Primary teacher retires after 39 years

WHEN Carol Doherty left school today (Wednesday) she began a new chapter in her life - retirement.

After 39 years in front of the class, all of them spent at Newbuildings Primary School, she can now look forward to uninterrupted travel plans and visiting the school as a guest and as a proud grandparent without any of the trauma and stress that goes with planning and executing school plays and fundraising events.

A graduate of the New University of Ulster, the former Londonderry High School pupil came to live in the area at the tender age of nine, and began her teaching career in 1972, teaching the P2 pupils.

“Even when I was about three or four I loved being in the company of young children and my mother always said that I would have a career working with young children, either as a teacher or as a nurse,” she said, admitting that she would have been much in demand as a babysitter in her youth.

Carol even met the man who because her husband, Richard, through the school.

“I was teaching here a couple of years when I was introduced to Richard, who was the road safety officer. At that time I was in charge of pupil road safety and Richard came out to us to deliver materials that I could use to promote road safety with the children.

“I had started a Tufty Club and the children loved going to that on Fridays, and Richard came out with the materials about three times in one weekand eventually picked up the courage to take me out to dinner. We were engaged a year later and the rest is history,” Carol said.

In 1993 Carol received a ‘Royal accolade’ in the form of recognition for teaching the road safety message to children from Prince Michael of Kent, and travelled to London to Kensington Palace Hotel, to receive her award.

When the school began to expand Carol was called on to apply her skills with little people teaching the P1 children and the reception children, and from then on her work centered on educating the school’s youngest pupils. It was a job she adored and also enjoyed building a good rapport with her tiny charges’ parents.

She is particularly proud that New buildings Primary led the way in 1982 with the ‘Delta Pre-School Preparation Class’, and is still helping little people acclimatise to the idea of starting school through that scheme today.

In addition to increasing paperwork, big changes have included class sizes, the addition of classroom assistants, and children helping plan topics and project work. It is a far cry from the ‘3R’s’.

Paying tribute to the staff and principals and thanking them for their friendship and help, Carol revealed that part of her retirement would involve travel and taking live at a slower pace.

“Some people have even said I should write a book, but everyone in the village would know who I was talking about,” she said.

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