AN EX-pupil has returned to his former high school as its new chaplain.

Nathan Whitlow attended St Gregory’s Catholic High School in Old Hall as a student between 2004 and 2009.

Now the 24-year-old, from Padgate, has returned to work at his former high school as its new chaplain.

He said: “I loved being a pupil here but I expected to come back and for it to feel totally different.

“It’s been eight years since I left, but I feel like the school hasn’t changed and that the ethos is still the same.

“When people hear the word chaplain they probably think of priests or nuns rather than someone who is approachable, but with me being younger and having gone to this school I think that it a good way for me to connect with the pupils.

“A lot of the teachers that taught me are still here – I’m really happy to be back and I feel like I’ve just come home really.”

Nathan – who was a teacher at Presto Music School in the town centre before returning to St Greg’s – is following in the footsteps of his dad Mike, who was a chaplain at a school in Wigan.

He added: “My dad has been my mentor really – I’m on the phone to him pretty much every day and I’m probably getting on his nerves a bit.

“With this job, a lot of people come to you all the time with various things so it’s important for me to have my own outlet and my dad’s been really good with that.

“I had a big Catholic upbringing and for a number of years now I feel like I’ve been called in some way by God.

“There have been times where I’ve moved away from it but I’ve always come back to it, and at one point I thought I was going to become a priest.

“I wanted to find a way of incorporating my faith into my career and there aren’t too many avenues to do that.

“Being a chaplain is a good way of doing that, and with this role coming up in my old school it seems like it was meant to be.”