KNUTSFORD schools should work closely with each other and the community.

Headteacher Ros Hipkiss, who is due to retire this month, said she had seen the benefits for children at Manor Park.

"It helps to put education at the heart of the community," she said.

"It makes education real for the children and helps them when they go to the High School because they see some familiar faces."

Knutsford Rotary Club had helped further the school's objective and Mrs Hipkiss' vision by organising inter-school sporting events.

In addition since 1997, when Mrs Hipkiss took over as head of the school, she has worked closely with Knutsford Housing Association, which manages the Longridge and Shaw Heath estates.

"The way schools are going they are becoming very much more a centre of the community," she said.

Since her involvement with the school, Manor Park's 200 pupils have achieved a number of sporting awards and the school's promotion of healthy living has been honoured.

However, increased paperwork has made the job difficult, Mrs Hipkiss said.

"If you get funding for anything it always makes for an enormous amount of paperwork," she said.

Despite growing red tape, Mrs Hipkiss said she had still tried to teach whenever she was needed. "It helps you to get to know the children and stay in touch with the problems the staff are facing," she said.

Her replacement, Peter Freeman, is moving to Manor Park from a school in Widnes where he is already headteacher.

Mrs Hipkiss, 59, retires on April 29 but hopes to do some educational consultancy work.