[quote="Yahoo 22/04/02"] Teacher lands dream job with one pupil
LONDON (Reuters) - With many teachers complaining of overcrowded classrooms and lack of resources, one teacher is about to begin her dream job.
Jane Puckey will have just one pupil -- a six-year-old girl -- when she takes up her new post at the primary school on Papa Stour, one of the Shetland islands off the northeast coast of Scotland, with a population of just 24.
The school has been run closed for the last nine months after its former teachers, a couple, retired to New Zealand and the only other pupil moved on to secondary school.
Papa Stour's website (www.papastour-shetland.co.uk) said Puckey would take up her post after the Easter weekend, working alongside the school's secretary Annette Coope.
"It has everything a teacher a could want," 59-year-old Puckey told the Independent, including three computers, a television and an art room as well as a school house with three bedrooms.
"The ability to provide individual one-to-one attention all day, every day, is a major benefit for the child and satisfying for me as teacher," she said, adding that more children reaching school age might be joining soon. [/quote]
[quote="Yahoo 22/04/02"] One-pupil school suffers attendance problem
LONDON (Reuters) - The reopening of the country's smallest school has been cancelled because its sole pupil failed to turn up for class, The Times reports.
Friday's newspaper said the six-year-old girl's parents were unhappy with a teacher hired at public expense to teach the only primary school-aged youngster on Papa Stour, one of the Shetland Islands off the northeast coast of Scotland.
Jane Puckey had been due to start teaching the girl on Tuesday, reopening a school that had been closed for the last nine months after its former teachers retired and its only other pupil moved on to secondary school.
But the girl's mother, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her daughter's privacy, is keeping her daughter at home.
"I was not consulted about the appointment," the mother said. "I mentioned to the old teacher as far back as last September that if Ms Puckey got the job my children would not be going to school.
Despite having just one pupil, the school is well-equipped and has a secretary, three computers, a television and an art room as well as a school house with three bedrooms.[/quote]
This made me laugh when I read first story, and I nearly died when reading the second!