Education / ‘Trigger event’ takes place for considering unmothballing Papa Stour school
A DECISION is expected to be made in the coming months on whether to potentially ‘unmothball’ the Papa Stour primary school after two families moved to the island this year.
Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) children’s services director Samantha Flaws confirmed a “trigger event” has taken place.
“Officers are following the procedures for the re-opening of a mothballed school, which was approved by Councillors on 25 September 2024,” she said.
“A decision will be made on the possible reopening of Papa Stour Primary School by the end of January 2025.”
The small school was mothballed in 2016 due to declining pupil numbers.
Under refreshed guidelines approved by councillors in September, reopening a mothballed school on ‘Islands with Small Populations’ – Fair Isle, Foula, Papa Stour, Skerries and Fetlar – will be considered when families move into the island.
Currently Shetland has four mothballed schools – Papa Stour, Skerries, Fetlar and Skeld, with the latter closing to pupils earlier this year.
Jane Puckey, who acts as a representative for Papa Stour on the Sandness and Walls Community Council community council, said should the school reopen it would be “good to hear children playing in the school playground again”.
“It would be a real boost to the island,” she said.
Puckey said the SIC is considering a request from one of the families to open the school.
She added that if approved it will “follow the process of unmothballing and recruitment, which will inevitably take a bit of time”.
Papa Stour resident Andy Holt also said having the school reopened would be a welcome boost for the island.
He added that two new families are now based in Papa Stour – one with four primary school age children, and another with two bairns aged three and under.
Holt said it is “unsatisfactory” that the primary-aged children have to travel to the Shetland mainland for school.
“We’re looking to the SIC to do something about it,” he said.
In 2023/24 it cost the SIC around £1,500 to maintain the mothballed Papa Stour primary school.
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