those years many of whom had a significant impact on my life both academically and in influencing my beliefs and behaviour through the example that they set for me as I was a teenager growing up. I had some fantastic mentors and inspiring role models. I was particularly influenced by two of my English Teachers Tom McCracken and Gordon Liddell who opened a whole world of literature to me, encouraging critical reading and discussion and encouraging me in my own writing. It was they who gave me the encouragement and inspiration to continue to Higher Education and to have a deep love of literature. It was no surprise to them when I became an English teacher.
The English Curriculum was fairly fixed. Many former pupils will remember studying the same texts. As I recollect we started off in our First Year with ‘The Eagle of the Ninth’ - Rosemary Sutcliffe, ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’ - John Bunyan and Shakespeare’s Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.
Movement around the school was regimented with pupils walking around keeping to the left in single file with senior pupil prefects supporting staff by monitoring movement on stairwells and corridors. For us, as First Years, these senior pupils were as intimidating as teachers. Years later, I dutifully carried out the prefect duties allocated to our own cohort of elected prefects. I don’t think the younger pupils were quite so in awe of us by then. They did still treat us respectfully, but I do remember one First Year boy inviting me, as a sixth year prefect out for lunch. I declined.
Some teachers we met came with their already established reputations especially those known to be strict disciplinarians. One such was the Classics Teacher known as ‘Tearer’. He never taught me but so in awe of him was I that I remember walking around three sides of The Quad to avoid having to walk past him. One day, however, I came face to face with the man himself as we approach the swing doors close to his classroom walking in opposite directions and due to meet just as we reached the doors. Too late to run for it I stood to the side as this- to me- huge, imposing man pushed open both doors to move through. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen but as he moved past me he smiled, patted me on the head and waved me through holding the door open for me. A lesson there about reputations and expectations.
Female teachers too imposed their own high standards. Miss Cruikshank, a formidable Maths teacher, issued one of my male classmates with a hair grip one day to keep his trendy long hair out of his face to ensure he concentrated on his calculations in his jotter. There were many inspiring and many kind teachers too in my years both as pupil and teacher in Airdrie academy.
Indeed, there were many great characters amongst both staff and pupils.
So many stories, so many memories.
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