Donald Stewart Memorial Trust Award

Jayne Morrison, a 6th year pupil in Sir E Scott School, Harris, is this year’s winner of the Donald Stewart Memorial Trust Award.

The Trustees decided, unanimously, that this year’s Trust award be made to Jayne, for her overall performance both in and out with the school, and particularly for her achievements in music over many years.

This included many years of prestigious accolades at local and national Mod level, principally as a solo singer but also as part of duets, folk groups and choirs.

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Special mention was also made on her ambassadorial role for the music and culture of the islands on trips to Nepal, Brittany, Brussels and Ireland.

The Trustees were also delighted to hear that she had undertaken the Interdisciplinary Project for the SQA Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages.

The Award is in memory of the long and distinguished service provided by the late MP for the Western Isles, and was presented to Jayne by John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth in the Scottish Government.

Chairman of the Trustees, Murdo Macleod said: “The Trustees were highly impressed with the overall quality of this year’s submissions but were unanimous in their decision to make the award to Jayne.

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“In terms of her traditional Gaelic music achievements, she has been performing at an extremely high level for a number of years, but what is even more impressive is her commitment to promote music and singing within her own age group and with the younger age group and also on visits to other countries including, Nepal, where she spent some volunteering and also Brussels, where she was representing the UK at a Youth Forum.

“During the last session at school, she became the first pupil to undertake the Interdisciplinary Project for the SQA Scottish Baccalaureate in Languages, choosing, ‘Keeping Minority Languages Alive Through Music’ as her independent project.

“On behalf of the Trust I congratulate Jayne on winning this award and wish her well as she goes on to Glasgow University, where she intends to study French and Gaelic.

“Because of the quality of this year’s nominations, the Trust also made a number of awards to other students at The Nicolson Institute, Sir E Scott and Sgoil Lionacleit for their own special achievements and we offer our congratulations to them all.

“I also wish to thank the schools for their continuing support with the competition, without whom, the competition would not exist.”