The islanders of Foula, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the UK, are looking for a new principal to run their small primary school, with a record of only four pupils and another child in the nursery.
Foula, a 4.9-square-mile island with a permanent population of 28 people, is located 16 miles west of Shetland and competed with Fair Isle, which is 44 miles south, as the most remote inhabited place. and exhibited from Great Britain.
Its popular principal, Beverley McPherson, described by an islander on Facebook as “truly fantastic”, has retired after four years running the island’s one-bedroom school.
Located in the eastern part of the island, protected from the Atlantic climate by the highest hill of Foula, the school house also includes a nursery, a kitchen, a communal room and a solar matrix, part of the supply of renewable energies outside the Foula network.
The job specification promises a salary of £ 61,374, relocation costs and a three-bedroom house. The announcement by the Shetland Islands Council says, “Are you a director or aspiring director looking for an exciting new challenge? Do you dream of being part of a friendly, dynamic island community with a slower pace of life?
“The qualities we look for in a successful candidate are: a capable attitude, vision, energy, initiative, good communication skills and self-discipline.”
Other islanders work part-time at school covering early years, art and information technology. In Foula, as in many other Scottish islands, residents take up a multitude of jobs, while teenage children live off the island during the quarter and stay in a hostel in Lerwick to attend the Shetland High School.
Map of Foula
Ken Gear, the father of two primary school children, is an engineer for a Dutch company, but also works as an assistant firefighter at the island’s airport, a peripatetic repairman on the island’s water and electricity supply. , as well as farming 50 sheep and running a holiday rental with kitchen.
Life in Foula is not for everyone, Gear said, “but for the kind of people who like that kind of thing, it can be idyllic.”
“You have to be very independent to live in a place like Foula. You have to be self-employed. We have a pretty strong community and we certainly help each other when needed, but at the same time, part of the success of the Foula community. is that people are able to take care of themselves. There is this duality. “
Famous among bird watchers for its large skúas, frailecs, razors and guillemots, the name Foula derives from the Old Norse for “bird island”: Fugley. On its western shore, high, steep cliffs protect the island from intense Atlantic storms. They include the Kame, which at 365 meters is the second highest cliff in the UK.
It has a particular peculiarity: by tradition, Foula works according to the old Julian calendar and celebrates Christmas Day, when all the islanders gather, on January 6th. New Year’s Day falls on January 13 of each year.
There are disadvantages compared to living in more populated places, Gear said, “but living here we believe that the wonderful freedoms and closeness to nature you can experience growing up in Foula far outweigh these drawbacks.”
The island is served by daily flights from Tingwall Airport near Lerwick to the mainland Shetland during the summer, with a return cost of £ 46 for adult islanders, and three ferries a week during the summer. “We look pretty isolated, but we’re actually reasonably well connected, certainly more so because you expect to look at the map,” Gear said.