The Munro and Morrison Family 

Of course, I remember some of the staff in these days. Mr Sinclair was the ‘heedie’. Some teachers were very fierce like ‘Tearer’ Simpson the Latin teacher. Most of the teachers were given nicknames, some more complimentary that others! ‘Daddy’ Allan was deputy. I am sure he taught Maths and Tommy Henderson who had just come back from the war was my Maths teacher. I believe that he became Rector of Airdrie Academy many years later. 

My memories from Airdrie Academy are largely positive. I loved playing hockey and Miss Orr, who also taught French took the hockey with Mr Matthews who was a gym teacher. Happy anniversary to my old school and “Thanks for the wonderful memories” 

Fergus Munro – Pupil from 1977-1982

By 1977 Airdrie Academy had expanded from four to 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. I reached the giddy heights of prefect which mostly consisted of standing in stairwells and shouting “Keep in to the left”. This picture was taken in the Monklands dining room in 1980 but other houses shared a similar taste in curtains.  

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Back row: Stephen McCabe, Tom Morris, Ian Mathieson, me. 

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

The house block had three main floors with two houses on each floor – one on the east side of the central stairwell (Faskine, Monklands, Woodhall), the other on the west side (Cleddans, Glentore, Rochsoles). 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, with 4 benches in a “+” shape outside and finally a dining room. Each house had its own dining room. 

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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 struggled to read a passage from a book with headphones on. 

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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. 

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There were so many opportunities to become involved in sports at Airdrie Academy when I was a pupil thanks to the dedication and inspiration of staff. I played football, squash, volleyball, cricket and basketball during my time there and even enjoyed several weeks on a kayak course at Strathclyde Park and skiing trips to Glenshee. 

With basketball, I played in the 1979 Lanarkshire League where we finished runners up, coached by PE Dept legend Mike Rawlinson. We lost narrowly 43-10 at Lanark but they had an American playing for them which was basically cheating!  ​

Back row: Me, Sandy Bole, Ian Buchanan, Gary Gillespie. 

Front row: Kenny Hazlie, Derek Craig, Graham Cook, Wilson Lees.