East End primary school headteacher moving on to pastures new

Sideways move south west planned

A POPULAR East End headteacher is to move on to pastures new at the end of the summer term.

Parents of the 120-pupil, St Martin’s Primary School have recently received a letter informing them of the impending departure of headteacher Peter Shelton.

Speaking to the Newbury Weekly News, Mr Shelton said the school’s governors were seeking a permanent replacement.

However, there is likely to be an interim arrangement to fill the post during the autumn term, with a new head appointed to start in January 2017.

“The governors met last Wednesday night to start the process,” said Mr Shelton, who leaves on July 20.

His five years at the Church of England school have seen it grow from four to five classes in a “fantastic building project”, he said, while trying to build strong relationships with the local community, and achieving a ‘good’ Ofsted marking, and ‘outstanding’ rating in church school inspections.

“We put a lot of energy into a strong Christian ethos in school – this is a key part of what we are trying to achieve,” he said.

His forthcoming move is due to a combination of family health reasons and also has proved an opportune time, with his eldest son finishing university and youngest son to start at university in September.

Mr Shelton, who will celebrate his 50th birthday in a few days time, and his wife, Lisa, a reception teacher at Cheam School, Headley, are hoping to sell their house in Newbury, before moving to the Devon or Somerset area, with hopes of becoming foster parents, in a new venture.

Future plans also include undertaking research at the University of Exeter on the topic of teaching religious education and collective worship in primary schools, while also working with a church diocese, and supporting Christian schools and religious education teaching.

“My retirement age is 68 – I couldn’t imagine being a full-time headteacher at 68,” he said.

“It’s the first step towards a different lifestyle, hopefully less intense and demanding.

“We will remain busy and active, but in a low key way.

“It will be quite a dramatic change in the Shelton household.”