THE achievements of Bolton-girl Julia Head will "live on in the hearts and minds" of all she has taught and worked with, making her the perfect for The Bolton News' first ever Secondary Teacher of the Year Award.

Mrs Head, who retired at the end of the last academic year, went back to her old school to become a teacher at Bolton School.

Headmistress Sue Hincks said: "Indefatigable, her positive nature and joie de vivre were undiminished after seeing generations of girls pass through her hands.

"By the end, she was teaching former students’ daughters and nieces — but never, to her relief, their granddaughters.

"Her achievements will live on in the hearts and minds of all those whom she has taught and with whom she has worked."

Mrs Head is described as a Bolton girl through and through. She attended Church Road Primary School and won a scholarship to go to Bolton School girls' division where she excelled academically before continuing her studies at Bristol University where she read history.

After her PGCE she returned to Lancashire and taught humanities at Sharples High School from 1976-1982 and they did supply work for Bolton Council — which sponsored the award — until 1988, when she went back to Bolton School and remained until her retirement until July 2015.

In her first appraisal, she was described as "very keen" and "vivacious" with an "excellent rapport with the students" — qualities she retained throughout her career and said Miss Hincks "was the most admired and best-loved of teachers".

Miss Hincks said: "She really cared about every girl in her classes and was absolutely passionate about her history —an enthusiasm which no pupil could resist.

"In the last four years of her career, she became head of key stage three and gave every support imaginable to the girls and their parents.

"Julia constantly said ‘If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing quickly’ and she always responded at once to any concern raised. "

Mrs Head, aged 62, who still lives in Bolton, said: "This award dwas a huge surprise, it came out the blue.

"I retired at the end of August, with mixed feelings, from a school which I loved, the staff and young people I have loved working with."

She said it had been an "absolute privilege" to work with young people in Bolton School and across the borough in different schools and settings, adding that as technology develops in the classroom, young people don't change — remaining "enthusiastic and keen".