West Coats Primary

West Coats Primary School (
) lies at the corner of West Coats
Road and Brownside Road Cambuslang. This is, and always has been, a very
affluent area that the school, from its foundation in the late nineteenth
century, was intended to serve almost exclusively. From time to time, however,
children from other districts in Cambuslang, who would not normally have been
eligible to attend West Coats, were admitted for various reasons, many of them questionable.
Yet, because the parents of these children usually made sure they lived up to
the high standards of diligence, behaviour and dress that West Coats had become
proud of, they fitted in well enough and profited enormously from the fine
educational and social environment that dominated there.
This situation continued until the autumn of 1964 when the
recently-​elected Labour government of Harold Wilson started implementing its
long-​term policy of social engineering, with particular regard to education. As
a result, over the next few years an increasing number of children from
less-​affluent parts of Cambuslang and further beyond that lay outwith the
normal catchment area of West Coats were admitted to the school, obviously in
an effort to dilute the right-​wing ethos that, the Socialists felt, had
prevailed at the establishment for far too long. They abhorred schools like West
Coats, populated mainly as it was then by children whose parents were more than
likely to be Tory voters. So the Socialists’ aim was to increase the number of
children in the school whose parents were confirmed Labour voters until a point
was reached where there more children of confirmed Labour voters than there
were children of Tory voters. Then it was expected, in the time-​honoured fashion
of the majority influencing the minority, that these children of Tory voters
would be converted by their more numerous peers and become staunch Labour
voters in adulthood. Such was the strategy and it worked to a greater or lesser
extent, as the psychology-​aware Socialists had known only too well, especially
when conjoined to their policy of ‘comprehensive’ secondary education that blighted
Cambuslang in the form of Cathkin High School in August 1970. So, whereas until 1964 the emphasis at West Coats was ‘dumbing
up’, since 1964 it has most definitely been ‘dumbing down’ by stealthy
increments, an unfortunate trend that has changed the school’s ethos entirely
from what it once was in the good old days. Today the children receive six
hours less education than they received in the 1960s and the social behaviour
of a significant proportion is worrying. The teachers in general are
neither as well-​dressed nor as well-​spoken as they used to be and the current
head teacher is inclined to ignore captious letters
from members of the public about pupil conduct.
Thus, all in all, nowadays West Coats Primary School is a shadow
of its former self due mainly to long-​standing interference by Socialist
politicians, misguided supervision at local authority level, poor management in
the school, and what we must suspect is the inferior ethos of far too many of
the pupils’ parents, a factor that, of course, impacts markedly on general
pupil behaviour. Besides, in the mornings and afternoons, there is a major problem with
cars and vans milling around the school like flies around a jam pot. Plainly
these vehicles belong to the parents of
the children I’ve been talking about who live outwith the district, beyond the
proper catchment area of West Coats, who need dropping off and picking up at starting
and lousing times. Either that or the kids themselves are too lazy to use their
wee legs which, if so, could explain why so many appear less lithe than perhaps they should be. At any
rate this area is definitely one to avoid between 1445 and 1515 Monday to
Friday. Be warned!