Stewart Is finally finds preschool teacher

UP FOR THE JOB: Rebecca Norrish is heading to Stewart Island to start as a teacher.

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Stewart Island has found its new preschool teacher after a nationwide search.

Rebecca Norrish, 22, of Oxford in North Canterbury, is preparing to move to the island after cutting short her camping holiday.

Parents of children at the Rakiura Rugrats early childhood centre on Stewart Island were ready to run the 12-child centre themselves this year after struggling to find a teacher since the previous one left in November.

Publicity on the centre's plight last month saw 15 people apply for the job, and six were considered.

Centre secretary Jo Learmonth said Ms Norrish had the right personality, qualifications and attitude.

She was camping north of Auckland with her partner when a fellow camper told her about the job after reading about the centre's search.

She and her partner were about two months into a six-month camping trip around New Zealand.

Ms Norrish said the job was too good an opportunity to pass up, so she packed up the van and travelled to a friend's place in Auckland, from where she sent her curriculum vitae.

She had an interview via internet telephone service Skype, and a few days later she learnt she had the job.

Ms Norrish said she had visited Stewart Island last year and was looking forward to living there with her partner, who had managed to find a job on the island.

"It's just so untouched. To me, it's a piece of paradise."

Christchurch has been her home for the past three years while she finished her early childhood education studies, but she said she did not enjoy the city lifestyle.

Ms Norrish will start on February 23.

Centre chairwoman Mary Chittenden said it took about six months to find the previous teacher.

The cost of relocating to Stewart Island was high and many found that hard to justify because the position was for only about 20 hours a week, she said.

The centre did not qualify for a relocation grant from the Education Ministry because Stewart Island was not deemed a hard-to-staff area, she said, but Auckland, Northland, Marlborough and the West Coast were.

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