On the way was a school visit to a beautiful country village called Edzell. The school has 75 students in four classrooms as well as a small pre-school. The Principal impressed me as a competent and knowledgeable leader who has the task of overseeing two schools. There are many similar arrangements for small schools in Scotland, with one Principal leading two schools. It only happens with small schools, of which Edzell was considered quite large.
This is the road leading into Edzell. It felt almost magical to come into the village through a beautiful stone arch way and then drive slowly down the one main street which was immaculately clean and cared for. We went to the address we had, and found a building with "Edzell School - 1902" on the front. I went up to the main door and rang the bell, only to find it was now a private residence. A new school had replaced it.
The new school has an interesting design allowing a flexible internal arrangement of having up to 4 separate classrooms, or they could all be opened up for flexible use. The security set up was similar to schools in the USA and Canada, where a visitor, such as myself, cannot get into the school during class time unless the receptionist unlocks the doors.
At the lower end of the main street in Aberdeen is this castle like building which is actually home to the Salvation Army social services centre. Aberdeen is oftern called the Granite City because most of the buildings, including houses throughout the suburbs, are made from a hard grey granite rock found in the area.
Another interesting thing about Aberdeen is that it is the main centre for the Oil Industry in the North Sea. The docks were filled with ships of all sizes and purposes, and were packed into what appeared to be a harbour clogged up with too much traffic.
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