Secretary celebrates two decades at Oriel School

"I just thought it would be a nice little job for a bit, with good holidays," said Di, whose three sons all attended Oriel. "But the atmosphere is so friendly and it's always been such a fun place to work, there was never any reason to leave. It's so interesting and different every day."

This Christmas marks Mrs Fenton's final festivities at the school, but she has watched dozens of plays and helped out at scores of fetes since joining the staff in 1988.

"I particularly enjoyed the 70th anniversary celebrations, in 2006," she said. "We had lots of parties and a big picture of the children in the shape of a big '70' in the Chronicle."

Mrs Fenton, 66, who has lived in Hanworth since the 60s, says she particularly enjoyed working with the previous head, John Stephens, who left last summer after 25 years.

She originally planned to retire then but stayed on an extra year to help the new head, Matthew Read, settle in.

Mr Read said: "Di has been an invaluable help to me as I took over at Oriel. She has a wealth of knowledge about almost every aspect of the school and will be sadly missed by everyone. But I guess she thinks I'm ready to go it alone."

Mrs Fenton says she enjoys bumping into former pupils around Hanworth but is considering a move away from the town now she has retired.

"My husband, Ted, and I spend a lot of time touring around in our caravan," she said. "And we may move down to the south coast to spend more time with our two young granddaughters."