News – St Margaret’s School, Edinburgh FP Association

MBE for former pupil, Hilary Alba (née Burt)

We were delighted to learn of the 2026 New Year’s Honour for former pupil Hilary Alba (née Burt) who was deputy head girl in her year, and a leaver in 1989. Hilary, Specialist Midwife in the Blossom Tree, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her exceptional contribution to community midwifery. Hilary works within a team of dedicated, specially trained midwives to support women and families experiencing, or at risk of, vulnerabilities during pregnancy and the postnatal period. Hilary has spent years advocating for some of the most vulnerable women, in a wide range of complex circumstances, including women living in deprivation, teenagers, women with learning disabilities, those living with HIV, survivors of domestic abuse, trafficked women, asylum seekers and more. Hilary has also been involved in influencing policy by taking their needs to the Scottish Government to help shape legislation. Hilary wants people to know that she “doesn’t work alone. Everything achieved has been part of a fantastic team”. Congratulations Hilary! St Margaret’s is thrilled to learn about your work and this recognition for your achievements. We will be looking out for you further in years to come. Very best wishes also as you run in this year’s Edinburgh Marathon, raising funds for AMMA birthing companions.

Christmas wishes from the St. Margaret’s Singers

The St. Margaret’s Singers were sad not to be able to have a Carol Service for you all this year. With the Reid Memorial Church due to close for worship on Dec. 28, 2025, it was not possible to arrange our usual carol service this year. However, we are pleased to confirm that the choir did get together, informally, with Mr Cranston, on Monday Dec. 15, to sing many of our most favourite carols. All the St. Margaret’s pupils and former staff were firmly in our thoughts and wishes. It was a happy celebration of music and friendship, which for many spans more than 5 decades! It is our firm hope to be able to sing for you all again next year, and we will let you know here, once future plans are confirmed. In the meantime, we wanted to share a few pictures from our December 2025 carol singing rendezvous. With all our very best wishes to you and yours, for Christmas and 2026.

A new location for our St. Margaret’s School archives at St. George’s

When school closed in 2010, we were very fortunate to be able to save a number of significant items relative to school history. Initially these were stored in a secure, paid storage facility for a few years, until a very generous gesture was received from St. George’s School, to relocate the St. Margaret’s School archive to a small cupboard location at St. George’s, Garscube Terrace, Edinburgh. A number of former pupils and staff have visited the original archive over past years, and it was delightful to see joy in people’s faces, as they relived happy times, through memories of uniform, photographs, Chronicles/Newsletters, trophies and much more. The archive until recently, looked a bit like this – safe and secure, but not very easy to view/find items:

In 2025, St. George’s extended their own school archive, and as part of this development, a new location for the St. Margaret’s archive has very kindly been created for us, in a side-room. It is early days, and the new space is still being developed, but we wanted to ensure that you are informed of plans and progress. A few fps (Jane Forbes, Jill Bryce, Cecile Redmond) met at St George’s in November 2025 to start the process of developing the new space, with support of St. George’s archivist, Margaret Imlah. The hope is that once completed, the new archive location will enable you, our former pupils and staff, to visit and view the contents, at your leisure. So far, shelving units have been purchased and installed, at a cost of £335 (paid for from remnants of the FP Association funds, which are also used to maintain this website). The archive contents are in the process of being sorted and arranged on the new shelves, so that the contents will become self explanatory for visitors, and items should be much easier to locate in the future. Here are a few photos of the work to date:

We plan to visit again in January 2026 to progress the development work. Once complete, we will update you here, and we will share details of how and when you can visit. Watch this space – more coming soon…… Our sincere thanks go to to St. George’s School for their continued support.

Sue Hope (née Susie Watt) – Head Girl 1987

It is with great sadness that we learned of the sudden death of Susie Hope (née Watt), on Aug. 28, 2025. Susie was our fabulous Head Girl in 1987, and was instrumental in organising the large choral reunion which took place in school in 2008. Susie lived in Biggar, and leaves a husband and two sons. In the words of her son Fin, “Mum was an absolute wonder woman, with a heart of gold, and a cracking sense of humour, a drive behind her that no one could stop and a passion for helping others. She was the rock of the family and it’s a devastating loss to us all.”

Susie’s funeral is an open service at Mortonhall Crematorium on Tuesday Sept. 16 at 11am, followed by funeral teas at the Tinto House Hotel. All welcome. Preferably no black, coloured ties and bold scarfs as Susie would have wanted. Family flowers only.

“Equinox!” A Spring Concert – Friday March 21, 7pm, Rosslyn Chapel

The St. Margaret’s Singers, under the direction of John Cranston, and accompanist Jamie Lang, are absolutely delighted to have been invited to sing in Rosslyn Chapel in their spring concert, “Equinox”, on Friday March, 21st, from 7-8pm. Tickets, priced £15, are available on Eventbrite. The concert is a musical celebration of the arrival of spring, and will be filled with joy. We hope to see you there!

