Hannah Johnson became one of Scotland’s youngest-ever headteachers in 2015 when she took up the post at North Roe Primary School, aged 23. The school - among the most northerly in the UK - sits at the north end of the Shetland mainland, an hour’s drive from Lerwick, some 340 miles as the crow flies from Edinburgh and 640 miles from London.

She tells Tes Scotland about her life-changing school trips to Edinburgh and South Africa, how she overcame doubts about applying for a headship so young and the joys of working in a 14-pupil island school.

1. Who was your most memorable teacher and why?

Caroline Simpson, my biology teacher at Anderson High School - which I left in 2009 - was the best teacher I ever had and everything you’d want a teacher to be. She was really kind, caring and enthusiastic, and went over and above to make lessons interesting and fun. She was always happy, always smiling - one of those people that’s just sunshine in human form.

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and I think that was mostly influenced by my Primary 3 teacher at Sound Primary School, Rosemary Muir, who was also my next-door neighbour for the first 17 years of my life. I always remember her saying that she enjoyed her job so much, it never felt like work - that was a huge encouragement for going into teaching.

My Primary 4 teacher, Louise Hunter, was my Miss Honey [from Roald Dahl’s Matilda]. She was called Miss Gray when she taught me, and she was just so lovely and fun - I always say that every child needs a Miss Honey - and I wanted to be just like her. She must have been newly qualified because she seemed really young.

She had all these new, fresh ideas, just being out of uni. I remember making these massive BFG [Roald Dahl’s Big Friendly Giant] paintings to go up on the wall - it wasn’t just sitting down with a textbook and a jotter and working all day.

It sounds really simple now, but this was back in the Nineties. I remember her doing a lot of what you might call “brain breaks”. If we’d been sitting too long, she would say: “Right, we’re going to play this game.” She would come out from behind the big wheelie blackboard and do something funny. I just remember her being fun.

2. What were the best and worst things about your time at school?

I loved school, primary and secondary. I always feel quite fortunate to have been in Shetland - it was the perfect place to go to school. I made lifelong friends in a small community and I had freedom - I always felt safe. My parents let me walk to my friend’s house and didn’t worry about me. There are so many things to do in Shetland; you’ve got all the amazing beaches, you can go off fishing - all kinds of things you wouldn’t get in a city.

My favourite memories are mostly of school trips, in Shetland but also off island. In Primary 7, we went we went to Edinburgh and that really broadened my horizons. It was my first time there; my family didn’t go off island much. My dad, who was a fisherman but later went to work at the oil terminals, still says: “Why would you want to go away? You live in the best place.” He speaks from a place of complete contentment and the older I get, the more I see it that way.

When I went to Edinburgh, it was just “wow”. We did every touristy thing you could. Everything in Edinburgh was just so different, it felt like a new world. In Primary 7, little me from Shetland going to uni to study teaching seemed an impossible dream. After the trip, I was determined that one day I would live in Edinburgh - I didn’t consider anywhere else - and that’s where I went to become a teacher.

In secondary school, I studied Advanced Higher history. The whole course for that entire year was apartheid in South Africa - I’d never even heard of apartheid beforehand - and we got to go to Cape Town for a week. It was amazing and it shaped me into who I am today.

I’d never seen poverty like it before. And we went to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. It just hit me how sheltered my life had been, how privileged I was. I knew, at that moment, that I was going to try to make a difference in the world, no matter how small. My best moment of school ever was when we went to the house of [anti-apartheid campaigner] Denis Goldberg, who had been in prison for 22 years, and interviewed him.

The worst thing at school was probably teachers who shouted - I could never build a relationship with them and felt scared of them.

3. Why do you work in education?

I always knew I wanted to work with children; I’ve always been one of those people that just loves children. There are so many reasons for wanting to be a teacher but, in a nutshell, I wanted to make a difference.

I can’t think of a more rewarding job on a daily basis, when you’re seeing your pupils happy and they’re achieving. It is a really difficult job - I find it really hard to get that work-life balance and switch off from work - but I couldn’t do anything else.

4. What are you proudest of in your career and what’s your biggest regret?

If my pupils go on to achieve their dreams and do what they want to do in life when they leave school, that’s what makes me most proud.

