A DOORS Open Day held at Mount Florida Primary School became a history lesson after the event attracted an unusual former pupil.

Helen Harrison, 86, who was first through the door at the session held on Saturday, September 15, was born in the janitor’s house and lived there until the age of 15 when her caretaker grandfather retired.

Helen, who now lives in Netherlee, said: “I was born in the house and when my grandmother died in 1935 my parents gave up their own house and moved in with him.

“The school was much stricter then; we didn’t realise it at the time but that’s the way it was. We didn’t dare talk in class, but they were good teachers.

“I remember the headmaster coming round and showing us on the blackboard how to write properly.

“It was lovely growing up in the school. After school finished at 4pm and no one was in the playground my friends would come round and we had the whole place to ourselves.

“As soon as I stepped into the school again I felt as if I was coming home.”

Christina Hawkins, 80, travelled from her home in Cumbernauld to attend the Doors Open Day at Mount Florida Primary School.

She started the school in 1944 at the age of seven, after spending two years at another local primary because Mount Florida had been requisitioned for soldiers.

Despite leaving the school in 1949, Christina has vivid memories of being a student at Mount Florida.

She said: “Every morning a teacher would play the piano and we would march into the school; we marched everywhere in those days.

“We also had to take a gas mask to school and practise putting them on so we’d know what to do if there was a raid.”

She added: “It’s amazing that the school is still standing and is in good order.

“All the modern facilities it has now will keep it going for a good number of years more.

“My sons went to school in Cumbernauld and their school has been demolished. Even my grandchildren’s school in Cumbernauld has gone.

“It is a shame that they won’t have the same memory bank to draw on as me.”

Not all of the former pupils had such fond memories. Some, who had attended the primary school in the 1940s and 1950s, recalled one teacher, Miss Savage, as being particularly stern.

Bert Jackson, 77, described how pupils were forced to have their lunch outside of the school when the soldiers were still stationed there. He said: “We got a token every day to go for the tram and have our dinner at Holmlea Primary School and hell mend us if we lost it.

“Miss Savage would take us to the headmaster.”

Tours of the school were given during the Doors Open Day, which also featured a Victorian tea room, old fashioned games and an exhibition about the school’s history.

Mount Florida Primary School dates from 1897 and was designed for the Cathcart School Board by respected architectural practice H&D Barclay whose notable buildings include Glasgow Academy, St Georges in the Field Church in the Woodside area of the city, Lamlash Church on the Isle of Arran, and the Category B-listed David Stow building at Jordanhill Campus.

The school, which recently underwent an £1.2 million refurbishment as part of Glasgow City Council’s schools programme, counts Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, the late weather presenter Ian McCaskill and movie star Stan Laurel among its former pupils.

A coloured glass ceiling, which also doubles as the floor of the school gym, featured in the 1996 film Small Faces.

More than 400 visitors attended the Doors Open Day event, which was organised by the Mount Florida Primary Parent Partnership.