A new era for education in Rosehearty began on Monday, 3 rd October, when the pupils of Rosehearty School were piped to their new school.

Three difficult years of being a split site school, with half the children based at Westfield School in Fraserburgh ended as the children entered their £4.5 million new school.

A day of celebrations began with parties in the old school for all the children.

In the afternoon a short assembly, led by Head Teacher, Mrs. Janet McLeman, and the school Chaplain, Rev. Allan Fawkes was held on the playground of the old school.

Explained Mrs. McLeman, 'The P.T.A. had asked that parents and friends of the school should be able attend this, our final assembly in the old school. When the 1959 extension to the school became unsafe, almost exactly three years ago, we lost several classrooms and part of the school hall was converted to a classroom. As a result, we have no space in school large enough to accommodate all the children and parents so we decided that if the weather was fine we would hold             the Assembly on the playground. We couldn't have had a better day and a huge crowd of parents and friends of the school came to join in and to watch the children being piped to the new school. We are very grateful for all the support we have had from parents and the local community during the last three years so it was important that they were able to participate.'

During the Assembly prizes were presented to Danny Downie, Jack Beedie and Jake Watson who had recently won prizes in the New Pitsligo Visual Arts Festival.

Mrs McLeman reminded the children that although, everyone felt a bit sad about leaving a school building which had stood since 1868 and been attended by many generations of Rosehearty children, we were excitedly looking forward to starting a new phase in the life of our school. The building would be new, but the most important things about the school, including the way the pupils always did their best, were polite, helped each other and cared for other people would remain the same.

Following the singing of 'One More Step Along the World I go', the children were piped to the new school by pipers and a drummer all of whom were former pupils of Rosehearty School.

When they arrived at the new school the pipers formed a guard of honour at the doorway as a tartan ribbon was cut by the oldest and youngest pupils, Andrew Downie and Jessica Abernethy. An enormous specially decorated cake, large enough all the children and their guests to have a piece had been baked by the School Catering Service. The cake was cut by Primary 7 pupil, Emma Smith, who had designed the new school logo with which the cake was decorated.

Following the cutting of the cake Mrs. McLeman thanked everyone for their help and encouragement during the last three years and during the move. Then beautiful turquoise balloons, one for each pupil were released and drifted gently over the old and new buildings. To the strains of 'Highland Cathedral' and 'Flower of Scotland' the children entered the new school. As they did so each child was presented with the new school badge. The badge, which is also featured on the doors of the school, depicts St Andrew's saltire, a red heart and a Jacobite rose, reminders of our heritage in Rosehearty.

The following evening several hundred visitors had their opportunity to see the inside of the impressive new school. The children will be taught in the new school when they return after the October break but the building does not officially open until January 2006 when Rosehearty Public Library and the heritage museum which are both to be housed in the school are complete.