Retiring head says 'most pupil issues can be traced back to social media... schools should not be afraid to tackle the situation'

A DERBY secondary school will not only lose its head teacher, but also a long-serving member of staff when Jon Wilding officially retires this week.

- By ZENA HAWLEY

Mr Wilding has been at Littleover Community School for most of his teaching career and said farewell to staff and pupils at the end of term as the six-weeks holiday began.

He has been at the school for 25 years - and headteacher for six of those.

Jon is almost 55 - with 33 of those years spent in teaching - and has decided that the time is right for retirement.

Although he imagines that after a short break he will get involved in something else maybe linked to education.

He said: "I have done the best I can for as long as I can and I am able to leave the school in a very good position and it seems the right time for me, my family and the school".

In the past few weeks, he has been making sure all is in order for his successor, Laura Johnson, and that he was around to see how this year's A-level and GCSE exams turned out before bowing out finally.

Mr Wilding, who hails from Cheshire, did not aspire to being a teacher from a young age but having done better in his A-levels than he thought, he decided to head to the University of Sheffield to study sociology.

He said: "At one point I thought I might get involved behind the scenes in broadcasting.