Braidwood Primary Mexican wave goodbye to old school

The children – around 160 of them – encircled the school shoulder to shoulder, from the littlest in P1 to the oldest in P7.

Their wave broke around the school, first in one direction and then back again.

“We wanted to say farewell to the building and we decided we’d do a Mexican wave,” said head teacher Colette Scott.

The cheer, involving successive groups of people standing and waving, took its name from the World Cup in Mexico in 1986, although it may have pre-dated that, and the pupils were keen to do their version of it.

“It is a round building and the children lined up shoulder to shoulder all the way round,” said Colette. “We all cheered goodbye to it.”

The children will spend the coming months decanted to the old Crawforddyke Primary but Colette stressed that it would still be Braidwood Primary.

“This was just our fond farewell to that particular building,” she said.

“We have very happy memories of it. We loved our wee round school.”

One of the youngest buildings being replaced under South Lanarkshire Council’s schools modernisation programme, the “old” Braidwood Primary was the height of futuristic style when it opened in 1974.

A new school will be built on the same site.

The pictures featured in our slideshow were taken by Gazette photographer Lindsay Addison. They can be purchased from this website or from our office in Lanark on 01555 678792.