TAKING a temporary post to cover for a staff member who was on sick leave led to two long-term commitments for a Barnoldswick teacher.

Today (Friday), Tim Cockroft retires from the school where he took that "temporary" job 36 years ago. It means he can spend more time with his wife, Shirley, the teacher whose sick leave landed him the job.

He could hardly have known when he took the supply post at the then Barnoldswick Secondary Modern School, that it was a decision that would shape his life.

Since then Mr Cockroft has served as head of geography, head of lower school and deputy head, helping to guide the school through it transition to a comprehensive and later to a technology college.

He is the longest serving teacher at the school, where some of the pupils he taught in recent years were the grandchildren of those he taught in his early days.

After completing his teacher training at Leicester, Mr Cockroft planned to go into mental health research. "I got a place to do it in Scotland, but unfortunately there was no funding to go with it, so I rang around for any temporary teaching jobs as a stopgap," he said.

The education office in Skipton sent him to Barnoldswick to meet the headmaster, Bob Hartley.

"I was taken on as a supply teacher to cover for a teacher who was off ill. She taught history and music and I was able to do the history part. That teacher was Shirley Tomlinson, and when she came back I was kept on and we became close and started going out together.

"Later we got married, so you could say I started my career here by taking my wife's job."

Mr Cockroft returned to Leicester to do a one-year postgraduate course, and his wife went with him, finding a teaching job there. At the end of the year they both got jobs back at the Barnoldswick School.

Shirley stopped work when their first child was born, returning to work at other Pendle schools some years later.

Their daughter Judith is now a teacher at Barnoldswick's Church School, while son Peter produces learning materials for hospital staff. Both were pupils at West Craven High - renamed after its transition in the mid-1970s from a secondary modern.

That was a big change for the school, which grew to take almost 1,000 pupils from the 450 pupils and 20 staff when Mr Cockroft started. Today, West Craven High Technology College has more than 800 pupils and around 50 staff.

In his time there Mr Cockroft has taught geography, history, English and his main subject, sociology. Now, after 36 years, he is looking forward to retirement.

"I'm looking forward to a good holiday with family and friends and then to whatever presents itself," he said. "But I will certainly miss the children and the contact with other staff."

He also served on the board of governors and praised the commitment of other governors and members of the School Association, formerly the PTA.

"I would also like to praise the current headteacher, Arnold Kuchartschuk, and the school as a whole for the excellent GCSE results achieved this year. Long may it continue."