THE head teacher at Dunblane Primary, Mr Ron Taylor, yesterday announced he is not going to return to school when his 12- month break ends next year.
Mr Taylor had taken a year out to work in the Scottish Office as an adviser in the Government's drive to raise standards in primary schools.
At that time, the head teacher, who cradled children in his arms after the gym shootings in March 1996, had pledged to return to Dunblane to lead the school into the 21st century.
But in a statement issued yesterday, Mr Taylor said he was changing career to take up a new post with Stirling Council.
He added: ''Obviously it is with considerable sadness that I decided to step down from headship at Dunblane primary.
''A part of me will always be in Dunblane and I am proud to have served the Dunblane community.''
Buckie-born Mr Taylor has been head teacher at Dunblane since 1993.
After Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 children and their teacher Gwen Mayor, he said: ''Evil visited us today.''
He later told the Cullen Inquiry that the massacre was his ''worst nightmare'' and he wanted to recharge his batteries.
Mr Taylor said that after spending the last few months at the Scottish Office, he now felt he had ''more to offer in a consultative role, rather than returning to school teaching and management.
The council's director of education, Gordon Jeyes, said: ''He became a focal point for the school during its darkest days. His presence was very important.''
Chair of the Dunblane school board, John O'Donnell, whose son Andrew was badly injured in the shooting, said: ''We wish Ron well in his new career.
''He served this school well and provided leadership when it was most needed.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article