Mary Stewart
(Class of 1976)

Some Memories of George Watson’s Ladies' College

Some Beginnings and Endings

When Primary 6 girls moved to George Square from St Albans Road there was also an intake of “new girls” of which I was one in 1968. This was following an entrance exam including an IQ test, something which was unknown to most parents at the time. We also had to write a story to go with some pictures. Although comprehensive secondary schools were considered the ideal in the state sector, my primary school teacher at South Morningside Primary still prided herself in how many of her pupils got in to the selective schools in Edinburgh. I passed the exams for GWLC and for Mary Erskine (which was then a brand new building), but decided, after trying out both bus journeys across town, that the shorter one to George Square was preferable. An important decision for me as a 10 year old, especially as it resulted in meeting several life long friends, and through one I met my husband many years later.

One of the ordeals for a primary 6 girl starting at George Square was to introduce her mother to the headmistress on parents’ day; a formal introduction to be done in the prescribed manner. My mother asked Miss Fleming about the timescale for the proposed amalgamation with GWC at Colinton Road. Her reply was that “Mary will be a venerable senior by the time that happens”. And she was right about the timescale. It didn't happen until I reached 6th year.

Years later in 1975, on the last day of term the removal vans were already there for the move to Colinton Road. Many of the teachers and girls in 5th year had decided to leave, and were in tears along with the 6th year leavers. A friend and I went looking around for memorabilia as so much was due to be thrown out. Our biology teacher gave us some spider plants, the chemistry teacher some of the large empty chemical jars with glass stoppers and I also retrieved a wooden chalk box from a classroom.

I now know (from her obituary) that at that moment the staff were polishing off the school’s sherry at Miss Fleming’s instigation.

At the end of that summer the George Square girls joined what became the largest co-educational school in Scotland at Colinton Road along with a small number of other pupils from John Watson’s School, as the charity which ran it had got in to financial difficulties. The experience was definitely GWC taking over the other two schools. It was the end of George Square in summer 1975.

Primary School at George Square 1968-70

We were all very aware of joining a school with long established traditions, in a building with its own history including the Admiral’s kitchen, the tiled hall and the ghost of the Grey Lady. We experienced bewildering stairs and corridors, numerous early morning bells before and after assembly, and prefects poised to take the names of latecomers at the basement door where we entered for the cloakrooms. There was an emphasis on standards of behaviour, and people would phone the school about incidents outside for example a girl seen eating chips on the no 41 bus in her school uniform. “Eating in the street” was frowned upon in general, and it still makes me feel vaguely guilty! For extreme misbehaviour no-one was ever expelled but the parents were simply “asked to remove her”. We certainly had the impression that the ethos was on giving a pupil another chance. Being sent to the tiled hall was enough for most people.

The primary 6 teachers were all rather frightening; Miss Richardson, Miss Grant and Miss Brydon. There was a lot of emphasis on conformity and being “young ladies”, which I thought very outdated, and even rather unfair comments to some new girls like “you may have done that at your old school but we don't do that here”. We were told not to talk about sweating but informed that “horses sweat, men perspire and ladies glow”. So we talked about “glowing buckets” after gym classes.

I can remember a great emphasis on hand writing and neatness in work. I was made to change my writing to the school style, which I resented as I already had experience of being made to change handwriting style after a previous change of schools. As well as the usual subjects like English, arithmetic and maths we had history and geography, which seemed more enjoyable due to modern textbooks and projects to do. We started to learn some basic French and some us were assigned boys names like Jacques so that we could practice sentences with “il” in them. We had special poetry book with spaces to write our own work. Classical history involved learning about Doric, Ionic and Corinthian pillars. Friday afternoons were devoted to crafts, basket making in primary 6 and weaving in primary 7. It still surprises me to think we carried the wooden looms home on a bus. The majority travelled to school by bus as in those days it was very unusual for families to have “a second car” and some who lived in the centre of Edinburgh didn't have a car at all. One afternoon a week we went to St Albans Road for netball in primary 6.

In P6 there was a summer outing to Dalmeny Chapel and in P7 to the newly opened Blair Drummond Safari park. A rather miserable experience as it poured with rain all day and the new facility had not really worked out what to do with all the school bus parties on wet days!

