1:10pm Wednesday 4th August 2010
MORE than 500 pupils said a huge goodbye to their head teacher with a supersize picnic.
“I can’t think of anything nicer than doing a job you love in a place you love,” said Jinty Williamson, who has led Fair Oak Junior School for 12 years, having already been deputy head for five years before that.
As well as the picnic for everyone in the school, there was a leavers’ assembly and even a barn dance where Jinty said her goodbyes to all her staff colleagues and to the parents.
She said she would be going away with many favourite memories of her time at Fair Oak.
High among them, she said, was seeing individual children achieving things that they had never thought possible; being with her young charges at the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms and watching some of her pupils play football at St Mary’s.
Then there were the outstanding Ofsted ratings achieved by the school while she has been its head teacher.
The 60-year-old, who lives in Chandler’s Ford, has also taught in schools in Southampton and Eastleigh.
“I have never regretted being a teacher for one minute,” she said. “I feel I’ve done the job the best I can and it has been a privilege.”
Chairman of the governors, Sue Carter, said: “She has been an outstanding head and she is one of the most dedicated professionals I have ever met.
“She is passionate about every single child who comes through the school.”
Jinty, who is celebrating her retirement by joining a crew for one leg of a Tall Ships adventure voyage around the UK, will be succeeded in September by Paddy Macey.
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