THE head teacher of Pershore High School looked back on another eventful and successful year at the school's speech day.

As well as welcoming a new duo as head boy and girl, staff and students also bade farewell to a popular and long-serving teacher at the school last Thursday.

Head Clive Corbett said he was particularly pleased that the school's GCSE results last summer were a record for the school. "We are looking forward to continuing and building on our success over the coming year," he added.

The school will also be growing physically with a new all-weather sports pitch and an 11-laboratory science block due to be built this summer.

The event will also see the school's new head boy and girl, Jared Thomas and Natalie Torbett, officially welcomed to their new roles. "I'm sure they will continue the good work of their predecessors and help move the school forward over the next year," said Mr Corbett.

On a sadder note, the school is bidding farewell to its head of sixth form Derek Richards, who has been at Pershore High for 21 years. "He has presided over a real growth in sixth form numbers over the past eight years," said Mr Corbett. "He is regarded with great respect by the many hundreds of sixth formers and other pupils he has worked with during his time at the school."

Mr Richards said he is planning to do a lot of travelling in his retirement, with tickets already booked for trips to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. "I feel I have had the best job in education working with older students as director of the sixth form. They are full of energy and life and they have kept me young - I shall miss that," he said.