World War II affected everyone in Britain. Families were broken up as husbands, fathers, sons and brothers went off to fight. City children were evacuated to the countryside and mothers, daughters and sisters set to work in munitions factories, foundries and joined the Land Army to dig for victory.

Whilst looking back council records looking for details of how the area's schools celebrated VE day, I came across a report in the Education Committee papers dated March 6, 1946 entitled War and the schools: How it affected the primary schools of Lanarkshire.

The report was commissioned at a meeting held on July 4, 1945, just two months after Victory in Europe and was presented on March 6, 1946.

The first thing thrown up by the research was the "loss of instruction through irregular attendance of pupils". During the first year of the war school attendance fell by four percent and on each school day throughout the war the average number of Lanarkshire children absent from school was 11,800. The main reason for the drop in attendance was attributed to the Education Committee's relaxation of compulsory attendance in the early stages of the war.

The head teachers surveyed cited many reasons for falling numbers. Some attributed the problem to "the inconvenience and upset in the home caused by the mother's employment in industry" while others thought it was due to "coupon problems, the shortage of footwear and the poor quality of children's boots". A few mentioned that the difficulties with rationing and shopping in general contributed to lateness and irregularity in attendance.

One of the first incidents of the war was the arrival of pupils who had been evacuated from areas considered to be dangerous. This increased the school population in Lanarkshire by several thousand. While the length of their stay varied and some returned to their homes relatively quickly, many remained in rural areas for many years. Following the German attack on Clydeside in 1941 the number of evacuees soared and in September of that year there were 7461 registered. In schools with very little extra space this caused serious overcrowding and in some schools half-time instruction had to be adopted.

Another problem the schools faced was the shortening of the school day in the winter months. This was recommended by the Education Committee as blackout conditions made travel to and from school dangerous.

One thing that most head teachers agreed was beneficial was the provision of a daily midday meal and around 36,000 were served every day.

What really suffered during the war years were the school buildings. In the autumn of 1939 the Government suspended the construction of new school buildings and no major repair work was carried out. The programme of fitting central heating was stopped and many schools, notably Low Blantyre Primary and Low Waters Primary in Hamilton were heated by open fires. This in itself cause problems due to lack of coal and many teachers reported that the chill affected the children's work.

Air-raid shelters were erected in playgrounds, curtailing the space available for games and exercise and school supplies, such as furniture, text books and paper were in short supply and what they could get was poor quality. These problems were further aggravated when the London centre of the book trade was destroyed in the blitz.

Two Lanarkshire school buildings were destroyed by enemy action - Bishopbriggs Higher Grade School lost seven rooms and Rutherglen Academy lost a cloakroom. The most serious wartime loss was in March, 1941 when fire destroyed nearly 30 rooms in Rutherglen Academy.

The report describes Lanarkshire as "a County of varieties and extremes." It acknowledges that modern war disrupts routine. To an industrial community war brings full employment and higher wages, as well as longer working days and work for women in industry. It was felt that women going out to work would have serious consequences for home life and family discipline. At the same time many children had more pocket money, went to the cinema more often, slept less because of double summertime and had less family supervision because fathers were away fighting and mothers went out to work.

Teachers reported that the children starting primary school during the war years had poorer language skills than their predecessors and were less familiar with nursery rhymes and games, although things seemed to get back to normal by October, 1945.

Schools also suffered staff shortages during the war years. Around 10% of the male teachers went off to fight and were replaced by retired teachers, partially qualified teachers and women who had given up teaching when they married. As a result some class numbers went up to 50. Handiwork and needlework were the first two subjects to be dropped from the timetable, due to lack of materials and PE was dropped because many of the instructors were called up to fight. It was felt that reading writing and arithmetic should be maintained as much as possible.

On the plus side many teachers reported an increased interest in geography, current affairs and citizenship because of the war. Until the war school dinners were thought of simply as fuel for growing bodies but it was realised that the social aspects of dining together were invaluable and the report states that "Lanarkshire has taken the lead in Scotland in the cooking and distribution of meals for children. It would be a fine thing if she could give a lead in this different but important aspect of dining together."

The schools were given two days off for VE Day and then it was back to work as usual. It was suggested that netting, blackout curtains and shelters should be dismantled as soon as possible so that there were no reminders around of the war years.

Chantinghall children celebrated VE Day with this large bonfire (with Hitler on gibbet)

The last entry in the Education records pertaining to VE Day appear a year later when preparations were made for the first anniversary of VE Day. On June 7-8th, 1946 a sports days and VE festivities were held throughout the County.