Published: 29 July, 2010
by JOSIE HINTON

SHE is described as “part of the furniture” at Haverstock School and has taught thousands of pupils including three generations of some families in Camden. 

But after 36 years’ loyal service to the Chalk Farm school, Nikki Haydon is retiring as assistant headteacher. 

Teachers past and present gathered on Friday to give Ms Haydon an emotional send-off – but the 60-year-old, of Auden Place in Primrose Hill, assured staff she would not be going far.

“I’m officially retiring but I will still be working part-time on our extended services, running our clubs and other activities,” she said. “I’ll still be part of the furniture – just a different part.”

After initially joining the school as an English teacher, she went on to hold a variety of roles including head of 

English, Key Stage 3 coordinator, head of community links and business and enterprise manager.

Ms Haydon admits she was “lucky” to be given the job in 1974 – having resigned from her previous post after accusing the headmistress of being more concerned about the length of girls’ skirts than their well-being. But after one day at the school in Haverstock Hill, she knew it was the place for her.

“On my first day in one of the lessons a Year 8 boy called Norman stood on the cupboard and threw a chair across the room,” she said. “That was Haverstock – and I loved it.”

She went on to serve under four headteachers and her two sons Danny and Ollie were both pupils, going on to work in the school at different times. 

Ms Haydon added: “The school is my life and I say that unashamedly, knowing it flies in the face totally of work-life balance. We are and always will be a community school. We’re not about elitism, we are completely diverse and proud of it.”