Arriving by helicopter, a police escort and her own bagpiper - this NI principal was certainly given the royal treatment for her retirement.
Lorna Stitt, nee Bell, was left absolutely speechless by the incredible send-off the school and community in Portavogie secretly planned for her in her final week after 38 years in teaching.
The popular principal retired this week from her role at Portavogie Primary School in Co Down, a position she has held since 2011, and the community made sure she went out in style.
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Mrs Stitt, who also taught at Gilnahirk Primary School and Academy Primary School in Saintfield where she was Vice Principal, is still on a high after being given the royal treatment as a goodbye.
"That was Tuesday and it has just been a totally roller coaster week and I am still in shock because it has been absolutely incredible, just an amazing week. From the school and the community, it has been amazing," she said.
"Thirty-eight years of teaching and I feel maybe I still had a few years left in me but I wanted to go while I still loved my job and I still do.
"I absolutely loved my teaching career and wanted to go when I still absolutely loved it, which is easy to do in Portavogie because it is a unique school, it really is."
Becoming principal of Portavogie Primary School was a full circle moment for Mrs Stitt who started her own education journey there where her own mum was her P1 teacher.
"I grew up in a wee place called Ballyeasborough which is down the Ards Peninsula and not far from Portavogie Primary, and in actual fact that was my primary school and my mum was the P1 teacher in the school," she said.
"So my mother was my first teacher in Portavogie Primary and my dad was the local Church of Ireland minister, he was there for 32 years so we were very much part of the community through the church and school."
From there she went to Regent House then Stranmillis before getting her first teaching job at Gilnahirk Primary, where she taught for 21 years, before moving to Saintfield Academy as Vice Principal.
The role of principal was not one she had ever considered but thanks to one of her colleagues in Saintfield, everything fell into place.
"There was another chap there and he was very keen to get VP and he sort of joked that if I moved on then he would get the job, I said to be truthful I am not interested because who in their right mind would be a principal," she said.
"He kept coming in and saying all these different schools were up and I said 'No sorry I am not interested'. Then one day he came in and said Portavogie Primary is up and it was like a lightbulb went on and I was like I have to go for this.
"I was very very fortunate and got it."
She added: "I must admit as a teaching career I have been blessed with the schools I have been in and the people I have worked with, very very fortunate.
"There is something lovely about starting your journey and ending your journey in the same place."
This week the school and local community really made sure Mrs Stitt knew how highly thought of she was and gave her a send-off to remember.
The school's building supervisor Mr Bailey, who staff know as the 'ideas man' was the brains behind the very special goodbye which took place on Tuesday.
Talking about how she felt stepping away from the role and she the school was secretly planning, Mrs Stitt said: "It was mixed in that I knew it was coming to the end but I was trying not to think about it, then it was getting close to this day and I did not know what was happening because it was top secret. We have amazing staff but it was all headed up by our building supervisor, who in the old days we called them the caretakers, he is the ideas man.
"He said he had been planning this for at least three years and he is an amazing guy who pulls in favours and it boggles my mind how many connections he has. Very humble man but has great ideas and the staff, we all know him so well and everybody goes with it."
"It started with a helicopter, I was picked up from the house or delivered to one of the staff who took me down the road then pulled in at Ards Airport and we were taken into a tent outside to wait.
"Months ago when I first said I as going to retire, My Bailey our caretaker, he always had fantastic ideas for people going, picking them up in a horse and cart, taking them out in a fishing boat, things like that, mad things. I laughed and said I'll not settle for anything less than a helicopter Mr Bailey thinking at last I have something he'll not be able to do.
"I pulled into the airport and the school had organised for past pupils would come in 10 minute intervals, so past pupils, mostly from Regent, they were coming and wishing me well.
"As an extra surprise they had brought my wee grandson Kai who is 10. He had never been on a train never mind a helicopter so he was as excited as I was."
They flew down to Portavogie and when they landed, Mrs Stitt was greeted by her family, included members who had travelling over specially from England and her mum, as well as staff who were waiting.
She was then whisked away in a special vintage car with her mum to visit their old home in Ballyeasborough where they were met by a police escort who took them to the school.
"From there the police escort took me down the road into Portavogie and as we approached the school they used their sirens and flashing lights and pulled into the school and as I got out of the car, Mr Bailey had a piper to pipe me into the school," she added.
Lining the corridors were nearly every member of staff who had worked there during her time at the school and then a special service took place when all the secret preparations were revealed.
Mrs Stitt even performed her own number, When It Has All Been Said And Done, with some of the children then joining in.
"It was an absolute blur," she said.
"Everybody has been so kind. Someone was saying it was like another coronation. What I would say is that every principal deserves it because it's becoming an increasingly challenging job and I have just been really blessed. It has been a roller coaster and certainly currently it is very difficult for schools but I have had a blessed career and loved every minute of it.
"The children of all the schools I have been in have just been exceptional and Portavogie are particularly wonderful, but I am biased. It is very much a community.
"There is a great job going there for somebody."
Mrs Stitt praised the community of Portavogie, which she described as like a "huge family" and a "lovely, welcoming group of people", as well as her own previous principals at Gilnahirk and Saintfield who she used as examples for her own time in the role.
She added: "I will never ever forget the week I have had, it has been wonderful. An awful lot of tears but just a fantastic experience."
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