Three-night weekend for hostel pupils?

The OIC is looking at the possibility of North Isles pupils spending three nights at home at weekends.

At present, Sanday, Westray, Stronsay and Eday pupils travel home on Fridays, returning to the Papdale Halls of Residence on Sunday afternoons.

The council is now considering whether pupils could travel back to Kirkwall on Monday mornings, giving them three nights at home. But this plan would mean changes to both the Kirkwall Grammar School timetable and the Orkney Ferries sailings from the North Isles.

The options put forward in the four-week consultation, which starts tomorrow, Tuesday, include:

• No change to current arrangements — with the majority of pupils continuing to spend two nights at home at the weekend.
• Change ferry timetables — with ferries setting off from the North Isles earlier and arriving in Kirkwall between 8.35am and 9.05am, and the school day starting at 9.25am on Mondays. This would enable a three-night weekend.
• No change to the ferry timetable — but the KGS school day starting on Mondays at 11.20am, also enabling a three-night weekend.

Details of the consultation will be posted to www.orkney.gov.uk on Tuesday, June 3, with printed copies available from OIC customer services and the libraries in Kirkwall and Stromness, schools in the isles and on ferries.