A FACEBOOK page lamenting the retirement of a favourite teacher at a Huntingdon school has attracted more than 1,000 followers in just two weeks.

A FACEBOOK page lamenting the retirement of a favourite teacher at a Huntingdon school has attracted more than 1,000 followers in just two weeks.

The site has drawn tributes from hundreds of pupils taught by Phil Logoreci, a science teacher who left St Peter’s School at the end of the summer term last Friday (July 29) after 33 years in the job.

He told The Hunts Post he had been “overwhelmed” with the comments left on the site, but clarified to followers of the “St Peter’s Mr Logoreci Remembrance Page” that he had merely retired.

“That was funny: I think some people thought I was dead when they saw it said remembrance page – they must have got the wrong idea.

“But I’m bowled over by it, and overwhelmed by how kind the pupils have been with their comments.”

Mr Logoreci, pictured, was the longest-serving teacher at St Peter’s, where he had risen from trainee teacher to director of communications and head of one of the school’s guilds.

He was also well known at primary schools throughout the St Peter’s catchment area thanks to his role overseeing the new Year 7 intake every year.

Despite refusing to call his departure a retirement – “because 55 feels too young to retire” – he said a watershed moment had come last year when a Year 8 pupil told him that he had taught her grandfather and mother.

“That’s when I thought it was time to call it a day. Teaching is not a job for men over 55 – it’s energy-sapping, and 33 years in the job is plenty for me.”

Mr Logoreci confessed that, when he arrived at St Peter’s as a trainee teacher in 1978, he expected to stay for two or three years before moving on – but loved it so much that he stayed for his entire career.

He said: “It’s the most marvellous school, and it has been a great honour to work there. The community that St Peter’s serves is one that I am very fond of.”

Former student Tierce Lister, of Valiant Square, Ramsey, who was at St Peter’s from 1985 to 1991, said: “Mr Logoreci was a teacher who would always stick up for you and fight your corner. He will be a huge loss to St Peter’s because school teachers like him are few and far between.”

Mr Logoreci intends to spend more time in London, where he is a carer for his mother and uncle, and has applied for a role helping to prepare for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics.

He raised �2,000 for Cancer Research UK at a triathlon last weekend in memory of a neighbour who died of lung cancer aged 36, and has plans for more fundraisers in future.

However, he may have to make time for a visit to the palace if the followers of another Facebook page get their way – the site “Mr Logoreci for an MBE” already has 460 supporters.