The Ministry of Education has been conducting interviews with prospective candidates for the job principal at Purvis Primary School since the departure at the end of the term of Roseclaire Bulgin.

It is understood that Mrs. Bulgin has accepted a position at a middle school in Rhode Island to reunite with her husband, Dr. Samuel Bulgin, who accepted a senior pastor?s post at a Seventh Day Adventist Church there earlier in the year.

Mrs. Bulgin had a colourful career at Purvis Primary when she took over as principal in September, 2001.

Within months she had implemented a pilot daily maths programme and heavily pushed reading and literacy in a bid to not only see students abilities improve, but also to increase their enjoyment of books.

In May this year Mrs. Bulgin was in the news again, but this time because parents had called for her resignation.

Petitions were circulated demanding her dismissal and the reinstatement of the school?s secretary, Marjorie Armstrong.

The situation reached explosive proportions when parents and teachers walked out of an emergency PTA meeting at the school one night. Nothing more was ever said about the incident.

In her reading programme, children recorded how many minutes they read at home each evening and within two months the 155 children at Purvis Primary recorded an impressive 127,722 minutes.

In 2003, Mrs. Bulgin launched ?Wonderland?, in which the school became a miniature version of Bermuda and pupils participated in real life scenarios with instruction and community involvement.

Mrs. Bulgin wanted to promote learning in an environment that fostered critical thinking, creativity and collaboration with the arts, environmentalists, agricultural and business communities in Bermuda.

Students acted out their parts as Government officials, business men and woman, bankers and even judges and lawyers in Wonderland?s own court.