A HEAD-teacher has described receiving his OBE from the Queen as “the experience of a lifetime”.

Paul Doherty, of Trinity Catholic High School in Woodford Green, was recognised for services to education in the New Year Honours list and travelled to Buckingham Palace yesterday (Thursday).

“It was a very solemn but a very happy occasion,” he said. “I arrived at Buckingham Palace and was met by The Royal Household, who were very courteous and did the security checks.

“Then my wife, Carla, and two sons went into the ballroom and the recipients were briefed by the Lord Chamberlain’s people and were called into the ballroom.

“It was the experience of a lifetime. The Queen talked to me about where I was head-teacher and how many students were at the school. She was very gracious.”

He and his wife travelled to the palace from where they were staying in Piccadilly in the back of an open-topped Rolls Royce lent to them by Peter Clarke, a father with children at the school who runs a chauffeur company.

“That was a bit of an experience,” said Dr Doherty. “It was a fine day and we went down The Mall, which was brilliant.”

Dr Doherty, 65, has taught at Trinity for 30 years and said when his award was announced last month that it was a credit to the Mornington Road school’s staff and governors.

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