“What are little boys made of?” asks the nursery rhyme, and now staff at an Orkney school will find out due to a new cohort of P1s.
Stromness Primary School, which has around 140 pupils, has welcomed 18 new primary ones to the school and it is an all-boys affair, with the class having no girls at all.
The unusual occurrence is a first for class teachers, Susan Begley and Joanna Tulloch, who say the news is creating a lovely buzz at the start of the new school year.
The job-share teachers said: “It’s certainly not something you expect and is absolutely a first for both of us – a class of only boys especially in a school of our size.
“In terms of teaching, it won’t make a difference to us, as we will be following the interests of the bairns so we won’t be changing anything but, as with any new class, it will be exciting to see what their interests are.
“As always, the new school year brings lots of nerves but lots of excitement too. The boys themselves are also excited about it being all-boys and are finding it quite funny.
“We had a few laughs on our “moving up day” where we went to say “boys and girls” and they would say “just boys” when we forgot. It’s certainly creating a lovely buzz for us and the school community at the start of the new school year.”
‘Very unusual’
It was the Orkney school’s nursery manager, Caroline Easton, that realised it would be an all-boy P1 class.
She said: “We look after two to five years in the nursery, so we have had some girls, but none are moving up to the P1 class this term, meaning it’s a class of 18 boys.
“It’s very unusual for this to happen but I have no doubt it will make little difference to them in terms of teaching and learning, other than a bit of excitement being the boy-only class.”
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