not been appointed Mrs. Mauchiine, like Mrs. Findlay earlier, frequently took

over until an appointment was made. Staff changes were frequent and were

not in the best interests of the pupils, as was often pointed out by the

inspectors. In the report of 1908 the inspectors wrote, ‘the school has the

good fortune having its present staff’. In 1909 after praising the school at

Strathkinness the report went on to say, ‘and in point of attendance, too, the

school has few equals in the county’.

In 1908 the Education Department reminded the School Board that they

were obliged to do certain things and informed them that ‘The following

articles for effective instruction may be provided at once: 1. Kinder garten

apparatus:— Boxes of letters, etc. Modelling clay’.

The School Board replied that they ‘do not think extra kinder garten

material is essential. They have enough already’. As he had asked the School

Board to improve the heating, Mr. Mauchline may have exaggerated when he

said that in winter the children could hardly hold their pens for cold, and one

year he said that it would be cruel to have the children do modelling because

of the chilblains on their hands. The School Board thought the temperature

was adequate, disagreeing with Mr. Mauch line when he said the average tempera-

ture was around 480. Mr. Mauchline did not get on with either of the two local

School Board members, who were supposed to deal directly with him. There

was a great deal of personal animosity between them and him, and this could

well have been a cause of the lack of supply and the frequent delays in carrying

out the Education Department’s requests.

A new schoolmaster’s house was eventually built, in 1905, after continued

pressure from the Education Department and the Sanitary Inspector of the

St Andrews District Council had reported the old one was a health hazard. One

member of the Board felt that it could continue to be patched up — as it had

been for years. Some ill-feeling was aroused, and a report in the St. Andrews

Citizen criticising the decision to build a new house, on the grounds that it

was not necessary and would be a burden on the ratepayers, was believed to

have been written by a member of the School Board, though he denied it.

While the new house was being built, Mr. and Mrs. Mauchline lived in a house

rented from Mr. Thom.

When Mrs. Sarah Turner, wife of the Free Church minister, was elected

to the School Board in 1911, there was for the first time, except perhaps for

Dr. McKay who, several times at least expressed concern, somebody on the

Board who was positively interested in the school and the school children.

She often viiited the school, and soon after her election she wrote in the log

book (which niembers of the Board were supposed to sign) ‘much gratified

with what I have seen’. She continued to be a concerned member of the Board

and set up a Care Committee to try to help children to find jobs, both in the

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