Last updated at 08:08, Friday, 12 March 2010

THE headteacher of Dearham Primary School is retiring at the end of this month.

Michele Coates, originally from London, has been the headteacher for nearly 10 years and has taught at the school for 30 years.

She said: “It has been a privilege and a joy to teach at the school. I am sad to be leaving. I have the most wonderful group of teachers.

“The children are lovely, polite, well-motivated and kind.

“One of the best things is that if I go into some of the younger classes I have taught most of their mums and dads.”

The school organises trips to Normandy and London on alternate years for the older children.

Mrs Coates, a widow, has one son Jamie, 34.

She lives at Braithwaite and plans to spend some of her retirement working on a fellside garden.

She became interested in gardening when she moved to Cumbria.

She said: “I was brought up in a flat in a suburb in London and we never had a garden.”

Mrs Coates is leaving on Friday, March 26 and there will be a leaving presentation on Thursday, March 25.

The new headteacher will be Samantha Kidd, a school improvement officer from Whitehaven.

First published at 19:29, Thursday, 11 March 2010
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk