Dounans 2010

Photo: Early morning run...well worth getting up for!
Camp fire.

Just back from my 6th visit to Dounans with all the 150+ Primary 7's in the Dunbar cluster from what was another great week for all. My main duty was to make a film so I got to spend most of the week filming and photographing everyone. Sadly this meant I missed out on taking part in some of the hair raising activities but had fun watching kids do it. The pecking order is well and truly adjusted after Dounans. The quiet kid nobody bothered with at school suddenly turns out to be the bravest and actually has a good sense of humour. Whilst those kids others once looked up to are brought down a peg or two because their 'hard man' image is actually revealed as being very superficial when they bottle it on the flying fox.
For a change there were plenty of blokes on camp (note I was careful not to say camp blokes!). This is good as one failing of primary education is the lack of men involved in it. I think boys and girls need some male role models and it is no wonder boys have a tough time in education when they are only taught by women. There are lots of very good women teachers in all the schools I work in but I think a few male teachers would compliment their efforts, and vice versa. One of the dads there joined me in doing an early morning run with anyone who wanted to join us. 16 turned up for day 1 but we got the impression some were just following the crowd. So on day 2 on of the lads decided to create a route that went around the campsite a few times to help lose those incapable of running further. It worked a treat and we had 12 runners who made it up to the David Marshall Lodge. Day 3 and everyone is knackered. However we were joined by one lad and another teacher and they were rewarded with the best views all week. The sun and mist combo looking up the valley to Stirling made that trip well worth it.
So another year passes by. The first lot I went to Dounans with are now in 5th year. How quickly it passes by but each time with fond memories.

30 Years of Hurt Over

With the World Cup coming up people living in the UK (minus Scotlanders and probably the Welsh and Northern Irish too) are getting excited about the dream of England bring back the World Cup. Here in Dunbar where all support will be for anyone playing England, excitement over another cup has been brimming.

The East Lothian Primary Schools athletics competition is a shield highly coveted in these parts. Each year the primary schools fight it out in the Commonwealth Games stadium at Meadowbank. For the last nine years Law Primary School have been victors, only just clinching it last year by 5 points. So things had to change and I joined Mrs Lyle the PE teacher and one or two parents in trying to train up our Dunbar squad and get them fit for a win. For around 6 weeks these kids have worked their socks off and proved in training they can do well. The girls however have not quite developed that competitive spirit. They are just too nice. However, some tactical moves such as bringing in some younger competition to training and one of Mr Robertson's power blasting motivational team talks seems to have done the trick.

The big day arrived and Team Dunbar had a tough day ahead. Not only were Law after a win, Campie were also a real threat too. I had volunteered to help with the high jump indoors, so I was missing out on the other field events. At high jump I was aghast to discover many schools only teach the scissor jump. Needless to say the 2 Dunbar lads (Andrew being one of them) who have almost mastered the Fosbury Flop both won their category's. On the track things were going well for the P6's doing the 80 and 150 m. Andrew had a terrible run at the 80m, with no less than 6 false starts caused by the ref. He was rattled and managed to save his energy and get it together for the 4 x 100m relay. As the mornign passed by it was all too close for comfort with Campie winning events, then Dunbar and then Law. Worse still, Law were getting 2nd place when we won, so it was all a bit tense.

These events are usually decided on the relay where double poitns are up for grabs. We had considered the tactical move of using all fresh legs for the relay final, but some of our girls sprinters had suddenly found a competitive edge and were loving it. In fact both grils age categories stormed to victory. The lads had to settle with 2nd place in both races. They did nothing wrong, it was just they were up against faster opponents. Andrew made up for his 80m nightmare and absolutely hammered it home in both the heat and the final.

So the big moment arrived. The results. 'Campie 3rd'....said Mr McKenzie on the tannoy.....2nd place..........Law. My eardrums nearly burst at the squeals of delight behind me. Finally the shield was with Dunbar. We have not appeared on it for 29 years, but some folk think we did win it in 1980, which would be good as one of the mums of the girls would have been in that team. Hats off to Law for their long reign, and I suspect they will bounce back next year with a stronger squad. However the credit has to go to the kids who really did work hard and deservedly took back the shield.