Back to school for a birthday treat!

Company news

Apr 03, 2012

It was back to the classroom for former headteacher Miss Isobelle McGregor recently as she celebrated her 100th birthday by visiting the primary school, where she taught for more than 12 years in the 1970s.

The special visit was put together by team members at the Care UK-run Terrace care home in Richmond.

During the visit to the school in Yore Bridge Miss McGregor met pupils old and new, including current teaching assistant Julie Fawcett who attended the school when Miss McGregor was headteacher.

Miss McGregor also took part in a tree planting ceremony, viewed her old log books and met children who have birthdays near her own on Tuesday 3rd April.

Miss McGregor started her career in Middleham where, on several occasions, she met a young stable boy and jockey called George Formby. Later she taught at a school in Kirklington.

Activities Coordinator at the home in Maison Dieu, Sylvia Payne, said: “As well as the visit to the school, we held a party here at the home with cake, wine and, of course, presents.”

Miss McGregor said: ““I was very happy to visit the school and to let them know how things were when I was a teacher. I was also very interested to see how the school had changed”.

Miss McGregor was one of two children. In the month she was born, the Titanic sank, and Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Miss McGregor’s father worked on the railways and her mother was a housekeeper in a large farmhouse in Redmire. Unusually, her grandfather taught her to read and write before she started school, and she credits him with instilling in her a love of learning and literature.