The bell-ringing ceremony.
PRIORY School completed its move from Shanklin to Whippingham and marked the switch with a bell-ringing ceremony.
The private school was given the opportunity to move into its new home, which had been vacated by the Queensgate Foundation primary school ahead of schedule.
The principal, Ed Matyjaszek, said: "To move a school from one side of the IW to the other is a mammoth undertaking — especially if you only have four days to do it in.
"But, by a miracle of co-operation and co-ordination, involving ten workmen to adapt the building to approved plans, and more than 30 parents and staff and friends, including professional removers, electricians, builders and plumbers, working to pre-ordained plans to load, truck and ferry the contents of the school, the task was accomplished."
In the first assembly last Monday, Queen Victoria’s bell, with its inter-linked symbol, was rung to signal Priory School was safely re-located to its new home, in Beatrice Avenue.
Year 4 pupil Kayce Ferguson-Wheeler, whose father had recently fixed the old bell at Whippingham Forge, had the privilege of ringing the bell for the first time and she will be followed by all the children in turn.
Mr Matyjaszek added: "Priory School is proud and privileged to inherit the tradition of education on this lovely site, believed to be the oldest continuously occupied site of education on the Island."
Reporter: jamiew@iwcpmail.co.uk