Secondary School 1970-75

Becoming a senior pupil meant that classes were streamed by ability to alpha, beta and gamma. There was a lot to learn about the location of rooms.

I particularly remember Room 22 which had a stage for performances, was the location of the (for me) dreaded singing classes in which I learned to mime very effectively. It was also where we sat exams. These were done with ink fountain pen until the mid 1970s when biros were finally allowed. Room 22 had a window looking in to the university student union refectory which was an interesting distraction.

Every morning started with class registration and then assembly presided over by Miss Fleming in her gown, and on serious occasions her mortarboard cap. Hymns were sung accompanied by the orchestra who also played us out with a piece of classical music. Talking to classmates in assembly was absolutely forbidden. There were announcements read by pupils about sports results and tickets for concerts. One representative from each class had to give the head a list of absent pupils.

The George Square science labs were a bit limited and probably in need of renovation. I enjoyed biology with Miss Elder who had a classroom located in the attic and remember watching a rat being dissected, and doing experiments with drosphila fruit flies which always seemed to escape before we had time to count them. We had a wormery to observe and tried to feed them chocolate. One of the teachers incubated eggs and by injecting the shells with pink dye produced coloured chicks in time for Easter. A teacher known as “Speedy” (Miss Cochrane I think) presided over the chemistry lab and our experiments with test tubes of liquid held over bunsen burners. She did the more dramatic demonstrations in the fume cupboard for example with sodium. Liquid mercury was still issued to pupils at that time and there was sometimes a residue on the benches which you could push around with a pen during the boring bits of class.

My memory of Higher physics classes is mainly of the teacher reading from a textbook, Physics is Fun, which it certainly wasn't. As a keen black and white photographer he also took some photos of the class to develop in his darkroom. This happened in George Square gardens which was also open to the public and frequented by university students from the other side of the Square. We had a great laugh when a male student who had been sunbathing decided to join the back row, and Mr Morris captured the moment in his photograph.

Every week we had one session in the gym, and one of dancing in the assembly hall. These were in bare feet, so at the beginning of every term our feet were checked for verrucas. We travelled by public transport out to the school’s facilities at Double Hedges Road in Liberton for sports, hockey for two terms and athletics and tennis in summer term.

There was an opportunity to do badminton and fencing classes after school. I played basketball for my house, Falconhall. I also went to the pool at Colinton Road for life- saving classes. (The mantra was to reach, throw, wade or row if you can before deciding to jump in.)

Mid-morning break was in the Admiral’s kitchen, lunch was in one of the two dining rooms. Initially everyone had a cooked school dinner with the menu read out at the start by supervising teacher. One memorable occasion this was Miss Dick and spotted dick was the pudding on the menu. We anticipated a good

laugh. But then she announced sultana sponge. I particularly liked the liver and bacon, also what was then called American pie (cottage pie with baked means added to the mince) and the sponge puddings. I disliked tapioca, semolina and sago milk puddings which I usually passed to a friend when the teacher’s back was turned. You were not allowed to have any food dislikes and were expected to eat everything. After a few years Miss Fleming made an announcement at assembly that as an evening cooked meal was now the norm in most families, the next term it would be a choice of bringing a packed lunch or buying items from the school snack bar. Burgers in a bun and the soup were particularly popular.

Values and Sense of Belonging

Charitable activities

I don't remember much focus on charity activities at school as this was mostly associated with the church or organisations near home.

Miss Littlewood was our form teacher in first year, and every year she told her first year class it was their responsibility to organise a concert for the elderly folk at the Cyrenians centre in the Pleasance. This seemed intimidating to us at 13, and I remember she was not particularly impressed with our efforts.

When I was in third year, each year had to put on a display of knitting and other items to go to a charity abroad. I remember the form mistress being embarrassed by our poor efforts compared to other classes. We probably had other interests by that age.

School Uniform

Clothing and attitudes to school uniform were changing rapidly when we were at school. So for a few years there was an insistence on wearing berets outdoors at all times, which then faded away and few people wore the summer panama hat. Indoor and outdoor shoe rules were less strictly enforced as parents were struggling with the cost of uniforms in the mid-1970s economic crisis. Miss Fleming would announce at some point in the summer term that “summer dresses may now be worn” and when in winter when boots and duffle coats were allowed.

