For me the move to Airdrie Academy from primary school was perhaps not as daunting as it might otherwise have been because two of my three older brothers were already there, one in sixth year and one in third year.

 

This was the summer of 1977. Just three months earlier, in May 1977, the Sex Pistols had released their single, ‘God Save The Queen’, to coincide with the celebration of the Silver Jubilee. This kicked of the brief but explosive punk rock era and I visibly remember the rapid appearance of Mohican haircuts, safety pin earrings, black leather jackets (with chrome studs and lengths of chain), tight tartan trousers and 20 eye Doc Marten boots. Heaven forefends that any of the paraphernalia should cross the threshold of Airdrie Academy!

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By this time the Academy was well into its 1970 conversion into a comprehensive school. But, try as it might, it could not quite kick off its ‘academical’ tendencies, which stretched back to when Mr Alexander launched the Academy as a subscription school in the 1840s. So, whilst first and second-year classes were based on registration classes, by the time we moved into third year and the ‘O’ grade syllabuses began, classes were ‘streamed’ according to exam performances. All the teachers were university graduates and the push for academic achievement was strong.

 

First and second year were the most varied in terms of the subjects covered. Some subjects were grouped – so Biology, Chemistry and Physics were all under one banner, ‘Science’, for first and second year. Likewise for Wood work, Metal work and Technical Drawing, which all fell under ‘Tech’. On the other hand, Maths was split into Mathematics and Arithmetic. But we also had History, Geography, Modern Studies, English, French, Music, Art, Drama, Physical Education, and Latin (which was still compulsory in 1977).

 

All that changed in 3rd year when the choice of which ‘O’ grades to sit had to be made. Science became three potential ‘O’ grades. Likewise, the ‘tech’ subjects. And you could only choose a maximum of eight subjects (although the actual choice was only five subjects because the ‘O’ grades in English, Maths, and Arithmetic were compulsory). This meant if you chose to study French, geography and three sciences as I did, you had to say goodbye to other favourite subjects like Music, Art, or History. Physical Education in those days was not an examinable subject but it remained compulsory element of the timetable for every year at school.

 

In 1977 Airdrie Academy had six ‘houses’ for pupils for the purpose of registration classes and ‘pastoral’ care. Which house you were put in was determined by where the first letter of your family name came in the alphabet. As mine began with an M, it had the be Monklands House for me.

 

The house block had three main floors with two houses on each floor – one on the east side of the central stairwell, the other on the west side. Each house consisted of an L-shaped corridor. On one side as you came in there were toilets followed by a line of classrooms. On the other side there was, firstly, the office of the ‘house master’ and his deputy (the housemasters were all men in 1977) then the prefects’ room, then a common room and finally a dining room. Each house had its own dining room. Between the houses, off the central stairwell, there were other rooms with a variety of purpose. For example, on one floor there was a language lab where our speaking skills in French were put to the test by the teacher listening in unannounced whilst we all read a passage from a book with headphones on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house block was a typical 1970s concrete building and sat directly behind the east wing of the original 1941 building. There were several other similar buildings behind the original school including a science block and a technical block, as well as a late 1940s dining room which had been commandeered by the PE department and was full of wooden gym benches and such like. In addition, there were some prefab wooden huts housing things like drama and music.

 

The school had a strong tradition of putting on shows. There were annual plays and musicals; gymnastics displays; and Christmas carol concerts. All of these were done to an amazingly high standard. The Academy had no real theatre space. So, the musicals were put on at Caldervale High School, which had a lovely, dedicated theatre, whilst plays were performed at the Airdrie Arts Centre on Anderson Street. The gymnastic displays were done in the old rotunda assembly hall and the Christmas carols were sung in the West Parish Church. But it was not just academic achievement and quality entertainment that were valued at the Academy. Sports were too.

 

My sporting background was always football. But in 1st Year I decided to have a go at rugby. Home games were played on a field of Shanks’ dairy farm near Glenmavis. By 2nd Year I was back to playing football. But by the time I left the Academy after 6 years there I had also played basketball, volleyball, and hockey. And the hockey was responsible for the one and only time I have been knocked out, thanks to a high-flying hockey stick.

 

The senior football team I played in in 6th year was of a very high standard. We were coached by one of the PE teachers, Sandy McNaughton, who was also a professional football player who had just moved from Dunfermline to Ayr United. Our goalkeeper was Dougie Cochrane, who became a professional goalkeeper with Hamilton Academical, while our centre half, Brian Irvine, ended up playing for Aberdeen and Scotland.

