Primary school host coffee morning in memory of late teacher

Primary seven pupils at Levenvale Primary School in Alexandria held a Macmillan coffee and cake morning on Thursday, September 26 to remember their former teacher.

Mrs Gillian Runciman, a beloved teacher who worked at the school for almost 30 years, sadly passed away over the summer.

Pupils worked hard to put together three tables worth of cakes and help pass out refreshments to their guests as well as going around the room with donation buckets.

Members of the community turned up to remember Gillian and a slideshow played in the background as a tribute.

A slideshow of Gillian's photos played at the coffee morning (Image: Newsquest)Alison Larkin worked with Gillian and said it was a 'hard but important' day for everyone.

She said: "This is a wonderful school. I came here as a pupil in the 50s and then I came back as a student teacher, then a teacher and I taught here for 44 years.

"I worked with Gillian for years, she came here before she was married. We worked side by side down in the infant end.

"I was a very untidy person so my desk was littered and Gillian used to come in and say ‘I don’t know how you can work in that’. Hers was always nice and tidy.

"We had some good laughs together.

"That’s why all these people are here, you turn up for someone like that."

Alison Larkin (left) described the school as 'wonderful' (Image: Newsquest) Jeson (middle) explained how they planned the morning (Image: Newsquest) Primary seven pupil, Jenson, shared his involvement with the coffee morning.

He said: "I was a week into school and our teacher said, ‘Do you remember the charity morning?’

"She said that we are doing one again and it's for Macmillan and then she said it's for Mrs Runciman.

"We wrote letters to newspapers and family and friends and then we started baking.

"Then we got all the equipment from Macmillan."

The school hopes to announce the total money raised soon.