Your story – Heather Scott

What are your memories of university/college?

I was going to go to teacher training college straight from school but because of lack of work I failed my ‘A’ Levels so I joined the WRAF instead. I did eventually go to college after I was married, I had a year left to go on my six year engagement in the WRAF so started looking around for another job but as I was still interested in teaching I decided to apply to teacher training college got accepted so left the WRAF after completing only five of my six years.

I went to Bedford College of Higher Education completing a three year B.Ed degree, it was a pass or fail course, I decided not to stay on to do the extra fourth year for the honours level. Bedfordshire schools at that time operated the first school, middle school and upper school educational system, so they were the levels that Bedford offered for training, I trained as a first school teacher from age three up to age seven, although when I left I ended up teaching secondary maths. It was a modula course and alongside the modules that were compulsory we had to take, I think, six modules for our main subject/s during the first year, decreasing for subsequent years, I took Maths, Geography, and Youth and Community during the first year, dropping Youth and Community for the second year and then geography for my final year.

We were both serving at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire when I left the WRAF and living in our own house in St Ives, just a few miles down the road from Wyton, which is why I applied to colleges in the area, Bedford was about 45 minutes drive up the A1 from St Ives so I was able to live at home and drive in each day.  In the October Andrew was sent temporarily to Western Super Mare to work on the Green Goddesses (old RAF fire engines) during the firemans strike that went on for several months then, in the new year he was promoted and posted to RAF Manston in Kent so for most of the time during my three years I was living alone. I tried to change to a college in Canterbury, they were willing to accept me but I would have had to repeat my first year again so I decided to stay put which is just as well as Andrew was accepted for aircrew training and during my second year he started on the aircrew basic training course at RAF Finningley near Doncaster then continued onto the air engineer course also at Finningley.

I remember one of the maths lectures, I can’t remember his name but his ethnicity was Italian or Spanish and he thought he was gods gift to women, he was good looking but quite short.  Our course had a lot of mature students, mainly female, on it and he played up to them with a lot of them thinking he was wonderful and showing it but, people like him just turn me cold and unfortunately I also showed it, so did a friend of mine, Linda Stewart, so for three years during our maths lectures he would totally ignore both Linda and myself.  At a party at the end of our third year Andrew and I were with a group of people talking and this lecturer walked over to the group and positioned himself in front of me with his back to me so that he could talk to the others, it was so obvious, Andrew wanted to speak to him about his behaviour but I said he wasn’t worth it and to ignore him.

I graduated from Bedford College in 1980, as I said previously, it was a degree course but  a three year pass or fail or you could stay on for a fourth year to upgrade to honours.   As Andrew, on graduation from his course, was being posted down to Witlshire and we had already spent three years apart I didn’t feel the need to continue for a fourth year, so started looking for a teaching post in Wiltshire, primary posts were few and far between at the time so I applied for posts teaching maths in secondary schools which is how I ended up as a maths teacher, although I did teach at primary level later on when I went back as a supply teacher.