School History
Baltasound Junior High School, on the Shetland island of Unst, is the most northerly school in Britain.
It opened following the Education Act of 1872 which required public schools to built throughout the country. There were three on Unst, at Haroldswick, Baltasound and Uyeasound. Baltasound Public School opened in 1879 and the original building (shown in the photo) is now used as the Youth Centre.
The school expanded after the Second World War when the school leaving age was raised and the HORSA blocks (Huts On Raising School-leaving Age) were built. Some of these still remain and are used for storage, but they were used by classes right up until 1995, despite being designed as temporary buildings.
The current Secondary Department was built in the 1960s and opened in 1968. The Music Hut was added in 1980. There used to be a swimming pool where the staff room and Art Room are now, but this closed once the Leisure Centre was opened. The new Art Room was opened in 1991.
In 1995, a new Primary department building was opened, beside Trolla Water.
The School currently provides Primary education for the villages of Baltasound and Haroldswick, and Nursery and Secondary education for children from the whole of Unst. In August each year, an intake of Primary 7 pupils from Uyeasound and Baltasound Primaries move into the Secondary department at Baltasound, to become the new Secondary 1, and they stay until the end of their Standard Grades in Secondary 4.
Only 18 people have been head teacher at Baltasound, many of these for just a few months,and just four people have been head since the First World War.
Mr Andrew Spence, the current head teacher, has been here since 1984.
Mr Samuel S. S. Polson was head from 1955 to 1984.
Mr P. D Tait was head from 1938 to 1954.
Mrs Margaret Hunter was head briefly in 1909, 1914 and 1915 before taking over from 1916 to 1938.
The very first head teacher was Mr D. J. White who was head from 1878 to 1902 and was previously head of the church school.
Between 1902 and 1916 there were frequent changes and, as well as Mrs Margaret Hunter, other head teacher included:, Miss Margaret Henderson, Miss Jane Robb, Mr D. J. Henderson (1902-1905), Miss Helen Muir, Mr John Smith, Mr John Spence, Miss Barbara Sutherland (1905-1907), Miss Grace McGarva (1907-1909), Miss R. Hayes, Mr N. J. Muir (1909-1914), Mr J. D. MacMillan and Miss Emma Reynolds. All those without dates were head for just a few months.