Every day at school was a joy for '˜Sir'

But, after spending his life so far in the classroom, the newly retired headteacher says he never planned to be a teacher.

David is now enjoying an early retirement after more than 35 years in the profession he got hooked on by mistake and “enjoyed every single day “he went to work.

He said: “I wanted to be an educational psychologist but had to teach for a couple of years first. I was enjoying it so much I didn’t want to go back to do my MA so I carried on teaching.”

His tutelage started at Seven Stars Junior School in Leyland under the headship of Geoff Southworth who went on to become a professor at Cambridge and Director of Research at the National College for School Leadership in the UK.

Ambitious from the start, two and a half years into his career David went to speak to his new head and outlined his plan to run his own school by the time he was 35.

He beat that target when he took over as headteacher at Kennington Primary in Fulwood, Preston, aged 33.

From Leyland he moved to Greetby Hill Primary in Ormskirk then two years later was deputy head at Hoole St Michaels.

But, he says: “I had three very good heads, who taught me a lot before I moved to Fulwood and Cadley Primary as deputy head .

It was a bigger school and the head did a lot of work for the local authority which meant I had to step up and take more control .

“This helped me develop considerably before I moved to Kennington .

“I was therefor 10 years and the staff were brilliant.

They really looked after me.”

He recalled: “I remember we had an inspection in 1996. It was the first round of new Ofsted and they were very aggressive. They were with us for a week and we got an OK inspection but as the team drove out of the car park the lead inspector bashed the car on the gatepost and the governors all cheered.”

In 2003 the father-of-two left the then heavily overcrowded school to the relatively new Sherwood Primary School just a mile or so away.

He said: “Kennington was hugely overcrowded and Sherwood was the opposite but the numbers grew. In the end we were oversubscribed and I was proud that it was and really pleased that people wanted to be there.”

David added: “The staff at Kennington and Sherwood were fantastic and I feel very lucky to have worked with some very loyal people. Both governing bodies have supported me and allowed me to run the schools. They worked with me to enable me to do what I wanted in terns of providing an exciting curriculum.”

Despite numerous changes in education he is proud to have seen three staff go on to be heads and five become deputies.

Parental support has been “fantastic” and among his proudest achievements was seeing Sherwood twice graded Outstanding by Ofsted.

He is national executive member for primary education with the National Association of Headteachers and plans to continue the work alongside some consultancy and inspection work - and playing golf.