School days are the happiest days of your life!

ME - Kirkintilloch High School, age 16 in Bill Keys' Certificate of 6th Year Studies English (CSYS) class.

When I say class, there were only two of us, me and my friend Sharon, and in the end there was only me!!

Sharon and I had fought with the school to let us do the course. The school weren't keen as there were only the two of us and it involved 3 teachers to teach the various aspects of the course. We convinced them though and in September 1983 we began the course, only for Sharon to decide she was leaving school at Christmas leaving me on my own to complete it!

And I loved it! English and Art were my favourite subjects so getting to do this intensive course, with the full attention of 3 fantastic teachers was amazing!

Mrs Holmes covered literature and chose the novels of Thomas Hardy so I was immersed in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd and The Mayor of Casterbridge. As a result I have always longed to visit Dorset but haven't quite managed it yet.

Mr Galbraith (newly qualified and tall, dark and very handsome....swoon!) covered playwrights and chose Bertolt Brecht. I studied the Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Threepenny Opera (with its well known character Mack the Knife) and The Good Woman of Szechwan. He made these plays come alive and instilled in me a love of character.

Mr Keys (Bill) covered poetry and originally chose the works of John Donne but not long into the course work the Head Teacher decided that John Donne's writings were a tad risqué for a 1 - 1 teaching situation so Bill introduced me to Shakespeare's sonnets instead....and I loved them so much we also squeezed in MacBeth and Hamlet too - obviously they're not poems but I wasn't complaining!

This pic was taken in one of Bill's Friday afternoon CSYS English classes as I am dressed casually rather than in uniform (Duran Duran t-shirt under man's jumper and that's a Japan badge attached to the bottom of the V-neck!!)

I remember it so well. We were in the little room beside the school library, drinking coffee with Mrs Prout, the school librarian and eating Chocolate violets that she had brought from Goodfellow and Stevens in Broughty-Ferry. Ah those were the days! I am sure I will find my CSYS dissertation when we clear out the loft shortly. :-))

I am happy to say I gained my CSYS English but sadly the lure of earning a wage led me into paid employment on leaving school instead of going to Uni to study English Lit / Creative Writing.

Maybe one day I'll go back and get that degree!

Chooooon! :-))