WESTONBIRT School’s longest-serving teacher admits she will miss the children as she retires after 40 years in the classroom.

Mrs Mary Phillips spent 30 of her 40-year teaching career at Westonbirt sharing her passion for art and art history.

“I will miss the girls. The young people keep you going,” said Mrs Phillips, from Cam.

“One former girl sent me a message which said ‘thank you for believing in me’. It’s things like that which have made this job so rewarding.”

Mrs Phillips, who retired as head of Sixth Form and Head of Art, had not intended to stay at Westonbirt.

When she took a teaching position at the Tetbury school, she had only planned to stay a year at most.

Now, 30 years on, she has taught hundreds of girls and she is passionate about teaching children how to express themselves creatively.

“Children need to be creative and to express themselves. Sometimes they cannot do that with words so art is an important outlet,” she said.

“My job is to turn out people who people who think creatively and outside of the box whether that is in the studio or in the boardroom. It is the same skill. What I do is give them the confidence to have go, to get rid of the that negativity and let their imaginations fly.”

Headmistress Natasha Dangerfield paid tribute to Mrs Phillips’ dedication to teaching and to her students.

“Mary's passion for her role with the girls is extraordinary. She has consistently worked above and beyond to ensure that each one of the girls, and indeed boys in the prep, are considered and supported through her teaching. She will be a huge loss to the school community, but will remain involved through the alumni organisation of whom she has taught a third of the cohort!”

Mrs Phillips has had a long association with the Royal Academy of Art and  Westonbirt was one of the first schools to be involved in the Academy’s outreach programme.

She plans to spend her retirement focussing on her own painting, her four grandchildren and to travel more.