Female first for Royal High

A CITY school which counts Sir Walter Scott and Ronnie Corbett among its former pupils has appointed its first female head in its near 900-year history.

Jane Frith is the first woman to take the helm at the Royal High School of Edinburgh since it was founded in 1128. The appointment of the 49-year-old mother-of-three comes after she spent two decades working in Wester Hailes.

She said: "Women can do anything they want and I hope my appointment proves that."

The Royal High began as a seminary for the Abbots of Holyrood and for 139 years stood on Calton Hill in its iconic A-listed building. The all-boys fee-paying school moved to Barnton in 1968, becoming a state school five years later when it also began to admit girls.