PE teacher hangs up her trainers after 30 years
A POPULAR teacher, who has taught in Lochgilphead for nearly 30 years, has hung up her trainers.
Principal teacher of PE at Lochgilphead Joint Campus Elizabeth Carver, 64, spent almost all her life learning or teaching in schools in Argyll. She retired at the end of term and is still getting used to the idea. ‘I just feel although I’m on holiday,’ she said.
Over the 28 years she spent teaching in Lochgilphead, 14 of them as principal teacher, Elizabeth saw some big changes. She said: ‘The biggest change is in the qualifications the children get.
‘It was a big change going to the new school as it was a campus.’
When she began teaching in Lochgilphead the school had accommodated both primary and secondary students before they split into separate schools.
Lochgilphead Campus was then built to accommodate all children from preschool to 18. Elizabeth explained this came with the added benefit of better sports facilities, ‘The astro (sports pitch) was good.
‘It was much busier because it was a shared facility.’
Elizabeth spent five years teaching in Edinburgh before coming back home to Lochgilphead due to family circumstances. ‘I didn’t come back to teach in Lochgilphead at all, that just happened. My heart was still here so it was an easy thing to do,’ said Elizabeth.
She thinks PE has a very important place in the curriculum although she admits she may be biased when she says it’s the most important subject. ‘We probably see (the children) more consistently than any other teacher.
‘You get to know what they’re like a bit more. It’s different from when they’re sitting at a desk’.
At different times, she took children on school trips in Europe and America and she fondly remembers travelling to play hockey in Holland and skiing in mountains of the United States of America.
Before leaving the school, she was given the honour of hosting the school’s prize giving. She said: ‘It was lovely. I really enjoyed the prize giving. I felt quite honoured to be doing that.’
On the last day her long service was recognised and she was presented with a quaich on behalf of the school.
Her enthusiasm for sport shows no sign of waning and she enjoyed every minute of watching Andy Murray win Wimbledon. She said: ‘It was absolutely fantastic. He never put a foot wrong. It was just superb.’