TWO life-long friends are this year’s head boy and head girl at North Berwick High School.

Calum Black and Isla Michie took up their roles at the school at the start of the new school year and have enjoyed their first terms, but admit it has been made easier by working alongside a friend.

Isla told the Courier: “We’ve been to school together from the very start, and we get on pretty well, so that’s been really easy.

“We’ve known each other since we were four or five and I think that’s really helped us.

“I think it would be weird having to do this role and work with someone you don’t really know that well.”

Isla and Calum started their schooling in Gullane, where they both live, before moving to North Berwick High.

And the pair, both 17, admitted they had different reasons for putting their names forward for the roles of head boy and head girl.

Calum told the Courier: “My big brother was the head boy here four years ago, so I felt like I had to follow in his footsteps.

"He was really supportive of me doing it and he pushed me on.”

Meanwhile, Isla said: “When I was younger I never thought I would have the confidence to stand up and give a speech in front of everyone, but as I’ve got older it was something I wanted to do."

“I think for the last couple of years it has been something I’ve wanted to do.”

The pair were chosen after hustings and interviews with deputy head Michelle Moore and headteacher Lauren Rodger, and hope to increase the school’s prominence in the wider community.

Isla said: “We had to come up with pledges and one we both came up with was to do more for the community, especially the older people in North Berwick.

“We hold two concerts, one in the spring and a summer concert, and my idea was to have another one for the people in the care homes and invite other groups along as well."

“It is really about putting in place things that can be taken forward by future years – that is what it’s all about.”

After their final year at the town’s high school, Calum hopes to go to university to study zoology, while Isla has her designs set on studying geography.