Mike Johnson has taught all over the country in his 43 years in the industry.

Puketapu School principal Mike Johnson has been teaching so long some of his current students are the children of past pupils.

On Friday Johnson marked the end of the school term as well as the end of a 43-year career in education.

He began his teaching at Devon Intermediate in 1972 and since then had taught at numerous schools across the country and Taranaki before ending up at Puketapu.

"Some of the children here, I taught their parents at Devon," he said.

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"It's a whole new generation."

After four years at Devon Johnson moved to Mossburn School in Southland with his wife. He then moved on to South Canterbury where he taught a sole charge school.

"Then like all Taranaki people the mountain calls you back," he said.

He went back to Devon Intermediate again but after two or three years decided he needed to become a principal.

He took the top job at Pungarehu School around the coast, before moving 5km down the road to Rahotu School, which was double the size.

"The coast became very much a part of our lifestyle," he said.

But 13 years later he moved to Marfell School in New Plymouth.

"I was at Marfell for five years and then I missed having year seven and eights as part of the school," he said.

A job came up at Puketapu School in Bell Block and Johnson has been there for the past 10 years.

Johnson said he had focused on literacy, numeracy and physical education as principal and tried to set an example by riding his bike to work a couple of times a week.

For his last day on Friday, many of the students decorated their bikes and rode them to school, before lining them up outside the school hall for his last assembly.

Johnson has ridden around Lake Taupo 17 times, year after year except for the time he broke a bone in his neck while on trail ride with the school.

He said he had tried to develop a sense of community at the school, which carried on from what they had while teaching on the coast.

"That's what we're trying to establish here is a school community," he said.