ROSSENDALE's longest-serving secondary school head teacher is leaving education after 40 years.

Neil Thornley will have been head of Fearns High School in Stacksteads for 16 years when he retires on August 31.

He said: "When I first started, the school had a mind set of people who worked under the belief that this was a secondary modern school with a grammar school over the road. If I have done anything in my 16 years, I think I have got rid of that and we now have an inclusive comprehensive where we really do believe children can achieve."

He said the success of the school -- especially last year when Mr Thornley did a cartwheel after the school GCSE grades A* to C topped 30 per cent -- was down to the hard working team of teachers.

Mr Thornley, 62, announced his retirement last Friday, to the surprise of pupils and parents.

He said: "I think I have done a reasonable stint in education and a reasonable time as head but I have enjoyed my job very much and the only thing that is worrying me is the obvious vacuum it will leave and where do I go to try to find a life!"

Of the critics who label his school"troubled" he said: "I believe it is the very nature of the English media to look for the negative. This school has had its problems, but no more trouble than any other school. People like to magnify troubles."

He described the job as highly stressful. But as head of nearly 1,000 pupils, with 150 adults, he had enjoyed the challenge.

Mr Thornley will become a grandfather for the first time in 10 weeks and he is looking forward to seeing more of the world with his wife Dorothy, also a teacher.

Originally from Oldham, he lives in Middleton but plans to move to a smaller house probably in the Manchester area.

He has a multitude of hobbies to keep him busy, cooking, growing bonsai trees, cycling and theatre and foreign travel.

He said he would miss his colleagues and of the students he said: "I will miss their freshness, their openness, their honesty and their good sense.

"There is nothing more true than the saying you can fool some of the people some of the time -- but you can never fool children."