The Fula Islands, one of the most remote inhabited islands in the United Kingdom, are looking for a new principal to run their small primary school, with a register of just four students and another child in kindergarten.
Fula, an island of 4.9 square miles with a permanent population of 28, is located 16 miles west of Shetland and rivals Fair Isle, which is 44 miles south, as the most isolated and exposed settlement in Britain.
His popular head teacher, Beverly McPherson, described by an islander on Facebook as “really fantastic”, is retiring after four years at the island’s one-room school.
Located on the east side of the island, protected from the Atlantic by the highest hill of Fula, the school house also has a children’s room, kitchen, community center and solar network – part of the external power supply of Fula for renewable energy sources.
The job specification promises a salary of £ 61,374, relocation costs and a three-bedroom house. The ad, posted by the Shetland Islands Council, reads: “Are you a head teacher or an ambitious head teacher 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: coping attitude, vision, energy, initiative, good communication skills and self-discipline.”
Other islanders work part-time at the school, covering the early years, art and information technology. In Fula, as in many other Scottish islands, residents take on many jobs, while teenage children live off the island during the semester, staying at a hostel in Lerwick to attend Shetland’s primary school.
Map of Fula
Ken Geer, the father of two of the children in primary school, is an engineer at a Dutch company but also serves as an assistant firefighter at the island’s airport, a peripatetic repairman for the island’s water and electricity, and farming 50 sheep and running a self-service holiday let .
Fula’s life is not for everyone, Gere said, “but for people who like things like that, it can be idyllic.”
“You have to be quite independent to live in a place like Fula. You have to be self-starting. We have a very 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 can take care of themselves. There is this duality. “
Known to bird watchers for its great sailors, puffins, razors and kayaks, the name Foula comes from the Old Norse for “bird island”: Fugley. At its western end, high and steep cliffs protect the island from intense Atlantic storms. These include Kame, which at 365 meters is the second highest sea rock in the United Kingdom.
There is one particular oddity: Fula traditionally works on the old Julian calendar and celebrates Christmas – when all the islanders get together – on January 6th. New Year falls on January 13 every year.
There are disadvantages compared to living in more populated areas, Geer said, “but living here, we believe that the wonderful freedoms and closeness to nature that you can experience growing up in Fula far outweighs those disadvantages.”
The island is served by daily flights from Tingwall Airport near Lerwick on the mainland of Shetland in summer, at a return cost of £ 46 for adult islanders and three ferries a week in summer. “We look pretty isolated, but we’re actually relatively well connected, certainly more, so you’d expect to look at the map,” Gere said.
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