Burnley teacher retires after 30 years (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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Burnley teacher retires after 30 years
7:00pm Thursday 19th July 2012 in Opinion
By Tyrone Marshall, Reporter
RETIRING Alan Riley is stepping down as assistant head at Shuttleworth College after 30 years
A TEACHER who has worked at two Burnley schools in the past 33 years is retiring.
Alan Riley, 56, is stepping down from his role as assistant head at Shuttleworth College , in Padiham, at the end of the academic year.
Mr Riley joined the school in 2006 as a curriculum leader and in 2008 was promoted to his current position. Before that he worked as head of history, and then of the humanities faculty at Towneley High School during 27 years there.
He said: “I have enjoyed the vast majority of my time as a teacher in Burnley and I have certainly met some interesting characters along the way.
“At the time it was a big wrench to leave Towneley but it was a blessing in disguise. The last few years at Shuttleworth has seen the college go from strength to strength and I think that education in Burnley is on the up after all the upheaval of Building Schools for the Future.
“Hopefully I have played a small part and I am confident that further progress will be made across the town.”
Mr Riley grew up in Burnley and studied at St Theodore’s before graduating from York University. He spent a year working in the music industry before doing a PGCE at Manchester University.
He has decided to step down from his current role but intends to carry on working in education and has various projects and ideas.
He will continue his link with Shuttleworth College and will be teach some GCSE groups there for a part of each week next year. He also hopes to continue his work developing Oral History Projects for schools with an ex-Towneley student, Dr Amanda Thornton.
In addition he will spend some time travelling around Europe and in the autumn will begin building a new house in Blacko.
A keen sportsman, Alan won the double in both the Burnley Saturday and Sunday football leagues in the early 1980’s and in the process appeared in two cup finals on Turf Moor. He went on to play for Rossendale Amateurs, Nelson and Burnley Belvedere.
