An “inspiring” Marlow head teacher is looking forward to a well-deserved break after stepping down from her role after 13 years of tireless work.

Geralyn Wilson joined the struggling Great Marlow School (GMS) in 2003, and has watched it flourish under her experienced eye in to a school desired by parents and children alike.

But after more than a decade of dedicated work at the secondary on Bobmore Lane, Mrs Wilson said her last goodbyes to her colleagues and pupils on Tuesday, July 19 after retiring from her post.

Despite undergoing surgery on her broken ankle just days before the last day of term, the headteacher insisted on returning to hold her final assembly and attend the end of term party where here colleagues praised her "inspiring and dedicated" work.

Over the years she has presided over roughly 540,000 lessons at GMS, and now plans to share her passion for education by helping new head teachers to prepare for their roles and working on separate projects in challenging schools.

She said: “I felt like I had to finish, it is a sense of heart so I did all the leaving assemblies this morning. It would have been a great source of regret if I didn’t.

“Now I have finished and it has been the best job in the world.

“There are some things I still want to do in education – I have done so much with the school but I am not sad to leave it because it is in such a great position.

“It has been incredibly challenging. When I came here it was not a school of choice but now it is completely over-subscribed, everyone wants their children to come here.”

Mrs Wilson’s time at Great Marlow was interrupted for 16 months in 2013 after she was called in to work as an interim head teacher at Mandeville School in Aylesbury when it was put in to special measures.

However Great Marlow will always hold a special place in her heart, according to Mrs Wilson, and returning a year and a half later was like “coming home”.

After many challenging years, she now plans to use her newly found free time to spend time with her grandchildren and travel the world.

As of September deputy head Kevin Ford will take over as head teacher – who said he is “honoured” to take on the role, and is looking forward to the expansion of GMS.

This summer will see the start of a big building project on new drama and music blocks to increase the school's resources and accommodate the growing influx of pupils.

This is one of a raft of changes for the increasing school as just last year the school introduced a state of the art £1 million 6th form block to provide much needed resources for its growing 6th form.