Margaret Rodden

Former student and now Food Management Technician and Assessor at the college shares her story.

I didn’t fancy the idea of going to the Nicolson, the college offered something different. Being from Ness I got stay in Elizabeth Haldane girls’ hostel in Stornoway. We would come from Ness on Monday morning for the week, drop off our bags and walk up to the Castle for our first class. In the winter we had to walk home in the dark. It was all so new! We had to be back at a certain time. There were strict rules. The boys lived in the castle, they didn’t have far to go, which always annoyed us in the winter.

The Castle wasn’t like anything else we had known, we would walk through the large main castle doors and see the huge staircase leading up to all the classrooms. There was a fantastic huge dining room for the pupils, we would get our lunch there and the food served was fantastic.

We finished school at 4pm and had to be back for dinner at 4.30pm so we would be running to get back to the hostel in time. After dinner we had two hours of study between 7-9pm and there was a teacher there with you. We often nipped to Paddy Reid’s a shop next to the hostel to buy sweets and snacks to get us through the evening study period.

It was so exciting coming from a small Lionel school to having the choice of picking which subjects we wanted to study. There were a range of practical courses such as catering, typing and office practice, Modern Studies, or Social Studies along with English, Maths, Sciences. There were other courses like catering and weaving, there were so many other options for us. There were loom sheds and we learnt to weave and knit on these huge machines. It provided great skills for the pupils.

I did two years at the school and then I went on to do a college course. My mother decided that I would do the secretarial course even though I want to do cooking but that ‘wasn’t as proper job.’ At that time there were lots of women who came up from Uist and Barra to study and we got to know so many new people and friends, some of whom I still have today, lifelong friends.

The college was more relaxed than school but still hard work. We had a lecturer called Margaret Macleod. We had our own tables and typewriters, and she would tell us where to place our fingers and she would train us to type. She was very strict, but she was fair. If she thought for a minute, we were looking at the keys she would tape a piece of paper over our hands! She was a brilliant teacher but took no nonsense. We learnt ‘office practice’ like shorthand but if you a had parent who spoke Gaelic you had to take the Gaelic class. I was a learner, and I was in class with others who were fluent and there were people from Usit and Harris and I often struggled. No matter though, I loved school, and I loved the college.

I left college and was very fortune and got a job as an accounts clerk straight away in Barvas for Western Isles Electronics who specialised in Televisions and repairs. I did that for a few years and then computers came in, I didn’t like them and didn’t get on with them. I still don’t! I wanted a change. I came back to the college in 1987 again and did a catering course for small hotel operatives run by Alan Frost. After I had my children, I came back again. This time I returned for four years to study catering right up to my HNC Professional Cookery. At that point it was Eddie Richardson, Mike Smith and Mairi Cook as lecturers. There were three kitchens, and we ran the college cafeteria with Nana Lamont and her team. We were there each day providing food for the students. We even cooked sirloin steaks on a Friday.

Once I finished my HNC I was a chef in The Crown Hotel, Cook in Charge of the Hospital, Head Chef at Bethesda and now I am back at the college as Food Management Technician, and I still love it. I get to pass on all my skills and experience to other students. It is so satisfying when students leave, and I know they will do well for themselves! We learnt from our lecturers and now we pass on decades of experience to our current students.