I was a pupil here, says retiring head

A HEAD teacher has retired – 53 years after first walking through her school’s gates as a new pupil.

Jenny Hunt, 57, arrived at Hazelmere Junior School aged four in 1964. As was one of its first students she was taught there until she left aged 11.

Years later she volunteered as a piano player and a recorder teacher when her own children started at the same school.

She then took up a full-time teaching role and eventually became head teacher, enjoying a 24-year career at the school in Colchester, Essex.

Excited

The mother-of-two said: “This school has been a huge part of my life – it’s going to feel very strange not coming here every day.

“I have given all that I can to the school and I can honestly say I have loved every minute I have spent here.

“I can still remember what it was like the first time I walked through the gates.

“I was very excited as a little girl. A lot has changed since then, but the friendly atmosphere and the sense of community is still just as strong. I never imagined I would end up becoming head teacher, but it’s one of those funny things that happens in life. Everything has come full circle.

“The children like continuity, so it made sense to become head teacher having been involved in the school for so long.”

Jenny’s newly-wed parents moved to an estate near the school when she was a baby. Her mother still lives in the same house, just a 10-minute walk from the school gates.

When Jenny’s children Andrew and Emma started at Hazelmere in the 1980s she returned as a volunteer music teacher.

She then began working as a newlyqualified teacher in 1993.

She would spend the next 14 years teaching before being asked to step into the head teacher role in 2007.

To mark her retirement, pupils sang a medley of her favourite songs in a special assembly.

But Jenny will still be involved with her beloved Hazelmere.

She explained: “I’ll still be on the board of governors for a while to help the new head teacher.”