1940 -1996: Pupils of Kilquhanity - Case Study 1
Boy aged 8 1/2 years.
October 1965 Meeting - County Medical Officer
I understand the parent has discussed with you the possibility of his son, being admitted to Kilquhanity House School. The Education committee have accepted my report showing that the boy should be considered in need of special educational treatment because of dyslexia, and recommending the provision of continuous and individual remedial teaching.
The Psychiatric Hospital has suggested that such teaching might be given at Kilquhanity. The Education Committee have authorised me to ask if you would accept this boy as a pupil. . .
There is no doubt that the boy is a true dyslexic and it may be that he will never be able to read fluently despite his high intelligence quotient. It is his father's hope that the boy will someday take up rural employment such as farming or forestry.
Both "you"s refer to JohnAitkenhead, Master of K|ilquhanity.
November 1965 Meeting - County Medical Officer
There does seem to be a great deal more interest in dyslexia in recent years, not so much because of the numbers of children involved as the very real problem of helping those who are dyslexic. The pace in Scotland is being made by Dr. T. T. S. Ingram, who has become greatly interested in non-communicating children.
November 1965 Meeting - 4 days later - Senior Assistant Psychologist
His mental age was 8 years 10 months while his chronological age was 7 years giving an I.Q. of 127.
November 1965 Teacher at his school
Disability in reading has been the principal handicap. He is a very likeable little boy with a very friendly disposition, but . . . lacks self-reliance, and is still somewhat babyish and immature.
In class he can be extremely inattentive and must be treated with marked firmness. no amount of compulsion will make him work; firm persuasion seems to be the only effective method.
I myself am pleased that he is being given the opportunity of a Kilquhanity education. Knowing a little of what you have achieved in the past, I am convinced he will benefit.
Again, the "you" refers to John Aitkenhead.
John Aitkenhead
The boy at KilquhanityAs noted above the boy was referred to Kilquhanity over concerns relating to his dyslexia. At that time in the 1960s Dyslexia was not ‘recognised’ as a condition by many mainstream State Schools.
Throughout his nine years at Kilquhanity he made great progress with his language skills and confidence such that on leaving school he entered Drama College and became a professional actor.
The School’s Broadsheet Newspaper has many contributions from him demonstrating his creativity and language skills. I have added several, but not all, of these below.
1966 Broadsheet No. 93
I am a WildcatI was born in the Highlands near Ullapool. It was a small cave in a cliff. It was a nice warm cave. I had no brothers or sisters. Every so often my mother went out hunting, but I did not go out of the cave yet. After some time I was able to go out of the cave. I wandered into Ullapool. I wandered along the road and everyone was scared of me. I came to a house with black shutters and a black door. But the door was open and I walked in. Inside I saw a witch. She closed the door and started chasing me because she wanted a new cat. I jumped onto a shelf and knocked over some spells which turned her into a toad. Then I went home.
1968 Broadsheet No 143
The Gun Game
The Gun Game was organised mainly by James and Alistair straight after Sunday lunch. James and Tex were captains. Tex took his team off to the Deer Forest to dig in and 21 minutes later our side set off. Half-way up to Square Point we turned off up past Walton Park Farm. Keeping close to the wall we sneaked up to a gate where James split us up into groups of two. A. and I went off to the left where we split up. Five minutes later the sound of two shots broke the silence.
Next moment Tex and Smid broke cover. I shot them both, then I moved on up the hill. Seeing no more of the enemy I waited behind a rock. Over to my right I saw A. creeping up a mound. I advanced again and saw Robert and Danny silhouetted on top of a hill. I shot them both but they were tigged. Before I could find cover they shot me. I had to wait till I counted 500. I was told to go down the hill. By then the battle was in full swing. At ten to five, 16 wounded soldiers were on their way back to Killy.
Broadsheet No 159 1969
October Morning
I am sitting in Patch's field
On the hut,
With the pig grunting,And Patch munching,With the wind blowing in the trees,And the poor sheep wandering aboutGrazing on the hills across the Urr,And beside the Bluebell Wood.I see a hareBut now it's gone.The birds I hear all around meAnd still the wind blows.
1971 Broadsheet No 187 1971
Tom Burgess: Captive of the Press Gang
I am a young man of 18 years. My name is Thomas Burgess. I was born in Dumfries, in the Vennel, in 1757, and a year ago I was pressed into the navy, into the service of King George II. I had been in a public house on the White Sands, and was going home after having two pints of beer, when I heard someone following me. I looked round and I saw two men, and they started running at me. One had a club. I ran too, but in vain. The man with the club sprang forward. My head went black. The next thing I knew I was aboard a big man o'war with a sore head . . .
