Stalwart Elgin High School teacher set to retire after 40 years of service
A STALWART Elgin High employee is set to retire after four decades of dedicated service to the school.
After starting in 1983, Debbie McDonald spent 27 years as a PE teacher, teaching the likes of former Aberdeen and Rangers footballer Richard Foster and hockey player Susan Dean.
She became principal teacher of curriculum in 2010, and has spent the last four years as principal teacher of guidance.
"I didn't expect to be at Elgin High School all that time but I enjoy being here," she said. "It's a special school.
"We are about developing young people, we are not an exam factory, but people leave as rounded human beings ready to join the world of work in our communities.
"There were quite a few people that played sport beyond club standard, but PE is an excellent subject for developing the whole person and other skills and qualities that stand them in good stead in adulthood – teamwork and being able to support each other."
Debbie graduated with a degree in Psychical Education from Edinburgh and returned to the north-east on the search for work.
In Elgin High, she found a job that she would never leave. Her three daughters all went through the school – with one now having returned for work.
Hugh McCulloch, the school's head teacher, said: "We are immensely proud of Debbie. She knows the community so well and has supported every young person and family that has come through the school to meet their full potential.
"A young person couldn't have asked for a better start in life than to have had Debbie as a teacher or a guidance teacher.
"I did a speech at awards evening, which Debbie couldn't attend, but because the school community knows her so well it was still fitting to deliver it anyway, and the audience knew exactly who I was talking about – in a good way!
"She will be very deeply missed for the contribution that she makes across the school and the wider community as a whole."
Debbie's life has centred around children, working with them her whole life and bringing up three daughters herself.
That isn't set to change in retirement, although focus will switch to childminding her four grandchildren.
