The Gwen Mayor Trust was established by the EIS in memory of Gwen Mayor, the primary 1 teacher at Dunblane Primary School who was killed alongside 16 of her pupils in the 1996 tragedy. The purpose of the Trust is to advance education by providing financial support for projects in connection with the arts, culture, music or sport.
Gwen Mayor’s daughter and a former colleague from Dunblane Primary School are among the Trustees to the Fund. Since the creation of the trust, almost 350 primary school projects have benefitted from funding support.
All primary schools in Scotland are eligible for Gwen Mayor Trust Funding. If you are interested in applying for funding, please contact Karen Nicholson (knicholson@eis.org.uk) for an application form.
Proposed projects should fall within the purpose of the fund as set out above. Requests for full or partial funding of projects will be considered.
Here we look back at some school projects that benefited from Gwen Mayor Trust funding last year.
Seamab School
The children at Seamab School were delighted to be awarded a grant of £938 by the trustees of the Gwen Mayor Memorial Trust to purchase new musical instruments for our lessons from our teachers at Tinderbox.
Although our children have experienced significant trauma, they are hugely creative, and music gives them an outlet to express their talents and also helps them in managing their behaviours. They really have appreciated having access to such a wonderful variety of musical instruments.
Derek Kirkaldy, Grants Manager
High Blantyre Primary School
We created and staged our show “Fantastic Scottish Beasts and Where to Find Them” with funding from the Gwen Mayor Trust. This was a show which celebrated Scottish Myths and Legends.
The whole school was involved in the process of creating the “episodes” and “adverts” for the show – writing scripts and creating each piece collaboratively, making props, choreography, helping make costumes, recording voiceovers, as well as performing and working backstage during the two performances in February 2024.
Elaine Watt, Class Teacher
Port of Menteith Primary School
Food, glorious food! Thanks to the money from Gwen Mayor Trust the pupils from Port of Menteith Primary School have enjoyed growing a variety of food including beetroot, potatoes, peas, courgettes, chard, nasturtiums and sunflowers.
The money helped us build raised planters and buy equipment for the pupils to plant, grow and eat their own produce.
Pupils helped plan, paint and fill the planters before planting and caring for the plants. We are looking forward to many more harvests.
Helen Webster, Admin Assistant
Mount Pleasant Primary
We were delighted to be awarded a sum of money from the Gwen Mayor Trust, which allowed us to buy additional sets of desk bells to match our belle plates, djembe drums, and music stands.
These resources were used in classes and in whole school assemblies to bring the experience of playing in ensemble groups to all the children.
The highlight for us has been school assemblies where we have had more children playing an instrument than we have had in the audience singing along!
Suzanne Urquhart, Head Teacher
Blairdardie Primary School
We received the grant last September. We bought a range of cycling accessories such as helmets and gloves to support us in our delivery of Bikeability.
This enabled the majority of primary 4 and 5 children to participate fully and successfully complete Bikeability Level 1.
These resources are still being used this session as another cohort of pupils from take part in Bikability training.
Miss Nicola Campbell, Acting Principal Teacher
Kelvindale Primary School
Kelvindale Primary School was lucky enough to secure £500 from the Gwen Mayor Trust to purchase six bicycles and helmets.
The skill of learning to ride a bike is not something every child gets the opportunity to develop outside of school.
Our pupils said, “I really like the bikes because people who don’t have one at home can learn to ride” and “the bikes are awesome and fun for kids to play outside with, when they need a break from classroom learning.”
Mr A Murray, Class Teacher
Royston Primary School
We used the Gwen Mayor Trust grant to put on a play called Peggy The Pint-Sized Pirate with our P5-7 drama group. T
he group had been created to support children with their confidence and communication. The funding helped us buy good quality costumes, props, stage equipment and a lighting rig.
The equipment is still being used in classes and at school events. Thank you very much Gwen Mayor Trust!
Matthew Thomson
Project awards 2025:
In 2025, the Gwen Mayor Trust awarded a total of £8,000 to 9 primary schools.
- Alves Primary School, Alves, Moray
- Strathmore Primary, Forfar, Angus
- Dykehead Primary School, Shotts
- Coylton Primary School & EYC, Coylton, Ayr
- Flora Stevenson Primary School Nursery, Edinburgh
- St Catherine’s Primary School, Paisley
- St Denis Primary School, Glasgow
- Blairhall Primary School, Fife
- St Andrew’s Primary School, Dumfries & Galloway