Soon the primary uniform was modernised, and seniors were allowed to wear polo neck sweaters in white or navy blue (but definitely not black which was frowned on). The obsession with the ghastly American Tan tights (a shade almost orange) was replaced with a tolerance of navy or black as well, but white was harder to get away with.

Some rules seemed very archaic. Patent leather shoes were forbidden. A 1970s teenager wouldn't be seen dead in patent leather! School skirts were meant to be just above the knee but in practice were shorter and shorter in the mid 1970s, until midi skirts became the fashion. (We heard from friends about the equivalent at Colinton Road which was the ban on drainpipe trousers in the uniform code in an era of ever wider flares.)

The dancing tunics with huge bloomers, used for both gym and dancing classes, must have been liberating in the 1920s but to us seemed incredibly dated. Black leotards became the prescribed replacement a few years later, but weren’t that popular either.

Sense of Belonging

In many ways the sense of being a “George Square Girl” developed later after leaving school, through ongoing contacts with friends and various reunions. Also from reflecting on what we got, or did not get out, of our education. Later in life I met other former pupils for the first time, and realised there something about the experience of former pupils that made us recognisable to each other! I feel both proud and privileged to have been a George Square Girl.

I remember very little discussion of the women’s movement, but have a strong memory of the attitude at GWLC that the girls were the intellectual equivalent of the boys, we should be confident about our abilities and could do anything we wanted. This came particularly from Miss Fleming and I remember her saying she hoped some of us would go on to be engineers. Also Miss Nicol who had a no nonsense ‘get on with it’ attitude. This contrasted with another teacher who said (in exasperation at some incident in class) that our parents were probably wasting their money as most of us would just get married. We were quietly outraged at the suggestion we wouldn't have careers.

In practice there was very little careers education, just some very out of date leaflets. Those who were academic were encouraged to go to university, particularly for medicine or law. Careers in nursing, teaching, the civil service, banking and secretarial studies were seen as suitable and secure options. Doing Scottish Highers gave us a broad education so although subject choices came down to choice between science and arts, I have always appreciated having done French and English as well as sciences. We still remember, and talk about Miss Fortescue who had such an influence on our English lessons. Her insistence on vocabulary and learning the three meanings of sentence and that you must never use the word “nice” in an essay unless you mean precise.

Location of the School

The school being located in George Square was very convenient if you wanted to go in to town after school. I can remember the advertisement in the building on the corner of Hanover and Princes Street offering emigration to Australia for £10. As the school did not have its own grounds at lunchtime we had to go out to George Square gardens except in very bad weather. We had it largely to our selves until university students appeared about the same time as the spring flowers. There was a sunken rose garden that only prefects were permitted to enter. More senior girls walked around the outside of the garden, behind University buildings or in to Middle Meadow Walk although this was really out of bounds.

There was no freedom to go to local shops unless you had specific permission. Everyone felt quite safe and there was a police box at the top of Middle Meadow Walk, usually occupied.

There was also the Tramp of Middle Meadow walk. In those days there were no beggars or homeless people on the streets, just the solitary tramp who wore a very old raincoat fastened with a piece of string and rummaged in the bins. He was rumoured to be traumatised war veteran who couldn't cope with normal life and lived that way by choice. I never saw him interact with anyone else.

Memorable Events 1968-75

British Standard Time Experiment (GMT+1) 1968-71

There was a trial of keeping the clocks at the same time in winter as in summer. (Clocks were put forward in March 1968 and not put back until October 1971 when it was ended). It was very dark in the mornings and there was concern about road safety for children travelling to school. So we were issued with fluorescent material to make armbands in the sewing class. It was the first time I had seen such material.

Political Decisions affecting School Life

The terminology about independent schools seems to have changed over the years. We did not think we were attending a public school at that time as GWLC was a grant aided private (Merchant Company) school.

Withdrawal of the direct grant by the Labour Government in the mid 1970s led to a large increase in school fees as a result.

Although there were still assisted places my perception is that the school was much less socially mixed after that. It led to the departure of less well off and fewer girls in blazers with leather patches. I don't think I understood the politics at the time but I remember the distress and loss of some popular older girls from the school. The other influence in the background was from the “white heat of technology speech” by Harold Wilson in 1963 and many believed that our future lay in science subjects.

