Ref. 25754-4RETIRING TEACHERS: KEITH Smith will have to get used to life without his alpacas.

The unusual South American breed similar to llamas are a part of the animal husbandry unit which has grown in his 13 and a half years as head of Crowdys Hill Special School in Gorse Hill.

Mr Smith, who lives in Highworth, has spent all of his career involved with special needs, starting in 1966 when he taught children of immigrants at Broadheath Secondary Modern in Coventry. He moved to Polebrook House residential centre in Leicestershire in 1970.

In 1974 he started his first senior post as head of special needs at the Kingswood School in Corby, Northamptonshire. Mr Smith, 58, moved to Firdale, a special needs school in Corby as deputy head and eventually acting head in 1984.

"There was a special school in Corby which needed some attention and I decided I would have a go with it. We moved it on and it started to deliver the curriculum," he said.

"It was a high-risk move because the school could have closed and I could have been made redundant, but I talked it over with my wife in the end it worked.

"Then I was in the market for the headship of a special school and that is how I came to Swindon.

"I'm looking forward to spending more time in the theatre, on holidays and walking in my retirement.

"While I was head the only day I would take off is Saturday. If you want a good school you have got to put the effort in."

Married to Cindy, Mr Smith has two grown up sons, Greg and Roger.

Mr Smith is well respected in Swindon's education community after taking over as head of Crowdys Hill in January 1990.

In 2001 he was seconded to Swindon's local education authority to help pick up the pieces in the fall out from the council's disastrous failed Government inspection.

He has also been acting headteacher of Rowdeford School in Devizes to prepare for the arrival of a new head and supported a school in Oxfordshire that was suffering from serious weaknesses.

He said: "The job of education in special schools is to ensure that we recognise exactly how children learn, then deliver a curriculum to suit their needs.

"Many children in special schools have got to be taught to learn as well as taught their actual lessons.

"I came into this field with the view that all children are entitled to be taught through the national curriculum, offering them the same outcomes, in terms of the courses they can take, as their mainstream counterparts."