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Recollections 1. Stephen McMahon Munich, Germany |
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Thank you to Stephen McMahon, now living in Germany, who wrote telling me about certificates he had found, awarded to him at Prizegiving Ceremonies in the 1960s, in the 'Wee Hall' at Stenhouse Primary School Stephen wrote: |
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Stenhouse Primary School Brooke Bond Certificate Junior Art - 1968 "Here is my Brooke Bond National School Awards Certificate, 1968. I vaguely remember having to do 'something fancy' with a really ancient pen and ink to win this prize. The pen was either my first fountain pen (which cost about £1. I saved for months to get it) or it was a nibbed affair that I had to dip into an inkwell. I think I copied and illustrated a poem - fancy handwriting and picture. Junior Art. This might explain why I do what I do now." |
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Classes "When I was in Primary 5b1, I was awarded a Certificate of Merit (not illustrated, but similar to the one below awarded two years later.) I think the '1' part of '5b1' stood for the Easter intake of 5-year-olds (my birthday is in January so I was allowed to start school in spring. My special Easter gift was my schoolbag! The other kids, who started school in September were the '2' group. The 'b' part of 5b1 probably referred to which part of the group you were in. In the 1960s, there were a lot of kids around so classes were often split." |
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Certificate of Merit 1967-68 "When I was awarded this Certificate of Merit, I was in Primary ex 7a1. The'1' part of the class left primary school at the end of the Winter/Easter term to attend secondary school. That's why I'm '1' and 'ex'. I had to come back to primary school to collect this certificate AND my Junior Art certificate - chuffed! I was a pupil at Trinity Academy Prep School, at the time housed in the (since demolished) buildings at Bangholm - which, I think, had been the home of Trinity Academy Primary School before it moved to new buildings opposite the Senior School next to Victoria Park in Trinity). I remember feeling like the, errm ... 'nether regions of a male canine creature' when my name was called and I rose to collect the certificates, wearing my new school uniform. I won the prizes for being 2nd in Maths, 2nd or 3rd in English and 1st in Religious Knowledge, which I won 3 years in a row from P5 to P7. That explains why I had three Bibles!" |
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Stephen McMahon, Munich, Germany: December 15, 2008 |
