''I saw it was from some trust and I thought, 'Oh crikey, someone else is after my money'.''
Fortunately, after taking her morning maths class, the Bayfield High School teacher in charge of junior mathematics took another look at the letter and found it was the Woolf Fisher Trust offering her a Woolf Fisher Fellowship.
''I was pretty blown away. It was a complete surprise.
''I had to get one of my teacher aides to read it to make sure I had read it correctly.''
Ms Scott said the fellowship offered $10,000 for her and her partner to travel overseas to undertake research and professional development in the field of mathematics.
She said the fellowship provided three weeks' leave, but Bayfield High School had also offered some leave without pay, and after adding it on to the two weeks' school holidays, she hoped to spend about eight weeks overseas.
She planned to visit some ''gifted schools'' in San Francisco, a maths conference in England and Portugal, spend some time at Cambridge University, and attend another maths conference in Sydney.
''I'm hoping to see how other people do gifted education.
''In New Zealand, we're not particularly good at looking after our gifted kids, but that's a worldwide problem, so it would be good to talk to other people and see how they handle the problem. It's about finding ways to challenge and extend gifted kids so we can make them into rocket scientists.''
Ms Scott said she would also investigate methods for teaching pupils who struggled with basic arithmetic.
The fellowship was awarded for her excellence in teaching mathematics in the classroom and the wider community.
She is co-ordinator of the New Zealand Casio Senior Mathematics Competition and a past-president of the Otago Mathematics Association.
The original fellowships were awarded in 1960, and were designed to send leading secondary teachers and principals overseas to examine different teaching practices.
The fellowships are now awarded to secondary, intermediate and primary principals and secondary teachers.
Through the fellowships, the trust acknowledges and encourages excellence in educational leadership and 'in-school' practice in New Zealand.
Ms Scott plans to take the trip in June and July next year.
