A TEACHER who left Scotland 13 years ago to travel the world to pursue her career has finally secured a permanent job in her home country.
When Laurene McIntosh, of Carradale, graduated back in 2001 she could not find a job locally due to a lack of vacancies.
Ms McIntosh, 34, had said she would go "anywhere in Scotland" to achieve her dream. When this failed to turn into a permanent posting in Aberdeenshire, she headed to Lincolnshire for her first teaching job.
Her career path then took an exotic twist with jobs in America, Russia and Brazil,
While teaching in Brazil's largest city, Sao Paulo, she saw an advert for a headteacher at Skipness and Clachan Primary School in Argyll, 5,500 miles away.
Rural Skipness, with just three primary school pupils, couldn't be more different than Sao Paulo which has a population of 11.5 million.
She said: "Teaching was all I ever wanted to do, I never considered anything else. When I was at primary school I even used to play at being a teacher at playtime.
"But when I came out of college the job situation was dire and even just getting supply teaching was tough. I didn't want to be unemployed, so I started applying for jobs anywhere."
She then worked in a state school in a deprived area of Atlanta, Georgia, before moving to teach in Moscow. There she met her husband Jim Cretton, a teaching assistant.
Three years ago, the couple moved to Sao Paulo after she landed the job of heading up the junior section of a new school.
Ms McIntosh said she has emerged a better teacher. She said: "At the school in Atlanta, some of the children were born addicted to drugs. One boy was being looked after by his auntie because his dad was in jail for killing his mum.
"Then Hurricane Katrina happened and we got pupils that were displaced by that. I remember one boy came into class and he just fell asleep. His family had lost everything."
She has settled into her new school. "I absolutely love it here in Argyll. I love being home and being nearer my parents and I can't stop taking photos of the scenery. It's so different from Sao Paulo. It is so pretty."
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