When the school bell rang on December 18 at Ramsey Grammar School to bring the term to an end, a 37-year career in teaching ended with it.

The school’s headteacher, Annette Baker, retired at the end of last term.

She started as a languages teacher at Ballakermeen High School in 1984.

Mrs Baker said she decided to retire about 18 months ago, saying ’it just appealed to me to finish before I turn 60’.

’At the end of term I will be three months short of my 60th birthday!’

Moving to the island aged 12, Mrs Baker’s family was originally Manx on her father’s side.

The family ran a guest house in Hutchinson Square in Douglas and she went to the then Ballakermeen Junior High School and Douglas High School before going on to university.

It was in her third year at Lancaster University when Mrs Baker - then Annette Clague - decided she wanted to be a teacher after working as a languages assistant in a school in Germany.

She thanked the Manx government for the financial support they gave to students like her in the 80s, even covering some necessary travel expenses for students on languages courses.

She said: ’I enjoyed that experience so much that I thought I could see myself doing it as a career. I am half German, and inspired by my mother Marianne (who is 88 this year) I’ve always wanted to promote the language and the culture.

’I’ve always been keen to promote the rights of individuals and the importance of communication, to understand other nations and to have an outward looking view on life.’

Having studied and learnt German, Mrs Baker came back to the island after accepting a job initially as a teacher of French and subsequently French and Spanish, and later German at Ballakermeen.

She admitted that she was learning Spanish while teaching it, making sure she stayed ahead of the students she was teaching. Despite this they - and she - all managed to get a good grade.

Mrs Baker also put all of her own children through Ballakermeen, and she said was a ’great privilege to be able to teach where my children were learning’.

She added: ’If you put your children through their education where you teach, it is a great show of confidence in that school. Ballakermeen was and is a great school, as are all schools on the island. We are all very lucky.’

Since leaving Ballakermeen, one of her sons has gone on to be a journalist in America, another is an accountant, the third is a teacher, and her step-daughter is a school bursar. She said: ’I am very grateful for what the Isle of Man education service has done for my family.

’I had my education and my teaching career supported by the government, it was really only because of the grants available that I was able to go to university at all.

’For today’s students, they are still very well supported in comparison to other jurisdictions, even now with the support in ensuring they get home for Christmas.

’University life is uncertain enough in the current circumstances, more so for Manx students, so the extra stress of not knowing whether they would get home must have just added to that.

’It really is a different challenge for Manx students going from the island to university in comparison with many of their UK counterparts. It isn’t as easy to pop home for the weekend for Manx students, so the continuing support for them is very much needed and appreciated.’

For more than a year, the dispute between the Department of Education, Schools and Children, and teachers has dominated the headlines but Mrs Baker said with changes at the top of the department, ’things are moving forward’.

She said that interim chief executive Graham Kinrade was doing a ’tremendous job’ and had made it a priority to engage with teachers and their union representatives.

Mrs Baker added: ’Until the last 18 months I have never been active in the union but I reached a point of frustration with the DESC set-up where experts [teachers] weren’t being listened to.

’No matter what field you are in, you have to listen to the experts, the people on the ground, before major decisions are made.

’I felt like we were hitting a brick wall over the direction of several things, particularly over the choice of specification for GCSE. I firmly do not believe that the Cambridge IGCSE is the best way forward for Manx students.

’The battle to overturn the department’s commitment to IGCSE maths in particular was a real turning point in my career as a head teacher, I really didn’t think I’d have to fight the DESC so hard. When I started I believed that there would be an open and honest debate in DESC about education matters, but the views of teachers just weren’t listened to.’

Despite Mrs Baker’s union, the NAHT, accepting an offer from DESC, she said there is still an issue with teachers’ pay and recruitment in the island.

’It is a step in the right direction, but really it’s a drop in the ocean,’ she said.

’I see the current pay proposal as a starting point, but real improvement in pay to address several years of pay erosion for Manx teachers will be needed if the island is to recruit and retain first class teaching professionals.’

As well as warning that the island needs to pay its teachers more, Mrs Baker is also concerned about the long term impact of the prolonged border closure on the recruitment and retention of teachers, particularly younger ones from the UK and Ireland.

She was speaking before the announcement of the second lockdown.

’There is just no real clarity in moving forward,’ she said. ’Guernsey, which we’ve been linked to this summer, has managed to stay on top of the virus whilst not stopping relatives visiting.

’All I am asking for is that consideration be given to how we could facilitate this for our residents with families across.

’I know teachers who have had a wobble over staying here because they feel cut off, especially some of the new recruits from across and I know some schools have lost staff.

’They were sold the island as being in the middle of the Irish Sea and very accessible, they didn’t sign up to be cut off from their families.

’I am as keen as everyone else to keep the island free of Covid-19, but I do think we need to listen to experts as to how we could use enhanced testing to allow for greater flexibility.

’I would like to see an open discussion in government about the issues surrounding increased testing, eg allowing close relatives in to do the required quarantine plus one, seven and 13-day tests, I don’t understand why it hasn’t already happened to be honest.’

Mrs Baker said that using social media platforms to raise these issues publicly had led to a torrent of unpleasant comments, and even abuse, from some people online which she said has been extremely upsetting at times.

This wasn’t however going to stop her from standing up for what she believes in, particularly with regards to the individual’s right in a democracy to express an opinion which may run counter to the accepted opinion of the political establishment.

Mrs Baker expressed concern about the danger to democracy in people being afraid to speak out on matters of importance for fear of a social media backlash.

As well as affecting teacher retention, Covid-19 also laid waste to the exam preparation for the island’s students as they all waited to see what decision would be made on their grades and how it would affect their future.

Mrs Baker said: ’What the children put up with in the summer was awful. It was horrible enough for us as teachers to get answers so it must have been horrendous for them.

’[Education Minister] Dr [Alex] Allinson was extremely helpful as he had teachers speaking to him and parents ringing him up.

’He understood the issue straight away, at a time when the department itself was unclear as to how to respond.

’When we got the first results through, the Cambridge International Exam board (CAIE) had just decimated the students’ grades but Dr Allinson saw immediately that it wasn’t right and that something needed to be done.

’If the exam boards hadn’t ultimately changed those results, then we would have fought them all the way on it, all the way through the courts if necessary.’

The experience only seemed to further convince Mrs Baker that the island’s schools need to ’bin’ the Cambridge IGCSE and move back wholesale to UK-based exam boards.

She added: ’We’re too small for our own exam board, so we should be linked into the UK system.

’In the final choice of boards however, once again, we need to listen to the experts - the hard working subject leaders and teachers involved in the delivery of these specifications’

Looking ahead to her well-earned retirement, Mrs Baker said her immediate priority is to see more of her family, both those in the island and, when the border situation improves, those in the UK and America.

She said: ’When we can, we’ll do some travelling but right now I’m looking forward to not doing homework. Teaching takes over your life, I’ve loved working with young people and had great colleagues and made some great friends, but I’m looking forward to having my weekends and evenings back.

’I am clearly very much looking forward to seeing all my family again, I have found it very difficult to be away from them for so long.

’My husband Robin, who I couldn’t have done any of this without, has been retired for 10 years. I’m looking forward to spending more time with him, taking our boat out from Port St Mary for example. Although I’m only going if it’s nice weather, I’m a fair weather sailor!

’For me, the job has been all consuming, so I’m looking forward to being free.’