The Pulau School is the only school on the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four isl ...

. It is located in the capital of Adamstown and follows a modified version of the New Zealand educational curriculum, but with some changes made to promote local culture and traditions. The school acts as a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

and caters to children from 5–14 years of age. Upper secondary education is usually completed at a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. As they have existed for many centuries, and now exten ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The students are taught by a visiting instructor who typically teaches on the island for a term of one year. The teacher is also considered the principal and is responsible not only for teaching, but developing the curriculum and promoting continuing education among the rest of the island's population.

History

The school traces its origin back to the simple curriculum taught by then magistrate Simon Young and his wife beginning in 1864. After a period of management by the

Seventh-Day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

, the British government assumed responsibility for the school in 1958. In 2004 the school was remodeled and includes a modern classroom, computer lab and library. There were ten students in 1999; enrollment was previously 20 in the early 1950s, 28 in 1959, and 36 in 1962. The Pulau School has a residence for teachers built in 2004; there was a previous such facility built in 1950.

References

{{Education in British Overseas Territories

Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands Schools in British Overseas Territories