Staff bid a tearful farewell to college

Denise Ramshaw, Larry Kingstone, Jayne Wood and Carol Jones will say goodbye to staff, pupils and parents at Felpham Community College at the end of term after a combined total of 106 years at the school.

Over the years the four have met thousands of different parents, worked with a whole host of colleagues, watched four headteachers come and go and seen the way young people are educated change.

But they all agree pupils have stayed the same.

Miss Ramshaw started at the school as a newly qualified teacher in 1977. She said: “Throughout everything the students have essentially stayed the same, the way they are taught and the school environment may have changed, but they are still here to learn.”

“When we all started teaching it is fair to say it was a very different profession.

“Everyone who wanted to be a teacher did so because they wanted to make a difference to a child’s education.”

“We started at a time before the national curriculum and before targets. There probably was a lot more freedom back then,” added Mr Kingstone.

Miss Ramshaw joined the school at the age of 22 as a science teacher and has spent her career there.

“I don’t know why I have stayed for so long, it was just the right decision for me and I have enjoyed my time at the school.”

But on what makes Felpham Community College the school it is, Mrs Wood – who began her career at the school in 1983 at the age of 28 – has her own thoughts.

“There is a real sense of community at Felpham. It has a cultural thread to it, that is what makes it special. People may try to change the school. But it will always be Felpham Community College. The school may have physically changed over the years, with new buildings and classrooms, but what makes the school a school will always be here,” she said.

Geography and sociology teacher, Mr Kingstone, whose mother was the school’s head of English before he began his time in 1990, admitted it was strange teaching members of your own family.

“It is strange, I have taught members of my own family but they are just like any other pupil.

“For me what is most ironic is that I started teaching in a portable classroom and will finish in a portable classroom.”

“It is unusual teaching children of former pupils, but it is usually the pupil who says you taught my dad or mum,” added Mrs Jones.

The school’s summer term will finish on July 20, and the teachers departure will be marked at the school’s annual leaving assembly.

The four will not officially retire until August 31.