AFTER 46 years working in a Wimborne school, a popular teaching assistant is retiring.

Ray Coleman started as a junior matron at Dumpton School when she left school as a teenager.

Miss Coleman, who lives in Blandford, said she will be sad to leave the school.

“I have loved my time here, and I feel very sad to leave,” she said.

“I think Thursday was the saddest day, because I said goodbye to all of the little children and they sang to me.”

Miss Coleman began working in 1967 when the school was at the Gaunts House site, later becoming a nursery teacher and then a pre-prep teaching assistant.

She said: “I’ll be spending my retirement gardening and socialising, and I belong to the hunt.”

Head Andrew Browning said it was the “end of an era” to see Miss Coleman go.

“Ray’s loyalty and commitment have been much appreciated by generations of pupils and staff and we’ll all miss her good humour and wonderful generosity of spirit,” he said.

“We wish her all the best .”