TO RETIRE TODAY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31142, 19 August 1966, Page 12

TO RETIRE TODAY

Headmaster At Kirkwood

Mr A. D. Coates, headmaster of the Kirkwood Intermediate School, will retire from teaching today content that intermediate schools have become an accepted part of the educational system. He said he had been joined in bitter controversay on the issue, but was happy now to have many former opponents of intermediate schools admit a comnlete change of heart. “From my own experience of all types of schools I say definitely that intermediate .-schools provide the best education yet for children in this age group,” said Mr Coates. Mr Coates said he regarded retirement as a change of job. He had had to change positions many times, and now he expected to make this change easily by seeking some worth-while job in the community, undertaking voluntary service, and catching a few more trout than previously possible. Mr Coates trained at the Christchurch Teachers’ College. taught in Southland and North Otago, and then joired the Christchurch South Intermediate School as a teacher in 1949. He became its first assistant, and was foundation headmaster of Kirkwood when it opened in 1960. Earlier he was president of the North Otago branch of the New Zealand Educational Institute, and he has been on the executive of the North Canterbury Headmasters’ Association for some years. Mr Coates has been a performing member of the Canterbury Repertory Society and an actor in radio plays. He is a keen member of the Sydenham Methodist Church and a trustee of the Beckenham Church Trust. Mr Coates will continue to liw tn Christchurch. I The Kirkwood Intermediate School held a public farewell last evening, and staff and nunils will say goodbye to Mr Coates today.