Miss Cole recalls beginning teaching!
After graduating from Stranmillis College in June, 1964 I was ready to experience life as a primary school teacher. My job search took me to Saintfield, a part of Co. Down which was then unknown to me. My music teacher had been the church organist in Saintfield for a number of years and she told me about her Sunday visits to the area. She travelled each week from Belfast doing part of the journey by bicycle. She offered me the same bicycle to make my journey to Saintfield but I chose instead to travel by bus!
This was a relaxing journey each day and then I walked from the Belfast Road along Main Street to the Academy, the impressive white building on the Ballynahinch Road. I felt at home in this place. The people I met along the street each morning and afternoon were so friendly. Looking back I felt that each day was a sunny day.
And so to school, a small village school of four classrooms. There were three classrooms and a dining room in the main building and P1, taught by Mrs Wallace, was outside in a mobile classroom. Mr Gamble, the headmaster, taught P6 and P7. There was a small office quite close to his classroom. Miss Hay was in the next classroom, a large room for P4 and P5.
My first classroom was next along the corridor. I taught P2 and P3. This was quite a bright room with large windows which had many small panes. It was inclined to be draughty. The school was heated by an anthracite boiler. It had to be stoked during the day in the outside boiler house at the front of the school. This was done by Mr Gamble.
Mrs Shields, the caretaker, came up from her home in Tea Row to start work before school ended at 3pm. She did a great job of cleaning the school and she always had time to chat to everyone. It was great craic!
P.E. lessons were done in the playground which sloped to the main road. There were outdoor toilets for the children. School broadcasting in the 1960s was radio. The radio operated from the headmaster's office and each classroom had a loudspeaker. Eventually we had a black and white television installed in the dining room. In 1964 there was no public library in Saintfield. The Down County School Mobile Library called with books during the year.
This all seems a long way from the 21st Century with its computers, internet links and satellite television but in 1964 the children in Saintfield were as enthusiastic and eager to learn as the pupils in the new Academy Primary School. I look back fondly to 1964 and feel very blessed and privileged that I was able to start my teaching career in such a place as Saintfield Academy.
And so to school, a small village school of four classrooms. There were three classrooms and a dining room in the main building and P1, taught by Mrs Wallace, was outside in a mobile classroom. Mr Gamble, the headmaster, taught P6 and P7. There was a small office quite close to his classroom. Miss Hay was in the next classroom, a large room for P4 and P5.
My first classroom was next along the corridor. I taught P2 and P3. This was quite a bright room with large windows which had many small panes. It was inclined to be draughty. The school was heated by an anthracite boiler. It had to be stoked during the day in the outside boiler house at the front of the school. This was done by Mr Gamble.
Mrs Shields, the caretaker, came up from her home in Tea Row to start work before school ended at 3pm. She did a great job of cleaning the school and she always had time to chat to everyone. It was great craic!
P.E. lessons were done in the playground which sloped to the main road. There were outdoor toilets for the children. School broadcasting in the 1960s was radio. The radio operated from the headmaster's office and each classroom had a loudspeaker. Eventually we had a black and white television installed in the dining room. In 1964 there was no public library in Saintfield. The Down County School Mobile Library called with books during the year.
This all seems a long way from the 21st Century with its computers, internet links and satellite television but in 1964 the children in Saintfield were as enthusiastic and eager to learn as the pupils in the new Academy Primary School. I look back fondly to 1964 and feel very blessed and privileged that I was able to start my teaching career in such a place as Saintfield Academy.
Miss Cole's first class at Academy.
Primary 2/3
June 1965
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