Pilton teacher bids farewell after almost 50 years in classroom

A North Devon teacher is retiring after almost half a century in the classroom.

Pilton Community College maths teacher Dave Lee has spent 40 years teaching at the Barnstaple secondary school and taught in Bristol for eight years before that.

He reckons he has taught many of the parents of the current crop of students and even some grandparents.

He said: “I’ve loved it at Pilton. It’s been an honour to work with many fabulous colleagues and lots of amazing students.

“Teaching has changed – the internet has changed everything. But the process of teaching is the same – developing relationships with students.

“In this school we’re very blessed with teachers who think that’s the first priority, then teaching the subject becomes a partnership with your students.

“I still believe that manners are the most important thing in the classroom – mutual respect. Our core values are central to everything I believe in. One thing that’s definitely changed is our understanding of children who struggle to learn; we are now much more sophisticated in that area.

“Pilton has always been a very strong pastoral school. It’s a community school, one that tries to form relationships with students and their families. It’s generally a very happy place to work.”

Mr Lee says he will miss the routine but he adds: “I think I’ve done my bit but I’m less patient than I used to be so I probably won’t miss that stress of blaming myself for bad lessons.”

He says he intends to embrace older age and will continue to volunteer at the local golf club and spend time at the cafe his wife runs, where he will be happy to talk to people and try to make them smile.

“I’ll play golf, go for walks and for a while I’ll miss getting up and going into school,” he says.

“But I wouldn’t consider it retirement. I just won’t be working at Pilton anymore.”

He says among his best memories are the many sponsored walks he helped with, which were all very rewarding, and the youth hostelling he organised which was very enjoyable.

“I think my assembles to my year groups when I was a head of year were fun for me as they were usually unprepared and slightly mad on occasion,” he says.

“I will never forget my time here, which has been fabulous.”

And his parting advice?

“To all my colleagues – support each other and enjoy your work. Be young for as long as you can, as life goes by too quickly. To the students – build positive relations ships with your teachers and get to know them, all of them are human. Be true to yourself and be kind and respectful to one another.”