CHILDREN, staff and parents of Lamerton Primary gathered at St Peter's Church last week for the Year 6 leaving service and to say a fond farewell to the head and a teacher who are retiring after many years at the school.

Headteacher Ann Mitchell is retiring having worked at the school for almost eleven years. But she is not retiring completely as she will still be working one day a week at various schools in Tavistock with special needs children.

Ann said: 'I'm going to Uganda to our link school out there, as I was given a grant to do an exchange with the school. Their head is coming here in September and I will be going there.

'It has been brilliant working with everyone — the staff, parents and everybody has been so supportive. It has been a team effort and I thank them all.

'I was given a picture by Jennie Hale and a Kindle so I can have lots of books to read when I go off in my campervan.'

Also retiring is infants teacher Linda Pearce who has been at the school for 22 years.

Linda said: 'It has been really lovely working here. There have been lots of changes during my time here and the children have been lovely to teach. I have lots of really happy memories.'

The children surprised the two teachers by singing a version of a song from their end of term play that had been rewritten to refer to their retirement.

Ann Mitchell presented the ten leaving students with certificates and trophies celebrating their success during year six and the Rev Greg Stanton presented them with leavers' bibles.

Ann and Linda were presented with gifts from the governors, parents, staff, village hall committee and parish council. They were thanked for their major contributions to the school and were wished a long and happy retirement.

Pupils also recently presented an end-of-term musical performance of Olympic scale.

With fewer than two weeks to go until the Games kick off in London, the whole school took to the stage in costume to perform 'Go for Gold'.

The narrative followed a fictional participant of the Games, struggling to meet the costs of competing, who reflects on the origins of the Games in ancient Greece and the underlying philosophy of team participation.