Early on in 1996 the History Group realised that the school was nearing it's 100th anniversary and something had to be done to mark that occasion, we really felt that we couldn't let it slip by without doing something about it.
Feelers were put out to the school and all the village organisations to see how they felt about it and happily everyone was in agreement, something had to be done.
A committee of interested people was formed;
from the Local History Group came David & Rona Leask, Mrs Stewart (teacher) Maddiston School, Lianne and Alana from Maddiston School Pupil Council, Mary Gibb from Maddiston Gala Day Committee, Esther Fowler from Maddiston School Parents Association, Sandra Peretto from Family Centre, Maddiston Ian McNiven from Maddiston Community Centre, Lorna Wilson from Maddiston Community Council, Alex Fowler from Falkirk Council, Janette Hunter from Maddiston Guides, Andrew McDermott from Muiravonside Church and James Wilson a former Headmaster at Maddiston School.
We gathered every month at the school to work out what we would do for the celebration and how to finance it, the National Lottery Fund refused to help, and it must be said that if it wasn't for the generosity of local people (ex pupils) and businesses the centenary might never have happened.
The old tried and trusted fund raising standards were trailed out in the village again, the Local History Group put on slide shows, a street collection was held, raffles and disco's and begging letters to every local business were sent out, the response was great. As we were celebrating 100 years of the school a lot of the work fell upon the History Group who were the only group who could put together some sort of history of the village so we decided that a selection of our photographs with relevant information should be set up in the old cookery room along with a "period" tea room. The Scottish banks were good enough to help with their histories and the Post Office too gave us information to help with the exhibition. We tried hard to find the schoolchildren from Glasgow who had been evacuated to Muiravonside Parish to no avail, despite newspaper articles and an appeal on Radio Scotland no one came forward (except one lady who'd been evacuated to Wallacestone school).
The committee decided that we should try and let the children know what life was like in and out of the school 100 years ago, Mr Wilson arranged to stage a Victorian classroom which the children would visit at some time during the celebration and a lady called Tricia Cook would produce a short costume drama in front of the assembled children on the day.
Things began to take shape and we suddenly had an Agenda, the centenary would run over three days, the 9th 10th and 11th of September, the children learned songs and rhymes and each class entertained their parents and grandparents on the first two days, the History group held it's exhibition downstairs and the ladies dressed up to run the tea room, well over 250 people actually went upstairs to see the children perform their set pieces and view the Victorian Classroom and well over 250 people came to the exhibition downstairs without venturing up into the school.
On the Centenary day itself the children would all visit the Victorian classroom to see what lessons were like when the school first opened. In the Afternoon an assembly would be held with invited guests (Lord and Lady Ewing of Kirkford, Mr Young (Director Of Education), Rev Stanley Hall, Captain Woudenberg S.A., Representatives from Local Organisations Michael Connarty M.P. and the Centenary Committee. A cake was cut by Mrs Annie Brown the oldest surviving pupil of Maddiston School and James Skelton who was the youngest pupil, prizes were handed out for the designer of the best poster about the centenary and the winners of the "100 pennies for the 100 years" competition. Each child was presented with a commerative mug in the school colours -complete with ribbon as their grandparents would have had to go round their shoulder- and various little things before being led outside to a street party where they were entertained by "Crooked Jack's Summer Holiday Show", who had the children (and the adults) in stitches in no time. The children joined in the songs with gusto and were doubled up in laughter by the antics of their "CAT" Sam the Skull ( a well known Glasgow variant of the common domestic variety). Alex Fowler and I released helium filled balloons all of which had a tag with one of the childrens names on for a balloon race, most of them stayed in Scotland but we got one back from Scandinavia.
All in all it was worth the hassle and heartbreak that working on a committee brings, differences of opinion came and went and things ran amazingly well, when the time came, and most of all, the children enjoyed themselves and that's what it was all about when it came down to it.