MUSICAL headteacher Richard Bottom is retiring from the teaching profession on a high note.
Mr Bottom has been headteacher at Wilberlee Junior & Infants School, Slaithwaite, for 20 years and has spent 35 years in education.
He hopes to spend his retirement dedicating more time to playing his violin with Huddersfield and Slaithwaite Philharmonic Orchestras. He has been with Huddersfield for 30 years and Slaithwaite for 25.
Mr Bottom, who is married with two children, also plans to spent time caravanning and digging his allotment.
He trained as a teacher at Bretton College and Leeds University and started his career as a music teacher in Humberside. He then worked at Honley Junior School and was deputy headteacher at Littletown Junior, Infant and Nursery School, Liversedge, before starting his headship at Wilberlee in 1991.
School bursar Pauline Wood has also retired, after 27 years at the school.
She started working there in 1984 as a secretary and educational teaching assistant and then became school administrator. She finally took on the role of bursar, which deals with the financial administration at the school.
As well as spending time with her six grandchildren, Mrs Wood hopes to spend time researching her family history, gardening and taking holidays.
