Memories of Juniper Green
by Elspeth Badger

The Day the roof fell in on Juniper Green Primary School

A view of the old school

January 22nd 1986 started just like any other school day at Juniper Green Primary. Some of us were in our classrooms, others were reading in the library when suddenly - CRASH! BANG! the roof of the upstairs cloakroom fell in.

Everyone was really shocked, and some of us were quite scared. Even my teacher, Mrs Whitfield, was shaken: "All we heard was a big bang. All the children got a fright. I rushed to the door of our classroom and what did I see? - a pile of plaster on the floor."

We were told to clear our trays, then taken into the cloakroom to get our bags. Michael Whalen said he was tiptoeing for his coat, and Lisa Kemp was worried because one of her friends couldn't find her rubbers. But Andrew Greig was distracted because just at that moment, his tooth fell out - and he was holding it as he ran up the stairs to get his welly boots.

I remember there was a huge mess in the cloakroom. Christopher Laidlaw described it as "all dusty", Mark Partington noticed "a lot of plaster on the floor" and Lisa Kemp said "the plaster was all over the place". Fraser Sharp was worried what the cleaning lady would think.

We were all taken to the gym hall for the rest of the day. Frances Tonner chatted to her friends about what had happened and Annabel Ingram suggested it might have been caused by a door slamming. Alastair McAdam said the children who'd been in the library didn't know what was going on.

Over the next few days the Primary 3 pupils were moved to their new classrooms - the dining hall for P3a and the huts at the big school for me and the rest of P3b. It was really exciting to be near the older children, but it seems our friends back at the annex soon forgot all about us. Michelle Jackson from P3a said "at playtime I forgot to ask them how they were getting on because I was so busy sliding on the ice".

Gillian Allan wasn't impressed with her new surroundings. "It is rather dull in the dining room. We are trying are best to make it look brighter with paintings and drawings. We are doing quite well". Joanne Fraser said it still didn't look like a classroom because "there are boilers and a cooker and sinks and teapots all around us". Kevin Wheldon noticed that a lot of other teachers needed to use the hall for gym, music, watching TV and eating packed lunches.

The old school was in good shape on gala day 2007 when former pupils were shown around adding to the nostalgia of the day

On February 13th the workmen arrived to fix the cloakroom. They also had to look at the classroom ceilings because cracks had been found there as well. Nicola Cuthbert said there were "bangs and thumps and all sorts of noises from upstairs". Heather Smith thought the workmen were "working very hard" and must be tired. But, Marianne Corben complained they were "leaving dirty footprints down the stairs".

Eventually, the top floor of the annex was declared safe and we all returned to our proper classrooms. We'd been away for several weeks and had enjoyed our little adventure.

The school remained in place even though one of its ceilings had fallen down