One of Scotland’s most remote schools has a new head teacher. Three hours’ boat ride from the Orkney capital Kirkwall, Julie Muir will take the reins at Westray Junior High School after the summer holidays. She has been teaching in Orkney for the past 28 years – at Stenness, Glaitness and most recently Papdale in Kirkwall.
Ahead of her first head teacher role, she’ll be moving with her husband Keith to the island of Westray. This means there will be no dramatic commute, like the former head teacher at Papa Westray School – one of Westray Junior High’s feeder primary schools – who . New Westray Junior High School head looking forward to returning to island life Westray Junior High School has had , and Julie said she and Keith “didn’t make the decision lightly”.
Although currently based in , Julie grew up on Westray’s neighbouring island, . And she told The P&J that she’s looking forward to returning to life on a small island. “Westray is a very vibrant island community with loads of opportunities for folk to build a life there.
So me and my husband will be doing that. You can have a great quality of life out there. “I grew up on Sanday so I know what island life is like and I understand what the needs are for junior secondaries.
“It’s a little different to more populated areas, but it’s very much a feature of our rural areas that children really need a good home life and community experience, but they also need that high-quality learning exper.
