Our school could not function without the work of the non-teaching staff – cleaners, kitchen, admin, janitors and more. They work behind the scenes, before school starts and after the end of the school day.

The post of “Officer and Janitor” was advertised in The Scotsman in 1875: “Wanted, by the Portobello School Board, an Active Married Man, to act as Officer and Janitor. Salary £50. With Free House, Coals, Gas, and Taxes.”

In addition to his janitorial duties (including setting the fires in each of the classrooms) Mr Bennett, the successful candidate, was also ‘Attendance Officer’. As such he would be despatched by the Headmaster to interview parents of pupils who were not attending school (they could be prosecuted if their children continued to be absent).

The Janitor was also the ‘Drill Instructor’. Reflecting in The Tower 1958 on his time at the school from 1892 to 1897, one boy states of Mr McCririe – Mr Bennet’s successor in 1893:

“As an ex-soldier he was well qualified to take over our drill which consisted of marching, turning and wheeling military style in the boys’ playground.”

The janitors from 1952 are in the staff photograph from that year.

Attendance Officer/Drill Instructor had long ceased as janitorial duties by the time of the move to the tower block in 1964. Instead the janitors’ working day would be interrupted every 40 minutes when they had to perform duties as lift operators between school periods.

For alumni that liked the 1973 staff picture, we post some weel-kent faces from the same era, pictured in April 1980.

With Credit to Ian Small