A POPULAR Andover headteacher is retiring after more than three decades in education.

Russell Stevens, the head at John Hanson Community School, has supported thousands of children over the years to ‘achieve highly’.

Mr Stevens led the school from ‘requires improvement’ to a ‘good’ Ofsted rating, with inspectors saying in October 2018 “the recently appointed headteacher is resolute in his ambition for pupils to achieve their best”.

In its latest Ofsted, in March 2024, the school continued to be ‘good’ and inspectors noted: “This is a very happy and inclusive school because staff have successfully created a caring and aspirational culture.”

Mr Stevens has been teaching for 34 years across four schools, with the last 10 years at John Hanson.

He will now retire at the end of the school year. Mr Stevens said: “It has been an immense privilege to work within education across 4 decades and to play my part in preparing young people for adult life and the careers they will pursue beyond the end of their educational journeys.

“To all those young people who I have had the pleasure to teach, meet and come across over the last 34 years, I hope you go on to and have gone on to achieve amazing things and have used your educational experience to become the best version of yourself possible.

“I am sure when September comes around I will feel very strange not being in school and doing my very best to support the education of the students at John Hanson, but all good things eventually come to an end.

“To all my colleagues in all the schools I have worked at, you really are amazing people who, day in day out, impact positively on the lives of young people.”

Paying tribute to his colleagues at John Hanson, Mr Stevens said: “And finally, to my colleagues at John Hanson. I will very much miss working with you. While I get to receive the plaudits when our students and our school achieve highly, it is you that make this happen.

“I am so privileged to have played my small part in our ongoing success. Keep on doing what you are doing. Rest assured I will be watching from the side-lines.”

Mr Stevens was appointed as headteacher after former head Ian Coombs left to study towards taking a job in further education in 2017.