BARRIE HUDSON speaks to Linda Ford, 62, newly retired after a 40-year teaching career spent entirely at Dorcan Academy, where she mostly taught history and geography. Linda is married to Alan, a journalist, and the couple live near Bath. They have two grown-up children.

“THERE’S not that many people that do 40 years,” said Linda Ford in an accent which still hints at her origins in Warrington.

“I think there will probably be fewer and fewer because the pressures on teachers are immense.

“It’s not so much the pressure from within the school; it’s the pressure from without.

“It’s constant Government pressure, Government change year after year after year, and teachers have got to adapt constantly to new systems and new ways of doing things.

“And we’re very good at adapting, but when you’ve got the students to teach and the students also to get through the grades as best they can, it becomes an immense workload.

“If there is still anybody out there who thinks teachers finish at three o’clock and have long holidays, I’d suggest they try teaching for a bit.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with my Sundays because they were always full of school work...”

In spite of the pressures, Linda is at pains to say she’s never regretted her vocation – not for a single moment.

“Would I ever have done anything different? No. I would always choose to be a teacher because I just love the people and I love seeing students grow and develop.

“If you think what they’re like in Year Seven and what they’re like when they leave a secondary school – the emotional growth, the social growth, their academic growth is immense.

“It’s just lovely to see the young adults of the future.

“I often hear people say, ‘How on earth can you teach? Kids are spoiled, kids are rude, kids are–’ any sort of negative that they want to come out with.

“Admittedly a handful are, but unfortunately the people just focus on that very, very small minority of students and they forget to see the big picture.

“Ninety-odd percent of students are just wonderful human beings who care and give.

“Teaching is great for a people person because you’re surrounded constantly by people, whether it’s students, fellow teachers, admin staff – there are a lot more people in a school to support what goes on in the school than people realise.

“Every single person counts and makes a difference. Every single person.”

Linda’s mother, who will soon celebrate her 90th birthday, worked as a cook-in-charge at a school. Her late father worked in a paper mill.

The family initially lived on her grandparents’ farm.

“By the time I was 10, I was driving a team of horses, driving a tractor and doing harvest work with the men. It was a wonderful childhood.”

Linda’s first career ambition was to be a nurse.

“I don’t know why I changed my mind but it was always going to be a ‘people profession’.

“It was always going to be something to do with people.”

Linda did a three-year teaching course at Alsager College of Education in Cheshire.

She believes the length of the course was an advantage and that trainees taking modern one-year post-graduate teaching courses often have a tougher time.

“It’s a shock that you’ve got these 30 kids in front of you, and then another 30 kids and another 30 kids, and you think, ‘Oh, gosh.’ “I think the key to a good teacher is the relationships that you build up with the individuals in the class.

“The first thing I was taught when I was at college, and which I teach by now, is, ‘Be firm, be fair and consistent, and then everything else follows.

“And it does. The students respect you.”

There was never any doubt over her choice of subjects.

“I’ve always liked people and places, which is exactly what geography and history are.

“History makes sense of the world that we live in and geography is the world that we live in, and we have to look after the world that we live in for the future.”

Seeing a job at Dorcan advertised in the Times Educational Supplement led to a 40 year career in teaching and pastoral work.

Linda has occupied just about every office in the building apart from that of the headteacher.

When Linda started at Dorcan, teachers used blackboards and chalk; now they often use touch-sensitive ‘smart boards’ attached to computers.

On a rather less exciting note, there are also ever more inspections and admin work.

“I think they should let teachers be freer within the classroom to teach in a style that suits them, instead of the constant monitoring.

“Free up teachers to teach.”

There have also been many changes to the structure of the school, with entire rooms and areas added and taken away, but Linda has taken them all in her stride.

“It’s not the physical building that makes the school. It’s the students in it and the staff.

“Give a shout to the staff. Dorcan is full of very committed, very caring members of staff, many of whom have been here for a large number of years like me.

“It’s the friendliness of the school that makes it hard to leave.”

Some things haven’t changed, though: “Students are the same. Students are just young adults growing up to be better adults.”

Linda believes a teacher should not act as students’ friend or co-conspirator but instead be a reliable, approachable leader to whom students can take their worries and problems.

The approach has worked. Pupils who last sat in her classroom years ago still greet her in the street, and some sent flowers and other gifts on learning of her impending retirement.

Her pupils have gone into a diverse array of careers.

Melinda Messenger and ballet dancer Jacob O’Connell are among the countless thousands of people she has taught.

Linda is proud of her students’ achievements, such as the Kenyan house-building project she took a party on in 2013.

In retirement she plans to travel more, and has pencilled in visits to New Zealand, Australia and the Amazon river.

She relishes her 40 years’ worth of happy memories.

“Everything is worth it for the one kid who says, ‘Thank you’.

“All the hard work, all the Sundays that you give up, all the hours that you spend on the phone with parents, the letters that you write to parents — everything.”