 

 

 

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At the start of my 4th Year, a new geography teacher, Mr McCartan, had joined the school. He could not believe that the school had no climbing club, so he set one up and planned big expeditions.

 

The first of these was at the end of my Fourth Year, in the summer of 1981. He had opted to take us to do the Tour Du Mont Blanc in the Alps. This involved almost two weeks circumnavigating Mont Blanc in an ant-clockwise direction. We started near Chamonix in France passing through Italy and Switzerland before reaching Chamonix again. We camped outside, often at the foot of glaciers. We carried with us everything we needed. To train for this expedition, we spent several weekends climbing most of the main peaks in the Lake District. The following summer we did the Haute Route Corse, walking and climbing along the ridge of mountains that runs up the middle of the island of Corsica.

 

As a town, Airdrie went through tough times in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thatcherism was in full swing and the old local industries were being shut down. By the time I left school in 1983 the local male unemployment was close to 50% and I vividly remember groups of men huddling on the street corners at Airdrie Cross, flagging down passing vans and lorries in the hope of finding some work.

 

Airdrie and Coatbridge had been merged as Monklands District Council in 1974. This new authority was distinguished from the other new authorities by reputedly having the highest percentage of its population living in social housing. This was reflected in the make up of the pupils at Airdrie Academy which also had one of the biggest school rolls in Scotland.

 

Most of our free time as children was spent hanging about, either at each other’s houses or on the streets. Yes, we had television but there were only three stations and for some, like me, the TV was black and white and rented. There were no computers or laptops or mobile phones. If you possessed a pocket calculator that was posh, especially if it could do logarithms and calculus. The only way to keep in touch with each other was through landlines. And if we went into Glasgow our parents had no idea of where we were or what we were up to. And when I was 15 and going to see the likes of AC/DC or Rush at the Glasgow Appollo I just had to trust that my mum would come into Glasgow to pick me up at the end of the concert.

 

There were tensions in the school. The poverty of Airdrie, as in most Scottish towns and cities, generated a degree of ‘gang culture’, usually based around the various local housing schemes. This seldom spilled over in the school itself but, when sprinkled with a dose of sectarianism, it sometimes flared up into full-scale conflict with St Margarets High School, usually in Central Park. Fortunately, such occasions were uncommon (but not exactly rare). The school valued discipline. This often involved the use of the tawse – basically a strip of leather with thongs at the end. It was alleged that the more thongs the sorer the belting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some teachers were said to split the thongs the tawse came with to achieve this desired effect. And the tawse was often kept by the teacher under their jacket and over their shoulder. Sometimes discipline was a bit more unorthodox.

 

There was an urban legend about a time with Mr Brown (Pa Broon), the PE teacher, caught two boys fighting. It is alleged he pulled them apart, gave them each a pair of boxing gloves and locked them in the boys’ gym with the advice the door would only be unlocked when one boy was left standing. Of course, no more fighting occurred. The boys just stood there and, after a while, the door was unlocked.

 

To help instil a sense of discipline the school also had a system of 4th Year Monitors and 5th and 6th Year Prefects. These were organised on a ‘house’ basis and took turns at things like controlling the flow of pupils in the stair well to ensure everyone stayed left (a habit I have never been able to rid myself of when going up or down a public staircase). There were also School Captains and Vice-Captains, drawn from the 6th Year cohort of pupils by a process of pupil and teacher election. I became a Monklands House Monitor in 1980, a Prefect in 1981 and Boys’ School Captain in 1982. This photograph shows the Monklands House officials in 1981/82.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back row: me (Stephen McCabe), Tom Morris, Ian Mathieson, Fergus Munro. 

Front row: Karen McIlwraith, Elaine Murdoch, Jean McGuinness, Carole McKenna, Janice Nicole, Lesley Murdoch. 

 

 

Overall, I could not say I loved being at school except, perhaps, for my 6th Year. But I do really value the opportunities it afforded me to grow, learn and develop as a person. And I cannot say that I ever had a ‘bad’ teaching experience there. Quite the contrary in fact – the standard of teaching was generally outstanding. I knew from when I was 14 years old that I wanted to become a remote rural GP. But without the high-quality education that Airdrie Academy provided me with I would never have made it to medical school in Edinburgh in 1983. I went on the fulfil my ambition, eventually spending almost quarter of a century as a remote rural doctor on the Isle of Skye.