The head teacher at a north-east primary school has been awarded for her services to education.
Kintore Primary School’s Wilma Walker said she was “humbled” to have been made an MBE in the Queens New Years Honours list.
The 63-year-old said: “It is hard to put into words how I feel about it. I feel quite humbled by it and I think I don’t regard myself as being ground breaking or stand-outable, if that is a word?
“I’m not sure where the nomination came from, but I’m guessing the education department – I’ve stuck around for a long time I think.
“I graduated in 1976 from Stirling University at Callander Park and I taught in Denny and Falkirk. We moved up here in the mid 1980s – when teaching jobs were really quite scarce believe it or not.
“I got the head teacher at Oyne, which was a one teacher school so I automatically got head. Then I went to Daviot primary and then onto Kintore in 1994 where I have been ever since.
“I have seen a lot of changes at Kintore. So not excluding a couple of maternity leaves I have been a teacher for 40 years.”
Mrs Walker said her family were “amazed and delighted” when she told them the good news.
She added: “Then came the usual sarcastic jokes to stop me getting a bit beyond myself. There hasn’t been any curtseying yet.”