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Pupils hold a special tea party for head teacher, Mrs Chris Gibson, who is retiring after 18 years at Saxlingham Nethergate C of E VC Primary School. Picture by SIMON FINLAY.

Martin George Tuesday, March 3, 2015 7:00 AM

Pupils and parents have paid a heartfelt farewell to the head of a small village school at a tea party to mark her retirement.

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Generations of villagers filled the hall at Saxlingham Nethergate Primary, south of Norwich, for Fridays tribute to Chris Gibson, who has been at the school for 18 years, and headteacher since 2001.

Mrs Gibson, who teaches the infant class in the 49-pupil primary, had previous worked at schools across the country.

She said: Compared to everywhere I have worked, with the small number of pupils you can do everything as a whole school, so its very much a family atmosphere. The older children always play with the younger ones. They are happy children here.

The school has achieved top exam results, which Mrs Gibson attributed to the individual attention each child receives, her knowing them all well, and the knowledge of what works she had built up over her career.

She told parents: I have enjoyed every minute I have had at this school. I shall miss it.

Ella Slater, chairman of the Friends of Saxlingham School, lives in Tacolneston, but chose to send her twin boys to the school.

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Village says fond farewell to retiring head of Saxlingham Nethergate Primary School

The Tea Party - Coming Home - Cover
The Tea Party - Coming Home - Performed by Brad and band for his graduating recital held on campus at the Australian Institute of Music (AIM) No Copyright in...

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The Tea Party - Coming Home - Cover - Video

Feuding within Virginias state GOP is alarming prominent national Republicans who think the infighting in a crucial swing state threatens the partys quest to recapture the White House in 2016.

The rift pits centrist Republicans against tea party and Libertarian activists, and it is playing out in divisive primaries and causing wrangling for control of the partys state organization.

A bitter source of the conflict one almost certain to ignite renewed debate as 2016 approaches is whether the state GOP will select a presidential candidate in a primary or at a convention, a process likely to influence whether the winner is a centrist or a right-wing Republican.

Virginias GOP has not won a statewide race in six years, a streak that Republicans partly attribute to the infighting. The conflict flared in full public view last year during a rancorous Republican primary in which a largely unknown tea party activist, David Brat, vanquished then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

A united party, strategists say, is required to build a broad network of support, enlist a squadron of campaign workers and raise the necessary funds to compete in a state in which Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) presides.

A statewide primary, with its higher voter turnout and prolonged exposure, is an opportunity for the eventual nominee to begin building a Virginia campaign organization. The conservative coalition that controls the party, however, is considering a convention, thinking that the activists it would draw would energize the GOP.

If the party is split 10 ways until Sunday, its going to be exceedingly difficult for the Republican nominee to come in and organize, said Chris LaCivita, a Republican strategist in Virginia who is advising Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on a possible presidential run.

Its absolutely vital that the party unify sooner rather than later, LaCivita said. The more time Republicans spend fighting themselves not Democrats is time lost that we cant get back.

Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who was an adviser to Mitt Romneys 2012 presidential campaign, said the GOP has little room for error in a crucial state such as Virginia.

The last thing any presidential candidate needs is to drop into a battleground state and have the state party folks going at it like the Hatfields and McCoys, Madden said. Every ounce of energy used fighting internally distracts the party from the real opponent.

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GOP infighting in Va. may harm partys White House bid in 2016

If Republicans were going to make good on their promise of showing they can govern now that they run the House and Senate, the drama of the past week was always likely, and perhaps inevitable.

The question now is what will happen from here. The coming days will give an interesting indication of what the hard-fought Republican majority might actually amount to over the next two years.

The current flashpoint is the bid to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The outlines of the debate are familiar in the House of Representatives' post-2010 tea party era. The conservative wing is pushing Speaker John Boehner (R) of Ohio to use Congress's fiscal levers to punish the Obama administration. In this case, it wants to use the DHS bill to try to neuter President Obama's November executive action to defer deportation for nearly five million undocumented immigrants.

But Mr. Boehner doesn't really want to do it. Yes, on one hand, it is a topic that will motivate the very base that gave Republicans control of Congress. That's good, from Boehner's perspective. But he also knows it's bad politics, because the ploy will never work. He doesn't have the votes to get the bill to Mr. Obama's desk, and he knows it would be vetoed even if he did.

Which brings D.C. squarely back to where it was before November's election: The tea party acting as a filibuster on its own caucus.

On Friday, conservatives once again threw the House into chaos when they refused to go along with Boehner, who all but threw in the towel on the Republicans' DHS funding scheme. (Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell had already given up the fight earlier in the week.)

This is what the tea party does. It doesn't have the numbers to pass legislation, but it does have the power to obstruct. Since tea party doctrine holds that obstruction of a bad bill is far preferable to concessions to make it marginally better, members are just doing what they were elected to do.

But for Boehner, the stakes are higher. Before last fall, Republicans could always blame the Democrat-led Senate when things went wrong. Now, that excuse is gone. Which means, if Republican leaders are serious about passing legislation designed to show the House and Senate can work together to get things done, they have to consider doing an end run around the tea party.

It's not a question of partisanship or ideology. It's matter of math, and it's been plain since before last November.

The midterm elections gave Boehner a few more moderate Republicans, but not enough to trump his conservative wing. To pass legislation his conservatives don't like, he needs to rely on Democrats.

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Why Homeland Security crisis is about much more than John Boehner (+video)

Posted: Thursday, February 26, 2015 10:49 am | Updated: 2:09 pm, Thu Feb 26, 2015.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) An outspoken tea party lawmaker is demanding to know why the Republican House speaker hasn't referred one of the session's potentially most-contentious bills to committee.

Bedford Republican Jonathan Stickland took to the floor Thursday to complain that his bill repealing in-state tuition at public universities for some students who are in the country illegally had "been skipped."

Stickland says he filed the bill in November, long before the session began Jan. 13, but it hadn't been assigned to committee. He said bills filed subsequently had been.

Bills must be approved in committee before going to the full House.

Speaker Joe Straus responded that assigning bills to committee out of numerical order "was not uncommon."

Conservative grassroots groups have long claimed Straus deliberately delays hot-button bills.

2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Texas tea party lawmaker worries tuition bill being skipped