Source: BBC Radio Scottish Learners 2nd Level (BBC Learning) http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/schscot2 schscot2_20131107-0320b.mp3

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/schscot2 schscot2_20131107-0320b.mp3

This is a download from the BBC. For more information about Scottish Learners 2nd Level and other downloads from school radio, go to bbc.co.uk/schoolradio.

Today, we're all going to school. What does a school sound like? What does it smell like? How does it taste, feel, and look? / I can see the computers. / I see / textbook / playground, I can hear / children chatting and shouting / The bell ringing / office ladies / computers, typing away / boys' changing rooms, and girls / probably / smells like socks / changing room sometimes also smells deodorant / hard at work / touch my pencil / touch the computers / typing / brushes and / waterbottle. / That's school life in Scotland today. But what was it like for children in the past? Well, you can find out / history is here for the asking / out / our friends and relations what / remember / school / how did it feel, smell, sound and taste. Anyone for __ school dinner?

/ just like / pie / the meat / glycerin sort of, horrible, and it was overcooked veg / really like, 'cause / taste right / rations / and / to work out / very well / I have no memories of being without anything. I can remember one meal / had / called nuts and bolts / I think / tail of / cow, made into a lovely stew, but it was ... it seemed to be full of bones. / There was no such thing as packed lunches. I think there were three women who served the whole school / lunches / have / traditional / always some kind of tart / that lovely custard that used to get in school, and, it was kind of runny / it wasn't yellow custard / kind of runny and f___. / malted milk / I was in charge of / malted milk / hate / cup / right under / used to make the malted milk and sell it to the other kids, and, that was quite good because / kept me inside / out in the cold / to wash the dishes after. / The janitor made a big pot of soup, and you paid a penny, and / a slice of bread and a plate of soup at lunch time. / We also got free school milk. I didn't particularly like it because, in our case the milk was / by the janitor / hut of his own, and / not / kept behind / heating pipes, so, / had a slightly sort of sour and warm

Mmm. It's amazing what you can learn just by asking people older than you. For example, by asking them what the school smelt like / the smell of school would have been / came into the class / we all had a pint of milk / late morning / Well / upper primary / lobby / smelled urine because / terrible / concrete urinal / so, urine disinfectant / lunch time / boiled cabbage, I guess / I was sure there were more pleasant smells for those / ones / I think / back / our school / always smelt that really horrible smell of cleaning stuff, you know / bleaches /, and always smelt / of urine everywhere / looking back / horrible smell of cleaning stuff. / You could smell / polish, you know, from the floor / just been b__ed. Also smell of / sharpen pencils / electric sharpner / school had a smell probably / front / fish and chips / local shops, and you'd also have this kind of, uh / people / older / toys / so / smell of oil. I always remember / of pocket / much / but, uh, I always remember the smell of the oil / smell of / smell of / magnificent combination. Unbeatable.

The smells of our Scottish school in times gone by / vividly to life. When we ask what could be heard at school / interesting facts to light, too. / I was quite envious / here about all the schools. And we didn't have a school. We had a church hall, a church hall that was divided into three. If / off / desk / that was / much / had / our class, the class beneath, I think, / twelve / within the full class / you would have under 13 / that one room / even / what primary / hear what / taught / what they were doing ... sums and arithmetics, and reading / one of the / if you like / sing / sing / was / Scottish Soldier by Andy Stewart. I remember singing that in class: "There was a soldier, a scottish soldier, ...", Ha ha ha / used to play loads of play __ games like doublers / Chinese / your / on your own / group, and then / and the / really fast / I remember / one, two, three o'clock / really fast / spin / really fast, you have to jump / fast.

some of / playground songs and games enjoyed in past decades. Do you have any games or songs like that? Something that definitely has changed is what you are holding in your hands when you are writing. / My very very first writing meterial was literally / little slate and chalk / first sum / one / two and two / four / I don't know, about ten inches / by a foot / because paper was quite expensive, and / threw that away / you could just / we used tongue / clear the slate, we used tongue, and your elbow to dry it. ... That's true. / We had slates. We didn't have __ __ pencils. We had slates, and, we sometimes used / and then / brought them

What about the language that you hear at school? Are there different languages and dialects / your classroom / This certainly wasn't always the case. / happier / we could talk freely in the / not to / it was frowned upon if you said "aye". You don't say "aye". You say "yes". / In the time before I went to school, I spoke Gaelic all the time. Gaelic was / home / went into that classroom, it suddenly / in English / myself and / and / two pals / leave school, we would speak in Gaelic, but / within the classroom, / always / English

Now, / Scotland / different languages are encouraged in the school, but not in the past. People who were / provided for / I didn't really enjoy primary school very much. I think that the difficulty for me was a lot of the teachers didn't really understand that I had very poor vision. / back then / lesson books / quite big, I was OK. But, as you go through the school, the print / get / much smaller than the / and I stuggled / ten year old / always amazed me that some teachers didn't seem to understand the fact that / read, I just couldn't see. And / end up putting me in a class for children who they thought were / about because I was writing about / really terrible / was / belt / big leather belt. ... Some / teachers / what class / what room / He never used the belt. He / just bring it / about / wouldn't / pick up my ___ / bring it back to me / brought it back / as well / always strap / you couldn't even help some of the times that you did / maybe / your / right / got / you got strapping. / couldn't get / until you / because you / one / because they ... they believe in punishment. If / educate / not / play about /

Ouch. That's certainly one way in which schools are less painful today. What else can you find out about school / past? / just have to get a sense of history.