IRA

Bomb scares were not an uncommon part of life in the 1970s. On one occasion a bomb threat came into George Square around 3pm and we were all sent home in a hurry. The girls knew by the next day the threat was made from a nearby phone box by someone’s boyfriend, probably from Heriot's school nearby, so that they could meet up earlier. I also remember the whole school being evacuated to the George Square theatre but that might have been a fire drill.

Heavy Snow

One winter it snowed very heavily and we were sent out of school early at about 3pm. By this time all the public transport had gone off although we didn’t find out until we got to Tolcross. There was hardly any traffic and the cars were stuck. A group of about 10 of us set off from the bus stop to walk home. Some lived in Morningside, others in the Braids. As we walked on our numbers reduced and we reached Buckstone with two others. Finally my sister and I made it through heavy snow to Fairmilehead, much to the relief of our mother. It seems extraordinary thinking about it now. Looking back I find our attitude very interesting. We all saw it as our own responsibility to decide what to do and just get on with it. No phone calls were made. Everyone was calm and determined. We knew our parents wouldn't be able to get a car out. Our goal was to get home and we had to achieve this ourselves. How differently weather events are managed now.

Decimalisation

In primary seven our class teacher was Miss Stewart who also had the job of teaching us about the new decimal currency. I remember as 12 year olds in 1970 we felt offended being asked to "play shop" with a plastic version of “The New Money” to familiarise us with the decimal currency we would soon be using. Decimal day was in February 1971, and caused much confusion for the elderly. It seemed like all the prices were rounded up by the shops.

Tragic Incidents

There was a strong sense of school community which I associate with how bad news was handled. We always knew something was up when Psalm 23 appeared on the hymn board and Miss Fleming would make a sombre announcement. There were special prayers at assembly.

For example, during the school exchange with a French school a younger sibling of one of the Edinburgh host families was knocked down and killed. During my time a Latin (or possibly German) teacher died in a car crash Miss Fleming twice came personally to individual classes to inform us of the death of classmates, once in primary 7 and later in second or third year. I remember being impressed that she made it her own responsibility to do this in person.

Historic Events

The Apollo missions and moon landings were very memorable events watched at home on television but curiously I remember little impact at school. I do remember the class having to watch the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969 on a large television wheeled into the classroom on a trolley. I remember being bored and thinking the whole pageant was ridiculous, and then we had to write about it afterwards.

The Move To Colinton Road

Those of us who continued at school after summer 1975 became part of the first joint sixth year in the history of the schools. As I was only at Colinton Road for one year I probably only partially engaged with the new institution. I could see the larger school brought a wider range of subjects, much better laboratory and art facilities, and many more clubs and activities. One new subject was computing. Our teacher had to go up to the University to access a computer to try out our Fortran programmes. The co educational experience was good fun and preparation for life at university, and some classmates met their life partners that year. The subjects I did were useful for university but I had already got my place at medical school by this time.

There were lots of social events and we enjoyed the sociability of the 6th form common room and our separate library. Tutorial groups were introduced, modelled I assume on Oxbridge university experience. I was in a group led by Mr Roger Young, the headmaster, which took place in his study. However he wasn’t often there, being president of the Headmasters’ Association at the time.

I was the first girl to ride a motorcycle to the school, although I discreetly parked my Suzuki 100 over by Myreside to avoid attention particularly from the deputy Mr Weston who supervised the bike parking at the front and had to keep order at times. Motorcycles at that time provided cheap independent transport at a time when a car was beyond the reach of most 17 or 18 year olds.

One of my new responsibilities was helping with the school library. The supervising teacher took a few of us to the old John Watson’s school to see if any of their library books would be of interest. Very few were but it was fascinating to wander the empty school building and I remember that day whenever I visit the Modern One art gallery which it became.

The amalgamation was a huge challenge for pupils and teachers alike. There were temporary classrooms in some playgrounds and the number of pupils seemed enormous after George Square. There was a confidence about the future and when we left in 1976 the integration of the three schools was still very much a work in progress. I feel lucky to have been both a George Square Girl, and a member of the first sixth year of the co-educational GWC.