A college principal who has overseen the education of thousands of students has announced his retirement.

Alan Jenkins has been the principal of Varndean College in Brighton for the last 18 years but will leave in August to take early retirement.

He took over the sixth form college in Surrenden Road in 1988 when it had 500 students studying A-levels and managed its expansion to accommodate more than 1,200 teenage and 2,000 adult students today.

Mr Jenkins, 55, said: "Varndean is held in pretty high regard for the breadth of its approach and the range of students with whom it engages. We achieve high exam results and our value added score has put the college consistently in the top five nationally. For all those reasons and so many outstanding staff and students I have come across in my time I have really enjoy working here."

Mr Jenkins, who lives in Hassocks with his wife Elaine and has three children, Huw, 24, Laura, 22, and Tom, 17, said he hoped to continue working in education consultancy or inspections from September.

Memorable career moments include shaving all his hair off for charity and dressing up for a staff pantomime.

Andy Schofield, head of Varndean School which teaches pupils up to sixth form, said: "Alan will be sadly missed. He's been a good colleague and a pleasure to work with. I have to say, though, he looks an awful lot better now his hair's grown back.