WHEN Ian Walker closes the doors at Gawthorpe High School for the summer holidays he will be saying goodbye to the school and farewell to his teaching career.

After almost 40 years, the secondary school is being demolished and rebuilt under the new name of Shuttleworth College as part of the multi-million pound Building Schools for the Future programme by Lancashire County Council.

And after 33 years at the Padiham school, assistant headteacher Mr Walker, 55, is retiring from the classroom.

He said today: "It's come as a bit of a jolt really. I'm not 65 or even 60 but I decided with the school closing that it was time for me to go too. I've been here so long that it's time to move on.

"I'll really miss the place and I don't know what I'm going to do but I won't be retiring altogether and doing nothing, I'll be going into employment of some sort."

Mr Walker admitted that times have changed since the school changed from being a secondary modern in 1974 to a comprehensive.

But he revealed he was beginning to see some similarities creeping back in.

He said: "When I came here in 1973 the government had just raised the school leaving age and there were a lot of restless pupils who basically didn't want to be there.

"And so car maintenance courses were set up, welding and community service and they helped old people. When comprehensive schools were introduced those things went out the window.

"But now we seem to have gone full circle with the introduction of these vocational courses. We're doing things now that pupils were doing back in the 1960s and 70s."

Pupils will move up to buildings on Kiddrow Lane, formerly home to Habergham Sixth formwhile the new school is being built.