Headteacher wanted to run remote island school

● Ability to cope with isolation and storms essential

A tiny island school with just two pupils is on the hunt for a new headteacher after the current one left because she misses the mainland.

Applications are being encouraged for the job on Foula, 20 miles west of Shetland and surrounded by the Atlantic.

The successful candidate will have to be able to cope with isolation, powers cuts and heavy storms.

Nicknamed “The Edge of the World”, after a film made there in the 1930s, the island has a population of just 32.

The school currently has just two pupils but one is leaving for high school on the Shetland mainland next term.

Currentteacherjaynesmith, 38, is leaving after three years.

She said: “I came thinking I’d do a couple of years.

“Some people do backpacking. I came to Foula and that’s been my adventure. But I miss the mainland. I want to go while I still love it here.”

The new headteacher will receive a salary of £49,000 and a three-bed home.

Foula, named from an old Norse word for birds, measures nine square miles and is made up of crofting townships on a narrow coastal strip. There is a post office, but no shop or pub.

An advert on Shetland Council’s website invites experienced applicants.

An online posting by the school states: “This is a fantastic opportunity for someone who is looking for an adventure.”

Relocationcostswillbepaid. The closing date for applications is Thursday, 8 June.

Shetland-born Ms Smith returned home to take up her new post on the remote island in 2014.

She moved from Aberdeen’s largest primary at Cults with its 500 pupils to look after the education of the three children who were on the island at the time. Speaking after her first week teaching on the island Ms Smith said: “In my last school the staffroom was bigger than the classroom here.”

The teacher prior to Ms Smith served in the post for two years.

Shetland Council had flown in a string of supply teachers to keep the school open while it searched for a permanent replacement.

The tiny school was in the news again in 2015 when the chimney on the building needed to be fixed, causing the school to close for four weeks.

Builders refused to come to the island to fix it unless they were guaranteed to be able to leave the same day.