Education

Primary Schools

The classes were very crowded and I ended up being moved up six months twice (there were two intakes – one in August and one in January). This meant that I was a full year younger than everyone else and my friend Anna was in the year below me.

Secondary Schools

Because of my age I missed the entrance exam to the High School and spent first year at Bellahouston Secondary School. I was then allowed to sit a separate entrance exam to get into the High School in second year.

Glasgow High School for girls was a grant aided school until the legislation changed after I left in the early 1970s. Although it was not a state school (comprehesive), it was funded by the state which meant that the fees were very low allowing families like ours to attend. The only requirement was that we had to pass an entrance exam, so it was an academic school rather than a school for rich people. Pupils travelled from all over the city and beyond. There were pupils from Castlemilk, Bearsden, East Kilbride – where you lived was not taken into account as a criteria for gaining entrance. This meant there was a huge range of backgrounds among the pupils, which was good.

I found quite a difference between the schools I had attended in Ibrox and the High school. At Ibrox and Bellahouston I had been at the top of the class, which for me had been embarrassing and resulted in teasing from the other children. However, at Glasgow High school I was able to merge into the background as an ‘average’ pupil and felt more ‘normal’.

Ann and I travelled to and from school on the Subway from Cessnock to Cowcaddens.

The ‘new’ school was finally built when I started fourth year – it was in Cleveden Road in Kelvinside.

University

My favourite subject was maths, and in 1971 I started at Glasgow University to study for a BSc. My sister Ann was already there and as a family we had moved to Woodlands Road which was near the university.

I had planned to do a maths degree but ended up doing Statistics, which is where I met Gordon.

After graduation in 1975 I went to Strathclyde University to do a post graduate course in accounting. It soon became apparent this was not the career for me – see Work – Part 1

While my children were growing up I returned to education a few times. When David and Richard were small I did a Pre-school diploma on 2-4 year olds at Ballerup High School. They provided a creche for the students’ children. Years later, when Colin was pre-school and the local secondary schools offered courses for adults taught by the existing teachers I went to Duncanrig to study computing to bring myself up to date with basic applications like Excel. There was a creche for Colin. Gordon was one of the teachers so that was quite amusing. I then went to Ballerup High School and did Higher Biology which I really enjoyed. I also did a distance learning course for a diploma in Systems Analysis. As qualifications these were all a bit redundant, but they were very worthwhile for me to do.