Vice-principal retires

The vice-principal bade farewell to her young charges on Wednesday and her colleagues later treated her to dinner at the Beech Hill Hotel.

Valerie, who decided to take early retirement, left the school amid smiles and tears on Thursday accompanied by other staff members for a long lunch and final goodbye, and spent some time on Friday ‘cleaning’ her room. While a small number of ‘Baker Days’ will have to be completed at the end of August, Valerie can now consider herself a free agent.

Originally from Straidarran, four miles outside Claudy, Valerie admitted she “did not know Ebrington Primary School existed” until she was interviewed for the job. The Ebrington post was one of two, and was not her first choice, as she explained.

“I was a little country girl who came in from the village to the Model Primary School and I was not aware of any school in the Waterside at all. I trained as a teacher in the University of Ulster and graduated in 1975. I wasn’t particularly nervous the day I had the interview, because the following day I had an interview for Drumahoe School. We had just bought a house in Drumahoe and it was the Drumahoe application that I was interested in but I have to say I was lucky enough to secure the post at Ebrington,” she said.

Valerie said she was looking forward to her retirement, and being able to avail of off-peak travel with her husband Billy, for the first time in three-and-a-half decades.

“I know I will miss my colleagues and the children most of all, but I am looking forward to a hopefully long and relaxing retirement. I am also looking forward to being able to walk into the school and enjoy what performances there are and walking out again,” she said.

There is a family wedding to look forward to, as daughter Jill is to wed in December and the couple are also looking forward to visiting their other daughter, Emma, in Manchester. Valerie will also be filling her free time with long walks, Sudoku puzzles, to which she is addicted, the Londonderry Musical Society - she has been a member for 32 years - and the Showstoppers phenomena.

Paying tribute to his colleague, the principal, Nigel Dougherty, said Mrs Haslett would be missed from the staffroom as well as the classroom.

“Valerie worked in Ebrington for 36 years. She joined the school straight from university and became our vice-principal in 1995,” said Mr Dougherty.

“Valerie has been a huge asset to the school, she was an outstanding teacher mainly teaching the P1 class in her latter years here, and she was also an excellent vice-principal.

“Not only am I losing a friend, the school is losing a great teacher and colleague, and above all, we are losing a very good friend.

“We wish her all the best in her retirement,” he said.

To mark her retirement, Mrs Haslett was presented with a new laptop on behalf of the pupils, while the staff presented their colleague with a watch. Tributes were paid to Mrs Haslett at the formal dinner on Wednesday night.