Aberlady
The present Aberlady primary school was opened in 1931 with a roll of 126 pupils under the headmastership of Alex Ross, who remained in office until 1960. In 1945 there were two assistant teachers and 119 pupils, including 39 evacuees from Mayfield House Girls' School, who lived at Luffness House until their return to Edinburgh the following year. 10 candidates sat the Qualifying Exam or 'Quali' (soon renamed the Promotion Exam) in 1945, and a record 22 in 1959. In 1947 there was a summer outing to the Three Lochs, the first school trip since 1939, with a reassuring ratio of 29 adults to 44 pupils! A visiting schoolmaster from Grenada in 1946 recorded his impressions in the logbook - 'a happy and orderly little school.'
It could not, of course, be all 'sweetness and light'. Attendance was quite badly affected throughout the 1940s and 1950s by outbreaks of infectious diseases, including whooping cough, scarlet fever, chicken pox, mumps and measles. Immunisation against diphtheria continued at least until 1952, to be followed by anti-polio vaccinations in the later 1950s. As late as 1967, a quarter of the pupils were off school with measles. Monthly 'cleanliness inspections' by the school nurse were a regular feature during these and subsequent years.
Weather too could affect the smooth running of the school. When the roads were blocked by snow in the severe winter of 1947 and 32 pupils were absent, it is recorded that Miss Jane Havery, with commendable devotion to duty, walked to school twice from Gullane. When she retired in 1954, Miss Havery had served Aberlady school for 36 years, and was a living link with the earlier school that once occupied part of the Kilspindie Hotel site in Main Street.