When school is over, it's time for holidays. What / sound, taste, feel and look like? / I can see the sea, c___ boats, sand ... / I can / in America. / I can hear seagulls. / I can hear the sound of musical parades in the street / the sound of engines when we were driving down / splashing of the swimming pools and the sea / taste fresh / like fizzy drinks / hot dogs are / but tastes better / icecream / air / I can feel the heat, and I can feel the warm water. / I can feel the sun beating down on to my skin.

Did any of that sound familiar to you? Well, what we / hear / now might not. / were enjoyed, or weren't enjoyed / years gone by. / You can ask your family and / holiday / used to be like for them. History is there for the asking / first, listen to the ___ memories of the sounds / sights / childhood holidays.

/ docks on the ferry / quite an exciting way to approach any / this huge extraordinary / come across / just the air taste different. The sounds / real / industry / but just that constant noise of traffic ... that, I think, / way / same as / know at home. / We would occasionally go and visit / main town about 20 miles away / that was / bus journey / big adventure / massive, massive town / we had no trees where we lived because / landscape / window / no trees / I also remember of driving in / sitting in the bus / things / sun / through them. / Some of / very scary, you know / remember / first time / excited every time / double-decker bus / and the way / spoke / the fact that / each other ... that kind of stuff / unusual / really popular / day / when caravan / toilet in them, and / really boring.

Exciting. Scary. Boring. The holidays in the past sound better than holidays now. Did anyone go abroad? / Only Pakistan / I just remember the heat / absolutely hot, really really hot / air condition / 70's / first thing / hit / smell of ___y, gutty smell / something to do with / soil, I think. / associate with, maybe / back to / homeland / never went anywhere on holiday, actually / horrible / school break / everybody / Florida, or they'd been away and / been anywhere / enough / you don't get away like that because that's the baddest time / also / even / you were very small, you / make some m__ or something like that, you just didn't have holidays. / One other thing I remember was / holidays / picked up at six o'clock in the morning / picked potatos all day. back-breaking work / we were paid / hansome sum / one / was doing / definitely, and that was hard work / never been / like that / places like that / sometimes on train. It depends. / drove down / a couple of matresses thrown in the back / back / kids and everybody / walls / first time we went out / Egypt / stopped over in Cairo, and then / onto Carachi / time / and / from Carachi / a long / bus journey, car journey / families from / much / feel / just / and that was it.

So, holidays were duty for some. For others there were no holidays / work to be done. But there were some Scottish children / them away

Off we went for a month / letting house / very often / the excitement in / getting nearer and nearer to / engine used to hoot as we / corner into / the place we / go / would / across the __ railbridge / and that was the most exciting thing in the world / 1961 / lean out of the windows of the train / railbridge / girders and girders and girders and yet more girders / rumbled / biggest noise that any ten-year-old / wish for / smell the scent of the steam / smoke coming from the train/ smell the sea as you went / sense of travel which you don't have nowadays, and, / vivid impression of going much further away / actually were. You / maybe ten miles / across the river / but it seemed like you were entering a different kingdom. / It was always / a lot of speculation / names, and sometimes / everybody was dead happier / Scotsmen. So / everybody was dead happy / going / where the smell of / really strong / because / behind the station / and / w__ was just big and smelly, and sooty, and noisy, and exciting. / I remember that one of the highlights of summer would be a visiting carnival. It stayed a week / every / smell / diesel fumes, really from the generators from the lorries / I remember rightly was / smells like almost / almost a fire / sparks off the __ cars / And of course the music was always loud / lots of people / small transistor portable radios / earlier / on the beach. But, in the sixties, the sound of the beaches / full of people listening to __, transistor radios. Fantastic invention / remember / going across because that was a place / not only the smell of the sea, which was very very strong, but there was a wonderful smell of fish and chips / tea room / my dad / brought in / kebabs, camomi__ kebabs, and / didn't tell us / fish / happened / everywhere / great aroma of fish and chips / little cafe selling icecream / majority of __ people didn't go to the beach / in summer / Glasgow holiday makers / In fact, one particular icecream Italian shop closed / Glasgow Fair started, and remained closed until Glasgow Fair was finished.

Do any of those holiday memories make you wish / holiday now / what can you find out / in the past / You just have to ask to get a sense of history.