This is the start of a 2000 word serial by the boy. It lasted over several issues of the Broadsheet.
Hard News
End of Term Concert
On Friday Bill's Drama Group and Richard's Music Group gave us an evening of entertainment. Five kids and the boy produced by Bill, presented The Applicant by Harold Pinter, The Lady of Larkspur Lotion by Tennessee Williams, Request Stop by Harold Pinter and the Proposal by Chekov. . . . The whole programme was repeated on Saturday evening for an invited audience of friends of the school, and was much enjoyed by all.
1974 Broadsheet No. 257
Love Without HopeIt was a silent summer morning as I sat against the wall, the dew still wet under me and the young sun starting its work on my boyhood freckles. But my eyes were following the wind and the curve of the grass verged stone drove road that disappeared into the tall dark group of emeraldish pines that stood out on the other side of our sheltered fold, our groove of a valley we called Gritam. However, I was not up and out for the scenery. (for as a youth I absorbed the surroundings rather than observed.) I was waiting and watching, warily, for the Squire's daughter to breeze past . . .
Biking drifting by every time deliberately oblivious of my attentions. That almost cruel aloofness made her enticingly spellbinding. such was my early pubescence. I knew at the first sight of her in the distance that my pulse would falter and become rapid. My mouth would parch dry with expectancy and my eyes would become more intense and begin to strain at the point of the parting of the pines, the gate of the Squire's Manse. The tall hat that I would sweep off as she passed lay at my side and I would bow courteously knowing she would pass me by without looking, but always hoping that she would look and smile as she rode by.
That morning was different. I saw. She came. I bowed. She smiled. I held my breath and she got off her bike and was standing next to me saying, ' Will you walk with me to the village?' There she stood not two feet away. I was so taken by surprise I couldn't do anything but just stare. To me she was beautiful, dressed in a long pink summer dress with a ribbon in her red hair. I just melted. Still smiling at me, perhaps because I was speechless or because I had gone red in the face as I was still holding my breath, she handed me the bike and asked if I could hold it while we walked. Recovering I blurted out a rather over-eager 'yes' and took the bike off her. We proceeded slowly in the sun, almost picturesquely.
Conversation was never my strong point, but she asked me and I answered and we talked and talked. It was the first time I could talk to a girl
. . . the first time I could talk about my feelings to anyone. For that I felt close to her although she was in such confident control. She said that her father was going abroad and they were moving to London that week. We were rounding the corner before the village when we stopped. 'you can kiss me if you like,' she said. But she kissed me and was on her bike and down the road. I was still motionless some minutes later. My very first kiss and the last time I'd see her. That was love without hope.
July 1972 Meeting Principal Psychologist
I enjoyed my day with you very much.You will be pleased to know that A's reading has improved considerably in the last year. His Reading Age advanced 13 months over the 12 months from June, 1971, to June, 1972. The previous three years showed only 7 months improvement. There was a considerable advance in his spelling age as well. His number is still disappointing and could be a drawback if any job he took involved computation. The gains in his basic personality, however, to my mind outweigh the deficits in his learning.
It was yet again with John Aitkenhead that the Principal Psychologist had enjoyed his day with.
April 1974 Meeting Consultant Paediatrician
. . . . At age 9, he had difficulty both with large and small words but seemed to be rather better in reading long words than small words and his father commented, ' he remembered the shapes of large words, the smaller the words the worse it was.' . . . . He entered the school (Kilquhanity) at the age of 9 1/2 and though he has made progress there, his father thinks that reading and spelling have developed very slowly.
Mr Aitkenhead's informative letter notes that he is now one of the oldest pupils in the school that has great difficulties in dealing with the printed word, either reading or in writing. He reads very slowly and laboriously and is very slow to write even short spontaneous compositions or dictation.
He has however obtained an 'O' Level in English. Mr Aitkenhead lay stress on the boy's considerable dramatic gifts and apparently the boy, through Drama has become interested in reading plays by Shakespeare, Chekov, and Pinter among others. He himself says it takes him a long time to read a part and he has to read it many times before he learns it.
He has always been sociable and plays football for the school team and shoots with a gun quite well. He is aware of his poor progress and it has been made clear to him by his parents that they do not blame him for this and realise that he is handicapped.
During the time I saw him I was struck by the variation in the fluency of his speech. Sometimes he seemed to have a very good command of spoken language and produced sentences with quite complicated syntax with good articulation. At other times he seemed to have to search for words and his sentences were much simpler, at times also he seemed to be a little 'stuck' and when I asked him complicated questions, though at other times he comprehended them easily and responded freely.
May 1974 Kilquhanity Council Meeting
From 1974 onwards the boy was a regular Chair of the weekly Council Meeting.