I say to my pupils: “If you only remember one thing I’ve taught you, remember to always be kind.” I bumped into one pupil I used to teach, who said: “I’m still remembering to be kind.” It sounds like such a simple thing but, to me, that’s just such a proud moment because I always say to my pupils: “Imagine if everyone was kind, what few problems the world would have.”

Six years ago, when I applied for this headteacher’s post, that was a moment I’m really proud of because it was a huge leap of faith - I hadn’t planned on becoming a head so young. I was completely jumping in at the deep end. The interview was probably the most nervous I’ve ever been. I came away not thinking I would ever get the job - and then I did. That was a really good moment for me because I didn’t have much confidence in myself before.

My biggest regret is not standing up for myself more in certain situations when I first started as a headteacher. But it made me a stronger person, I learned an awful lot and I don’t think I’d be the manager I am today if I hadn’t gone through those challenging situations.

5. Who would be your colleagues in the perfect staffroom?

I would have all the staff from my school. I couldn’t ask for a better team of people. We’re all really good friends. In a bigger school with more staff, groups can form, but we’re a peerie [small] school so we’re just one group, one team. We all have a shared goal: we’re just doing our best to support each child to reach their full potential.

6. What are the best and worst aspects of our schools system today?

The best thing is that education is constantly moving forward and improving - it’s so different from when I was at school in the Nineties. Learning now is active, fun, engaging. New technology is changing the way we do a lot of things - social media helps small rural schools like ours connect with teachers from literally all over the world. Children are encouraged to lead their own learning and pupil choice has never been more important. I’ve only been a headteacher for six years and the amount of change that I’ve seen seems unreal.

Those changes are usually for the best, but I guess the flip side is that more things are constantly being added to your plate - sometimes the workload can seem a bit unmanageable and it’s sad when you hear of teachers leaving the profession. Teachers have got more responsibility than ever and it’s quite difficult to not take your work home with you.

7. Your own teachers aside, who in education has influenced you most?

A teacher in Shetland called Donna Murray, who’s the loveliest person you’ll ever meet. She introduced me to “intensive interaction” about three years ago. It’s an approach for teaching communication skills with children or adults who might, for example, have autism or a severe learning difficulty. It’s about trying to enable them to communicate in a way that’s meaningful to them. It’s completely led by that child or the adult, and not like anything I’ve known or seen before. The difference it’s made has been incredible - children are more content and ready to learn.

8. If you became education secretary tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d do?

You know that Aristotle quote about educating the mind without educating the heart being no education at all? I would put more of an emphasis on character education. We have so much emphasis on attainment - and I don’t disagree with that - but I think that there needs to be an equal focus on values. We need our children to leave school not just with good grades but with qualities such as kindness, empathy, honesty, being resilient and having perseverance. Things that are going to prepare children for going out into the world. Being a young person is so much more difficult nowadays - you’ve got social media and all the mental health issues.

I would also allocate a budget for supporting the presumption to provide education in a mainstream setting. Schools that were built a long time ago obviously weren’t designed with pupils who have high levels of [additional support needs] in mind. We need adjustments made to be able to truly support learners with complex additional support needs.

9. What will our schools be like in 30 years?

I hope that all schools will be a place where diversity is completely embraced and celebrated, so that every single child is accepted and feels an important part of their school community. If we’re trying to eliminate discrimination and support global citizenship, all that starts with education.

I hope that all staff in schools will be “ACE aware” - that they’ll understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress - and that all schools will be nurturing places, where distressed behaviours are completely understood. If you don’t understand that, then you can’t deal with it in that supportive and caring way that you need to.

I hope that new technology will be embraced and children will be leading the way with it, and that the curriculum will be completely skills based. I hope that play pedagogy will be completely embedded. I hope that schools will be mindful places where teachers are completely equipped to support children who are struggling with their mental health. And I hope that all schools will be completely focused on sustainability, that children learn the skills they need to protect the planet.

10. What one person do you think made the biggest difference to schools and education more generally during the Covid pandemic?

In Shetland, for me, it was our learning support workers and assistants - they’re the unsung heroes of the pandemic. In the first lockdown, they kept hubs fully staffed so that children had a safe place to go while their parents worked. In the second lockdown, they staffed the schools when more staff were working from home. They deserve a lot of credit for supporting all those children with their learning through both lockdowns.

Interview by Henry Hepburn

This article originally appeared in the 8 October 2021 issue