Beyond the Classroom

School exchange with Lycee Camille See in Paris.

Without doubt this was one of the great experiences of my time at GWLC. In 1954 about 20 of us went for a month to Paris, staying with a French family while our counterpart was with our family in Edinburgh. Few of us had ever left the UK. France seemed impossibly glamorous and excitingly different. The smell when we got off the ferry at Dieppe: Gauloise cigarettes and garlic: the cafe-au-lait and baguettes for breakfast: the school where teachers did not deal with discipline but left it to the Superintendents: the cheese with actual cheese mites wriggling in it (no, I did not eat it): the Whitsunday celebrations where a statue of the Virgin Mary was carried round the streets scandalizing my Presbyterian upbringing: the Louvre where you could inspect the Mona Lisa close up. All of it life enhancing. The great benefit was of course, total immersion in French. Our understanding and spoken French improved exponentially and proved to be of use during many subsequent holidays in France.

Olive Spicer née Lyle (Class of 1955)

In Senior Five we had a party towards the end of the Session, called the “Cookieshine” and , while we were at school, the Head Girl, my longtime friend Sheelagh Barnard, requested permission to have boys at a school dance. Miss Nicolson granted permission but we had to take a form in to say which boy we were bringing and which school he attended. Snobs, eh?! I took a Heriot boy......and we’ll be married 60 years in July!

Morag Air née MacLeod (Class of 1956)

The Cookieshine was a kind of Christmas party for S4,5,6 and staff. It had to be organised by S6, of course, and included supper, entertainment which was written and performed by S6, and ....dancing with teachers! It says a great deal for the long-suffering staff that they were prepared to join in with such good humour. The school dance took place later in the year. On that occasion, you were allowed to invite a boy – provided you had written permission from your parents – and you had to join a queue at the beginning of the evening to introduce your partner to Miss Fleming. Changed days! The absolute finale of the year was the Closing Concert and Prizegiving which took place in the Usher Hall. Pupils proceeded to their place in the organ gallery, swinging their arms in time to the strains of a rousing and memorable march, whose name I never discovered, and there followed a fine performance of singing and orchestral music. End of the year, and for some, a poignant moment. I can still feel the frisson of excitement which accompanied it.

Jenifer Dunn née Malcolm (Class of 1961)

GWLC as well as fostering academic prowess, instilled a host of practical skills - painting, cooking, laundry, sewing, knitting, weaving, craft, sport - but mainly encouraged a sense of service; our talents were many and were to be used not only in the home but for many charitable purposes. Our hands were never idle; any spare moments were spent knitting squares for blankets for the poor and needy, collecting money for various charities and leading local Guide and Brownie groups in our communities. I think this continues today.

Margaret Tait (Class of 1962)

The Quad Dance

Before leaving school, either 5th or 6th year, the Merchant Company held a “Quad Dance” for the four schools at Watson’s College in the Assembly Hall and in 1952 my friends and I went along. The girls gathered on one side of the Hall and the boys on the other and we waited to be asked for a dance. After Supper I was invited to dance and then returned to our side of the Hall then my friends got all excited and exclaimed “he’s coming again, Eleanor” and so we danced to the end, when he, Sandy, asked if he could ‘see me home’. Buses were laid on different routes around the city to see us all safely home. One bus covered our destinations, Sandy, Newington and me Willowbrae so that was fine and when we reached Newington I suggested he should get off the bus but ‘no, no’. We reached my house at Willowbrae and guess what! – my Mum was putting out the empty milk bottles for the morning and Sandy panicked and said “how do I get home?”. I gave him the directions and went into the house and my Mum was in a panic, “who was that? “, I replied “I don’t know exactly “. On Monday at School there was still the excitement in the Class and all was sorted, because a girl in my class had a brother at Watson’s who knew Sandy and gave him my phone number and we started going out from that time on at 17.

Sandy studied Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art, but still had to serve 2 years National Service so we did not marry until 1959. We have been married 61½years, a very full life, have one daughter Helen, a son-in-law Graham Sinclair, who is a Watsonian, 3 granddaughters and 1 great grandson. Thank you, George Watson’s College.


Eleanor Young Forbes née Murdoch (Class of 1953)