The one teacher who has remained at Sir John Gleed School in Spalding since 1974 had a retirement party on Friday.
Fellow staff members, former colleagues and ex-pupils joined head of computer studies Ray Isaacs (63) at The Birds pub in Halmergate.
Many thousands of students have been taught by Mr Isaacs, who joined Gleed Girls’ School as a geography and maths teacher. In fact he draws his greatest pride from hearing of the achievements of ex-pupils.
“Some of the girls have gone on to gain degrees in geography or do well in further computer studies. That’s been good,” he said.
Mr Isaacs has seen plenty of changes at the school, the most significant being the move from O-levels and CSEs to GCSEs in the late 1980s.
His retirement plans include the completion of a project to trace all the French graves of World War One victims from The Deepings, where he lives. He wants to present photographs of them all to Deeping St James Priory Church and St Guthlac’s Church in Market Deeping.
He’ll do that venture on his beloved 30-year-old Honda Goldwing motorbike and expects to need six months.
Mr Isaacs retires from the school at the end of the summer term in July.
