A long serving teacher has retired after 18 years of service to the families and children who attend St Herbert’s Primary School in Keswick.
The school marked the departure of Hayley Hodgson by honouring her with a special service in which staff and pupils shared highlights from her time at the school.
Children performed personalised songs and the ever competitive Mrs Hodgson got to challenge staff and children in a series of games including the After Eight challenge, bean bag toss, balloon pass and hula hooping. Naturally, Mrs Hodgson, who has been the PE lead at the school, won most of the events.
PE has been a driving passion of hers and at the assembly she talked about how much it means to her for children to ‘find their thing’ when it comes to sports and how much she has enjoyed giving children opportunities to find it.
Mrs Hodgson has been fundamental to arranging sports for local cluster events and has had an impact on sports participation for all the children within our local area.
The school’s head teacher, Michael Craig, said: “Mrs Hodgson has been an outstanding servant of our school for the last 18 years.
“She has made a huge difference to countless families during their time at school. On behalf of myself, governors, staff and children, we just want to say how thankful we are to have had Mrs Hodgson for the last 18 years. We know it won’t be goodbye and she will always be welcome back to our school.”
Mrs Hodgson said: “I have been privileged to teach at St Herbert’s for the last 18 years and to be a part of the lives of so many children.
“It is a wonderful community and I have always felt great support from parents, colleagues and governors. I shall miss it very much.
“Whilst I am retiring from teaching I will not be putting my feet up as I will be busy making coffees in my friend’s coffee shop and my son’s coffee van! I hope everyone will come and say hello.
“I also hope to be spending more time cycling, running and travelling.”
