Mrs Eileen Vaughan Teacher Longest Serving Member of Teaching Staff
Almost 30 Years!
I remember arriving at John Street hall for my interview, and being very surprised to get the job.
I had a days ‘subbing’ in June and met my new class, I remember meeting the kids and there were a lot of very tall girls in that class. The hall had been, I think a car spare parts show room, and there was plenty of space.
Mrs Caroline Burke got the other teaching job that year and she had 16, P1s and I had, 14 P2/3s.Caroline taught on the other half of the hall. Caroline had been teaching for two years so I watched and learnt from her. P5/P6 and the Nursery were outside in mobiles. We had a reasonable amount of resources, the Parents Council and Governors saw to that. I had a big blackboard and lots of coloured chalk, I think that we had two computers and an old photocopier in the school.
One of my first jobs was to take the older children to the pool for swimming lessons We went to the pool on a Monday afternoon and James Colton drove the mini-bus that had been donated to the school. James was our caretaker, as he had just retired from Dungannon Tech.
The hall also had two small rooms off it. One was a staff room and the other was Lesley Marriot’s office with Esther, the part-time secretary, Anne McEllwaine as classroom assistant. Outside there were two mobiles there was a very small playground.
We had children from Cookstown who came across in the mini-bus as Cookstown didn’t have an Integrated School at that time. Our new school had to build up connections with the community and churches in Dungannon.
The new site had been purchased and was supposed to be ready for September 1990.However there were delays and only the Nursery went there at the start. We went instead to Dungannon Bowling Pavilion for 6 weeks. My class was in the front foyer and all my equipment had to be put away every evening for the bowlers. There was one good sized Committee Room and we agreed to let Mr Moore teach P3/4 in there as he was the new teacher, appointed the previous June.
The new site was ready in Oct 1990 and we arrived to find nice new mobiles. We had a good sized playground as well. The class room were arranged in groups. There was still no Assembly Hall mobile, it arrived later with another new P.4 mobile.
The mobiles were comfortable and well maintained by James. The school grew each in year in numbers and confidence in the school never waned. We had a new class each year and new staff followed.
As the school grew, teachers had to move around classrooms and it always seemed to be me heading to another room. I was permanently packing. I think in six years I moved eight times. My best friend and colleague in those days was James Colton the caretaker, as we packed boxes together and move everything on the red trolley which I think, Mildred still uses to move heavy loads.
I suppose I never really thought about it at all, as it was my first school and I didn’t know any different, but now as I look back the original parents and Governors took a huge leap of faith in Integrated Education, and it very much paid off.
A lot of my early pupils have now become parents returning to Windmill, so times have certainly moved on. Blackboards have become whiteboard, we have computers and iPads, but the commitment and hard work in Windmill has always remained the same.
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