and Timothy McKittrick.

Both applied for posts at the Bermuda High School for Girls (BHS) last year, both were successful, and both started their new jobs in September.

The elder McKittrick teaches Year Seven and Eight students maths, art and history, while his son teaches the eight- and nine-year-olds in Primary 4.

But the unusual circumstance of father and son teaching together may be less of a coincidence than destiny.

"My mother was a teacher, my wife is a teacher, and two of my five children are teachers,'' Mr. Alwyn McKittrick said.

A long-time member of the teaching profession, Irish-born Mr. McKittrick began his Bermuda career in 1960 at Whitney Institute, when he taught art, religious knowledge, English and physical education to ten-to 18-year-olds.

With the amalgamation of schools in 1972, he moved to Harrington Sound School, and from there to St. George's Secondary School as a counsellor, before ultimately becoming headmaster of Gilbert Institute.

Then, in a complete break from education, Mr. McKittrick became Director of the Bermuda National Trust, a post he held for years before resigning.

Too young to retire, he elected to re-enter the education field -- which is how he wound up at BHS.

Although he is teaching for the first time in an all-girls school, Mr.

McKittrick is absolutely delighted with the experience.

"The students are very, very motivated here, and the competitiveness of girls is really quite extraordinary. They tend to be more competitive than boys.

They are just as interested in somebody else's marks as in their own. You don't necessarily find that in a co-educational school.'' Though he has some regrets about not completing his mission at the National Trust, Mr. McKittrick has none whatsoever about resuming his teaching career.

"I always enjoyed teaching children, and this is certainly not a step backwards,'' he assured. "While I must be completely honest and say I would have liked to continue what I started at the National Trust -- there is an awful lot of work needed there -- this is a great way to go on to retirement.

"The people here are wonderful to teach with. Very conducive. The staff really do try to make you a part of them. I feel as if I have been here a lot longer than three months. Not all staff are as welcoming as that, I can assure you.'' After a long career in Government schools, Mr. McKittrick is also appreciative of the private system.

"There are slightly different priorities from the point of view of motivation,'' he explained. "And you also have very motivated parents who are obviously anxious to do the best they can for their children.'' Although teaching might have been in his blood, Timothy McKittrick's path to his present career was a little more circuitous.

Following his general education at Saltus Grammar School, he completed a two-year hotel technology programme at the Bermuda College before moving to the University of New Haven, Connecticut, where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in hotel and restaurant management.

Taking up an appointment to run a country club in Norwalk, Connecticut, it seemed that Timothy had embarked on a career in catering. Subsequent management of a Dunkin' Donuts franchise compounded the impression.

When a partner pulled out, however, ruining his plans to run a Dunkin' Donuts franchise of his own, the young Bermudian thought again.

"It was the final blow that put me off the catering business,'' he remarked.

But, as so often happens in life, when door closed another opened. Through the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut Mr. McKittrick heard about a programme which permitted a resident of the town to pursue a Master's degree programme at night in exchange for working as a permanent substitute teacher during the day.

Although his parents had some reservations about his becoming a teacher, Timothy was fired up by happy memories of his youth.

"Growing up, I saw how much energy and excitement my parents created about school, so I never disliked it,'' he said. "I could see that they really enjoyed what they did. To me, if you can enjoy a job that much it's not really a job, but something you like to do every day.'' Weighing that against the gruelling hours and myriad problems of the hotel-restaurant business, Timothy took up Bridgeport's offer.

"While the money is good in the hotel-restaurant business, the financial aspect was not the biggest thing for me. As a teacher, I could still run things as I was used to doing in the hotel business, and I was still my own boss in the classroom, but the work was extremely rewarding,'' Mr. McKittrick explained.

Assigned to a co-ed Government school where 70 percent of the students were bussed in, the substitute teacher faced quite a challenge.

"It was a large, urban school for children from kindergarten to fifth grade, and many of the students were Spanish-speaking,'' he said.

Despite spending a year in a special school learning English, many of these students had a less-than-perfect grasp of it, so Timothy -- who speaks Spanish fluently thanks to a year as a Rotary exchange student in Ecuador -- found himself having to translate as well as teach.

With his Master's degree in education successfully gained, he was lucky enough to land his first professional teaching job in the US in September, 1992.

"It's very difficult to do that because the salaries are so good,'' he explained. "And once you have landed the job, they put you through a very rigorous assessment programme six times a year. Fortunately, I came through very well.'' By 1993, however, romance had entered the picture, and Mr. McKittrick decided to return home to woo the lady whom he plans to marry.

Thus it was that father and son both began teaching at BHS in September, 1993.

If the elder McKittrick had some slight doubts about the arrangement, his son had none.

"I have all the confidence in the world in my father,'' Timothy said. "I know he is a great teacher.'' Indeed, the respect is mutual.

"Tim's a great guy who gets on with anybody. He is very dedicated to anything he does. It's not very often that you find kids like that today,'' his father said.

FAMILY FACULTY . . . As teachers at the Bermuda High School for Girls, father and son Timothy (standing) and Alwyn McKittrick scored a double first: teaching together in the same school, and teaching all girls.