Two of South Holland’s primary school headteachers are stepping down from the hot seat.
Maureen Martin leaves Cowbit St Mary’s on March 27 for “semi retirement” while Heather Beeken will retire from St Paul’s Community Primary School, Spalding, at the end of the summer time.
Mrs Martin has been with her school for almost 16 years and admits leaving will be a wrench.
She said: “I will miss working with the children because children do give a lot of pleasure.
“When you see children progress as people and in terms of educational success, those are the best rewards you can have.”
Mrs Martin hopes to continue working as an educational consultant.
She’s worked in education for almost 30 years, starting out at an upper school in Market Harborough and later working at Boston College, St Thomas’s Primary School, Boston, and as a literacy consultant for the county.
Heather Beeken has been at St Paul’s since 1996 and became its headteacher in 2001.
She has mixed emotions about leaving, saying she will not miss the pressure of hitting targets and “Ofsted inspections and so on”, but will miss the children and the community feeling within the school.
So far she has no work plans lined up.
“I am looking forward to having a bit more me time,” she said.
Mrs Beeken began her teaching career in 1974 in Peterborough. She moved to Shepeau Stow Primary School in 1983 and taught there for about nine years. She then worked at Southview Primary School, Crowland, before joining St Paul’s.