A TEACHER who has spent more than two decades working at a primary school is saying goodbye for the last time.

Julie Chandler, 60, started working at Holy Family Primary School in Witham 22 years ago.

Last Friday, as the school broke up for summer, she retired.

Before joining the school in Maltings Lane she ran a playgroup in Chelmsford, but decided she wanted to teach older children and has never looked back.

Mrs Chandler said she had noticed how much Witham had changed over the years.

She said: “I started here as a teaching assistant and after a year decided to go back into teaching.

“When I started I was only the second teaching assistant, now we have about 10 so it’s quite different.

“There has been quite a lot of change to the building as well.

“When I started we were surrounded by fields and now we are surround- ed by houses.”

She has taught all year groups at the school, and said her memories of trips with the Year 6 classes will be cherished.

She said: “In Year 6 it was always the residential trip to Grafham Water which was really good fun, and just watching the children grow and develop and they often come back to say hello.

“There are even parents who I taught whose children are starting school, it’s a bizarre feeling.”

Mrs Chandler believes her experience at the school has made her passion for working with children stronger.

She said: “I think I have developed as a person – my passion for working with children hasn’t changed and I have learned a lot of new skills like ICT. It has been a learning curve, I’m very proud to have taught here. I have worked with lots of wonderful, kind and caring people, they are so supportive.”

As well as receiving support from staff, Mrs Chandler said she was pleased to have been able to get to know such lovely parents.

She said the school was one of the kindest places she had worked in, and is so pleased at the school’s great performance since she started.

She now plans to take up a few new hobbies like walking and handicraft, and hopes to travel.

As a parting message to the children, Mrs Chandler said: “Never give up, and believe in yourselves.”

She had a leaving party at the school on Friday – the last day of term.