Scotland's most remote school seeks new headteacher

Scotland's most remote island primary school - with just three pupils - is searching for a new head teacher.

Fair Isle, which is halfway between Orkney and Shetland, is famed for its knitwear and bird observatory.

It is just three miles long (4.8km) and one-and-a-half miles wide, is home to 60 people, and only got a reliable 24-hour-a-day electricity supply in 2018.

Headteacher Ruth Stout has worked at the school for 35 years, but is due to step down in October.

Shetland Islands Council said the post - with a salary of £56,787 per year - was a unique opportunity, with applications having to be in by Sunday night.

Mrs Stout said the island - which featured in the BBC's Fair Isle: Living on the Edge documentary series - is a great place to live and work, but urged potential applicants for the job to carefully consider the practicalities of moving there.

She said: "It's quite a different sort of life to living in other places. We are very weather dependent.

"Planes and boats are often cancelled and that can impact on school trips. You have to be adaptable and flexible living here.

"I've been here for 35 years and we've a lot of children through the school - we've had primary one to primary seven, every age and stage in the class at the same time. The children learn from each other."

The current pupils are nine-year-old Freyja, six-year-old Luca, and Ander, who is three.

Freyja said: "There are not many children so you can get to do lots of different things.

"And we grow lots of vegetables to have with our school dinners."

Eileen Thomson, the mother of Luca and Ander, said the island was lucky to have such a good school and it was vital that it managed to attract the right person to continue the work done by Mrs Stout.

The departing head teacher said a major challenge was preparing the children for secondary school, when they have to leave Fair Isle and go to board at the high school in Lerwick in Shetland.

She said: "It's a big move from them and they just come back every third weekend and holidays.

"So a lot of our time is spent on school trips to get them used to being in Lerwick and used to the Anderson High School hostel where they will go and live."

Shetland Islands Council said whoever replaces Mrs Stout would have a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Robin Calder, its executive manager for quality improvement, said: "This is a tremendous opportunity for a head teacher, or aspiring head teacher, to join the vibrant community of Fair Isle and continue to take the school forward.

"It offers a fantastic opportunity for any educationalist to develop both professionally and personally."