North Roe primary school celebrates 140th anniversary

NORTH ROE primary school is celebrating its 140th anniversary today (1 May).

Headteacher Hannah Irvine said staff and its nine pupils will celebrate the milestone with a social event in the afternoon.

“We’re having previous headteachers and teaching staff for lunch, and in the afternoon it’s a community event where anyone is welcome to come along,” she said.

The first headteacher of North Roe was Robert S Bremner, who presided over the school from 1878 to 1923.

Among the more recent mainstays of the school were Louis Johnson, who was headteacher between 1962 and 1990, and Hazel Cranie, who led the school from 1999 to 2015 before Irvine took over.

In its first 20 years the school roll was as high as 100 pupils, with several young men aged 16 or 17 attending during the winter months before going to the Haaf fishing in the summer from the stations at Fethaland, Uyea or Sandvoe.

The current school roll, meanwhile, is set to rise to 13 in the next few years.

The school was extended in the 1960s to provide kitchen facilities, while in 1990 a second classroom and staff room was built.