AS the summer holidays approach, an Ipswich primary school is today preparing for the end of an era when its long-serving headteacher retires.Over the last 30 years, Ken Lunn has taught thousands of pupils at Morland Primary School in Gainsborough, first as a PE teacher, then as deputy head and finally as principal.

AS the summer holidays approach, an Ipswich primary school is today preparing for the end of an era when its long-serving headteacher retires.

Over the last 30 years, Ken Lunn has taught thousands of pupils at Morland Primary School in Gainsborough, first as a PE teacher, then as deputy head and finally as principal.

The popular Yorkshireman held a desire of becoming a teacher from a young age - and his passion for his profession has never waned.

The 60-year-old said: “I had a lack of ambition when I was younger - I never wanted to do anything else. From childhood, all I wanted to do was teach.

“I will certainly miss the school and I will miss the children. They are what make the job so wonderful. I am old fashioned enough to still think it is a great privilege to teach.

“I planned for retirement two years ago. Old age begins to get to you and the day to day grind is quite strenuous. I didn't want to be in the job wishing I had gone.”

After graduating from Loughborough with a degree in chemistry, Leeds-born Mr Lunn started his career as a PE teacher at Holbrook Secondary Modern School in 1967.

Nine years later, he took a similar position at Morland Primary, where his son Tim was already a pupil, before eventually becoming deputy head in 1983 and then head in 1999.

Since taking over, he has overseen a period of progress and in the school's last Ofsted report, Mr Lunn's strong leadership was singled out for praise by inspectors.

He claimed the role of a teacher has changed dramatically during his working life.

He said: “There's a lot more pressure on teachers nowadays to attain targets and levels. When I first started there were no schemes of work - the teachers made their own programmes of learning.

“There was no continuity in schools. The education children get now is much better.

“In the 60s, teaching was held as a profession of high regard, but that seems to have gone. I think it's a change in society more than a change in the children's behaviour.

“But if someone wants to teach, it's still a great profession.”

Mr Lunn, married to Hazel and father to two sons, said he has no major plans for his retirement and hinted he may make use of his wealth of experience in an education consultancy role.

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