'Humbled and proud' Milton headteacher retires after 37 years of teaching at Meon Infant School

Meon Infants acting head of school, Karen Morey, who has held that position for one year, and deputy head for ten, has retired from Meon Infant School today after 37 years of teaching at the school in Milton.

The now 59-year-old teacher, born in Buckinghamshire, was first posted to the school in 1985 as a newly qualified teacher or ‘probationer’ after training in Brighton, knowing nothing about the area.

She said: ‘I’ve never left since. This has been my one and only school and it’s such a special one, Milton is a really lovely area with a real village community, I feel humbled and proud to have worked here. It feels like a family.

‘I've seen lots of generations past through, I've seen things change, different curriculums come out, lockdown lessons, I've seen it all – I’m part of the furniture.’

Having taught multiple generations of pupils, including her own son Alex, who is now 20, Mrs Morey has formed close connections with the community and will be ‘dearly missed.’

Office manager Ann Simmons has been working at the school for 35 years and has seen Mrs Morey grow and rise through the ranks at the school.

She said: ‘I love her, it’s going to be very different without her, we’ve been very lucky to have her. We’re very much on the same wavelength, we don’t have to speak to each other to know what the other is saying.’

Cards, gifts and well-wishes have poured in for the ‘one-in-a-million’ headteacher, with parents putting together a notebook of memories and messages for Mrs Morey.

The Watford family described the teacher as the ‘kindest and most heart warming headteacher’ they had ever met, and the Morgans added: ‘We couldn’t have made it through lockdown without your [Mrs Morey] roller-coaster ride of emotions on a daily basis. The place will not be the same without you.’

Mrs Morey plans to ‘take it easy’ in her retirement and is looking forward to her seven-day weekend without the ‘sunday-night feeling’.

She added: ‘To be able to have finished my career as the head of school, it’s where I wanted to be.

‘I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other school.’