Retirement looms...

[RoyG]

Wednesday will be my last day after nearly 36 years in the school!

After a few years in the Engineering business I started teaching Physics in 1972. My first encounter with a computer was the ZX80 in 1980, followed closely by the good old BBC. We used one for data logging etc. in Physics - the BBC was a great machine for its time.

The first computer room was kitted out with RM 186s around 1990 & I took over as Head of IT (& IT Coordinator & Network Manager!) in 1993, while still teaching Physics for most of the week!!

First big project was to bin the RM Network & install 20 P75 Pentiums with an NT3.51 Server in 1996. A server crash the week before Ofsted and the difficulty then of getting decent NT support saw a migration to Novell Netware - which we still use.

Bit different now - 3 main computer rooms, clusters of PCs & laptops in various places around the school, laptops for all teachers, Netware Servers for Curriculum & Admin, Linux server for web hosting, 2003 Server for KS3 Tests (now binned!!), a VMWare server for development work etc. etc.

I've been lucky in that I've been left to get on with the job of implementing pretty much all aspects of IT in the school, without a great deal of intervention from SLT! For the last couple of years I've been purely Network Manager, with a great colleague taking over the Head of IT role.

My successor has been working alongside me since January - nearly 40 years younger, but totally capable of keeping the whole lot going and introducing exciting new developments in the future.

The challenges of the last 15 years have been truly invigorating - I think I'd have been pretty bored & washed out by now if I'd still just been teaching Physics!

Thanks to all the Edugeek Community – you’ve been great support! The FFS thread is a great stress reliever!

Good luck to you all.

RoyG

[jcollings]

Very best wishes for the future. I hope your retirement is a long and happy one.

[ChrisH]

What ever will you do with all that time on your hands ? Good luck have fun

[john]

Enjoy your retirement

[witch]

Good luck and have fun - but I bet you end up doing a bit somewhere just to keep your hand in!

[Diello]

Enjoy your, well earned, retirement - and thank you for the post, made for a nice read

[elsiegee40]

Good luck and enjoy your retirement!

Have you got any plans to fill up your free time?

[Domino]

remember, techies don't grow old - they just need upgrading now and again.

Hope its great!