Craigie High School was built in 1970. It was built by Charles Gray (who I later went on to work for) and the contract sum was £ 935,000. My sister and I had been at Eastern which was the feeder school for Grove, but due to proximity we were put to Craigie. The school was opened amidst much fanfare as a glowing model for comprehensive education. The press was awash with stories about a language laboratories etc. and it was supposedly the best of the best. The image below was typical of the hype, and shows me sitting front left. When I graduated TQFE from Strathclyde in the early 1990s, the lecturers were still raving about the merits of the comprehensive system, reinforcing their hatred of the grammar school system, IQs, Sir Cyril Burt and anything else that was not leftist theory at every opportunity. So some things haven’t changed much.
6 years is a long time to spend in a school, but as far as I can recall the open day yesterday was the first time I’d been back in the place since I left in 1976. Physics was easily my best subject, and I was particularly interested in seeing the physics lab, the technical department where I did Engineering science, Maths and of course the playground and playing fields where I spend most of my time playing football.
Unfortunately the Physics class was locked, as was Mr. Evans’ Maths class and Mr. Elder’s Engineering Science class. Pity. I did see English and History; although I achieved a Higher in both I was not at all interested in the former and only marginally interested in the latter at the time. I regret that now. Anyway the above Chemistry lab was the nearest I got to seeing what I was really interested in.
A wee trip to PE and I had Wilma (my wife of 40 years) pose for a photo. She was at Craigie but we did not meet there, we met after we had left. I won the Chess prize and played for Dundee schools, but sadly wasn’t interested in PE much at the time. My interest in organised football came later, paying for the Abertay Uni side then the same Amateur side in Dundee for nearly 20 years. although I played for various Sunday sides as well.
Yesterday I was free to wander about the place, and was in areas I’d previously never seen, such as the Home Economics Dept. Back in the day you didn’t wander about : if you were wandering about in an area of the school where you shouldn’t have been, you got belted. Simple as that. So it was novel to see some of the areas of the schools I’d never seen before.
Wandering around the place I did notice the workmanship. The facing brickwork was superb, as was the internal joinery work. The fact it stood the test of time is testimony to the specification and workmanship.
The above shows the corridor of the Technical Department, with woodwork shown below. Hasn’t changed at all.
I also came across the art department, a department I spent very little time in, but now represents one of my primary interests. And I found this glorious array of books. Well nearly – there is one by Martin Parr!
Back then teachers ran clubs; I was into chess and photography. I thought I was decent at Chess until I played Paul Motwani (St Saviours) and Colin McNab (Harris) – and was firmly put in my place. Paul became the first grandmaster in Scotland, and Colin the second! I wish I’d paid more attention to the photography, I wouldn’t have wasted 50 years producing rubbish (although some judges would contend I still do!)
Anyway it was a fun little trip down memory lane; unfortunately I didn’t meet anyone from our year. Craigie was not one of “the” Dundee schools as it were but there were good teachers and I didn’t do too badly. I have fond memories of the place. A happy day.
Iain Cathro Photography 