Christmas Carol Service (Reid Memorial, West Savile Terrace) – Sunday Dec. 15, 2024 at 6.30pm

It was a delight to see so many former pupils, staff and friends of St. Margaret’s School at the St. Margaret’s Singers Christmas Carol Service on Dec. 15, 2024 at 6.30pm, which this year, was held at Reid Memorial Church, West Savile Terrace, Edinburgh EH9 3HY. Thanks to the enormous generiosity of those who attended, we are delighted to confirm that a total of £800 was raised for charity! This amount will be equally divided between the two nominated charities of Fresh Start (Edinburgh) and Let Your Light Shine (Malawi). Much joyful chatter and catch up took place afterwards, with many friends of our former St. Margaret’s School, over tea/coffee. Our sincere thanks go to everyone from Reid Memorial and St. Margaret’s School who combined to make the event so successful. If you missed it, you can listen to a recording here.

St. Margaret’s Chapel Guild – ‘Meet the Margarets’ Edinburgh 900 Service

A service to celebrate St. Margaret was hosted by members of the St. Margaret’s Chapel Guild at the Canongate Kirk, 153 Canongate, Edinburgh, EH8 8BN, on St. Margaret’s Day, Saturday Nov. 16, 2024 at 11.30am. The Guild look after the fixtures and fittings at the St Margaret’s Chapel at the Castle, and have been placing fresh flowers there every week since 1942. The St. Margaret’s Chapel was commissioned by King David I to commemorate his mother, Queen Margaret (later St. Margaret).

This year marks the 900th anniversary of King David I, granting royal burgh status to the city of Edinburgh, and a series of events and celebrations are planned to mark the occasion. The service after the Guild’s AGM on the morning of Saturday Nov. 16, took at the Canongate Kirk, and the Executive Committee very kindly invited the St Margaret’s Singers to take part in it. A recording is now available for anyone who was unable to be there in person.

More information about the event is available here.

St. Margaret’s Singers Concert – June 15, 2024, 3pm, Edinburgh

The St. Margaret’s Singers Summer Concert, conducted by John Cranston and accompanied by Jamie Lang, took place on June 15, 2024 in Reid Memorial Church, Newington (West Savile Terrace, EH9 3HY) from 3-5pm. The programme of choral music was a mixture of sacred, secular, romantic and musicals, with a selection of compositions ranging from the late Renaissance to the 20th century. Additionally, there was an organ solo from Martyn Strachan. Coffee/tea was served afterwards, giving an opportunity to catch up with former pupils, staff and friends. Tickets £12/£10 concession, children free.

Proceeds from ticket sales and generous donations on the day totalled £1,700. The choir is therefore delighted to confirm that £850 will be gifted to each of the two chosen charities – Scottish Cancer Foundation and Alzheimer Scotland.

John Cranston and the St. Margaret’s Singers sincerely thank the members of The Reid Memorial Church for their help in facilitating the concert. In addition, sincere thanks go to all our St. Margaret’s School friends, families, former pupils and staff, and the congregation of Craigmillar Park Church, for their support and encouragement.

Carla Spadavecchia – Latin & Italian teacher

Former staff and pupils alike, were deeply saddened to learn of the passing on March 7, 2024, of the very popular and fun loving teacher, Carla Spadavecchia (married name Luzzani). Carla, was St. Margaret’s School’s Latin and Italian teacher during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Not only will she always be remembered for “Ecce Romani”, and making Latin such fun, but also for all of the wonderful school trips that she organised, including Roman Britain, Rome (fond memories of her “dragging” the girls up Mount Vesuvius!), and also a memorable trip in 1983 to Arran with Miss Egginton (the photograph below was taken on the ferry to Brodick).

Former staff kept contact with Carla, corresponding regularly, and were delighted to know that she was happily married to Renato, living in Milan. She had many nieces and nephews of whom she was very fond and proud. Carla loved her subject and loved sharing her passion for the classical world.

We understand that Carla’s funeral was held on Saturday March 9, 2024 and it is hoped that she may be buried eventually at Clairvaux Abby, a place that she loved. The thoughts and sympathies of all from St. Margaret’s School who were fortunate enough to have known her, are with Renato and all of her family at this very sad time.

Prestigious Dance School – Ingrid Cochrane

Its wonderful to be able to share good news regarding an FP who was in nursery when the school closed. Ingrid Cochrane, now 17 years old, has been accepted into one of the most prestigious dance schools in the world – the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. Ingrid is very excited as the Joffrey Ballet School is her dream place to train and study. Ingrid is from Dalkeith and wants to make the town proud. You can follow Ingrid’s journey on Instagram.

Your former school is proud too Ingrid, and we wish you every possible best wishes for the future!