New school honours Viking leader

The school will be named after the Viking leader King Orry

The name of a new junior school in Ramsey has been announced.

Pupils and staff from the present Albert Road Junior School will transfer to the £7.5m Scoill Ree Gorree - King Orry's School - from September 2008.

The foundation stone for the new building, on Lezayre Road, will be lain at a special ceremony on 19 October.

The laying of the stone at Scoill Ree Gorree is a historic moment for education in Ramsey, Anne Craine MHK, the island's education minister, said.

"I am pleased with the historic choice of name for this new school building.

"Scoill Ree Gorree is particularly pertinent to the area in which the new school is situated, for it was through this river plain that King Orry made his successful assault on the island in 1079.

"This is a strong and important part of our history and I am glad that we have the opportunity to recognise our Viking forbears in this way," she added.

The new two-storey building, next to the new Auldyn Infants' School, will have the capacity for 380 pupils.