An award winning history teacher will retire this week after teaching almost 6,000 children at a school in more than 34 years.
Greg Hetherton moved from London to take his first teaching job at Portslade Community College in 1973 and has stayed there ever since.
Tomorrow he will spend his last day at the school in his role as head of humanities before taking early retirement at 57.
Mr Hetherton said: "In one sense I'm chuffed to bits to have reached retirement. It will be a nice feeling not to have to come in on the first day of next term.
"On the other hand I will be sad as hell to leave. I love teaching and I'll miss a lot of people here."
In 2005 Mr Hetherton was named teacher of the year at The Argus Achievement Awards.
He was nominated by pupils and colleagues who said he was brilliant at communicating his love for his subject.
He has become well established as a historical author during his three decades in Portslade and has had a number of textbooks published, including several about the First World War.
He said he planned to pursue several projects in his retirement and publishing would be one of them.
His wife, who is deputy head at Downlands Community School in Hassocks, will continue with her job. The couple have two teenage children.
Mr Hetherton said he had lost count of the number of pupils at Portslade whose parents he had also taught.
He said: "It has been quite funny sitting on the bus on the way into town and having 45-year-olds sit down next to me and say, Hello, Sir.' "But as far as I know I have not taught three generations of the same family yet."
He said one of the proudest moments of his career was when a former pupil won a place at Cambridge University and later appeared on television in the final of Mastermind.
His funniest memory was when he was arrested on the touchline while coaching at a school football game.
Mr Hetherton explained: "The ball got kicked into a neighbour's garden and I sent a lad off to get it.
"Unfortunately, he broke their fence in the process and they called the police.
"When they turned up they asked to know who had done it and I said I was responsible so they carted me off in a police car."
After an apology to the neighbour and a promise to repair the fence, the drama blew over.
He added: "The thing I'll remember most about this place will be the kids. I've taught between 5,000 and 6,000 and there are so many who stand out."
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