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In these days when secondary schools are costing almost
halt a million pounds to erect, it is startling to read that the original
Johnstone Public School was built in Floors Street at a cost of £9,000.
The school was completed in June, 1877, and an old photograph shows a
substantial building impressive with portico and spire.
In these early days, shortly after the introduction of compulsory
education with the Education Act of 1872, the roll of the school was but
450 pupils, a roll which increased steadily until in 1889 it had reached
the figure of almost 1,100. At this date a Minute of the School Board
reports laconically roll of Johnstone Public School now 1,171 - school
overcrowded-pupils in Good Templar Hall."
A similar situation, as the people of Johnstone well know, existed once
more between the years 1960 and 1965 when pupils of Johnstone High School
had to be over spilled to accommodation in the South School, Paisley,
which testifies to the truth of the French proverb " plus ca change, plus
c'est Ia meme chose." However, the earlier overspill arrangements proved
to be inadequate, especially since by 1892 the roll had risen to over
2,000 and the Board then decided to erect a new building, the Ludovic
Square School, which was opened in 1896. From that year until the early
1920's, these two schools, the one in Ludovic Square and the "Old School"
in Floors Street, co-existed under one Headmaster. At this date the old
school was demolished and in its playground was erected as the Primary
Department of the High School of Johnstone what was in those days a modern
building.
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Johnstone, therefore, had at this time a school which provided
education until 1953 for both primary and secondary pupils. In these
intervening years, however, the scope of education, especially in the
secondary field, had broadened immeasurably and changing ideas, changing
curricula and changing techniques of education necessitated the erection
in the playground of additional buildings not only to make possible the
supply of school meals but also to make proper provision for the teaching
of physical education and of a number of practical subjects.
In 1953 it was decided that the requirements of both the primary and
secondary departments could be met only by means of a complete
re-organisation and the Education Authority built a new primary school at
Cochrane Castle into which was transferred the primary department of
Johnstone High School; the latter became exclusively a secondary school
providing education between the ages of 12 and 15 for children coming from
Johnstone, Howwood, Kilbarchan and Linwood.
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The removal of the Primary Department made possible the reconstruction of
certain accommodation within the school to provide art rooms, a library, a
commercial room and a girls' gymnasium all of which had by then become an
imperative necessity if secondary education in its fullest sense was to be
provided within the Burgh.
However, in the event, even this did not prove adequate for the needs of
the situation. The birth-rate increased and, with the arrival of the new
population in the overspill areas of Johnstone Castle and Corseford, it
became clear that future educational requirements could not possibly be
satisfied by the accommodation available in the centre of the town.
The situation was further aggravated by the destruction by fire of the
dining room in 1958 and at the Ludovic Square building in 1960 and,
although the High Parish Church and St. John's Church came to the rescue
most generously by allowing the Education Committee the use of their
Church Halls and although temporary accommodation was provided to replace
much of the accommodation destroyed by fire, it was yet necessary to send
an overspill of five classes to the vacant accommodation in the South
School, Paisley.
It was abundantly clear to the Education Committee that a new secondary
school was urgently required for the Burgh of Johnstone and early in 1959
it was resolved to build this fine new school on the Howwood Road. The
doors of the new building were opened to pupils in March, 1965, and once
more the whole school is able to meet under one roof.
As in the past, the High School of Johnstone will be a comprehensive
school in the sense that it provides both for those of an academic bent
whose eventual goal will be the Scottish Certificate of Education and for
those whose potential is rather with concrete material and who require a
form of education which will equip them to meet the world on its own terms
when the time comes for them to leave school. Meantime, pupils in the
Fourth year of the secondary course are being presented for the Scottish
Certificate of Education in the "O" Grade and in 1965, for the first time,
pupils in their Fifth year are being presented in the Higher Grade in a
modest range of subjects. This new school, planned and equipped generously
for 1,100 pupils, is making and will make a substantial contribution
towards the educational facilities required for the rapidly growing Burgh
of Johnstone and its immediate neighbourhood.
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