A LONGSTANDING Worcester principal will say goodbye to students today after 16 years at the school.

Sean Devlin will retire from Blessed Edward Oldcorne Catholic College at the end of August but said he was proud to be leaving the school in good shape.

He first joined the Timberdine Avenue school in 2001 and has seen a number of changes, including a bid for the school to become a specialist college for maths and computing, a name change and extensive building work.

He said high quality staff, good students and support from the community had kept him at the school, which he described as consistently academically excellent.

He added: "It's the atmosphere in school and the drive from staff across a range of different things.

"One of the things I've been most proud of has been the really extensive extra-curricular opportunities in the performing arts and music productions."

Mr Devlin joined what was Blessed Edward Oldcorne School after spending ten years at Douay Martyrs Catholic School in West London and, before that, helping to reopen St Georges Catholic School in Maida Vale.

He first considered being a social worker after studying for a degree in sociology with politics and economics at, what was then, Leeds Polytechnic.

He said: "I did have a financially rewarding job in a meat factory but my dad said to me, 'why are you doing this?' so I decided to do teaching."

He worked firstly at schools in London before travelling to Papua New Guinea with VSO.

The trip turned into a 15 year spell abroad, when Mr Devlin opted to work for the Papua New Guinea government and help build Vanimo High School near the Indonesian border.

He described his years in the country as a "brilliant time."

He said: "There was nothing there. I built the school over six years.

"I applied to the VSO because I wanted to travel. I wanted to do something completely different.

"I just enjoyed it."

Mr Devlin said one of the greatest challenges he had faced during his career was constant change in the GCSE curriculum.

He said: "It's gone from course work to assessment to modular exams to linear exams.

"It's just changing, changing changing.

"It seems to be driven by performance targets rather than educational philosophy or child centred education."

He also said he disagreed with academisation, something he and governors had resisted for the College.

He said: "When I first came I would have brilliant subject specialists employed by the county council.

"Now we have got one maybe.

"The council was 110 per cent behind this disintegration so what we have now is a system where schools are not working together. They can't be held accountable by the LEA and it means parents haven't got access when there's a grievance and we need them to be able to organise our school places.

"It's been a retrograde step and had a negative impact."

Mr Devlin's final year has been tinged with sadness with the death of two students within a short space of time but he said the school's faith had given pupils strength to deal with tragedy.

He now intends to spend more time with family in Uganda, where his wife Dorothy is from, and play golf.