Irvine's Haysholm School celebrates 40 years of care and education with special service

Pupils and teachers at the Bank Street school joined parents and members of the community for a celebration at St Mary’s Parish Church.

The school, which caters for pupils with severe and complex additional support needs, first opened its doors on January 19, 1976.

To celebrate the landmark occasion, Margaret Millar, who incredibly has worked in the school for over 38 years, chaired a committee to help organise the event.

Haysholm Head Teacher, Yvonne Gribben, said: "The school has been very important within the Irvine area as it provides specialist education for children and young people who have severe and complex additional support needs. 

"We provide a high level of care, dignity and respect to our learners who attend and strive to ensure that they are fully included in their local community.

"Part of our job is to ensure that we are facilitating social inclusion and this helps to break down barriers to disability within the local area."

Over the last few weeks, learning has centred around the theme of celebrations and all classes chose a song from a decade and performed it at the service.

And you can clearly see from our pictures that the pupils had a ball singing their songs.

But the fun didn’t stop at the service as the school held a birthday party for the pupils to celebrate the occasion.

Our photographer Charlie Gilmour was on hand at the service to take these pictures.

Happy birthday to Haysholm School from the Irvine Times!