Ref. 25722-06RETIRING TEACHERS: The school bell will toll for the final time for some this summer as heads and teachers will be looking forward to a well-earned retirement. JAMES WATSON spoke to five teachers who are saying goodbye to the classroom.

WHEN Prisca DaCunha arrived in England from Kenya she thought her stay would last no more than a year.

But 39 years later she is still here working in Swindon until her retirement as head of Gorse Hill Infant School.

Mrs DaCunha, 60, came to England in 1964 to finish the teacher-training she started in Kenya at a physical education college in Chelsea.

She said: "I expected to return after one year but I stayed. My husband Bill and I moved to Swindon on the recommendation of a friend and bought a house here.

"I don't want to move now because we have always been happy in Swindon. It's central to all of the interesting things in the south." Mrs DaCunha lives in Wroughton and started her career as a PE teacher at St Joseph's School in 1966 but decided to retrain as a primary school teacher because of the demands that taking pupils to competitions at the weekend placed on family life.

She has two grown up daughters, Nichola and Sharon. Her primary teaching career started at Wroughton Junior School in 1969 and she became deputy head of Holy Rood Junior School in 1973 before becoming acting head of Holy Family Infant School in Park North in 1981.

She took over at Gorse Hill Infant School in 1992. After running a school for more than a decade, Mrs DaCunha says that she is looking forward to putting her feet up for the first few months of her retirement.

She said: "I'm going to have a few months off to recharge my batteries. I don't want to be committed to anything yet.

"This job has been so demanding, but I have enjoyed it too. I've enjoyed it when you can see the difference you are making to the school and the children.

"I know we have done very well because I have been blessed with a very good team of teachers and the will to make it better.

"The children keep you young because they are so fresh and full of excitement for life. If ever you are feeling down you forget about it because the children don't allow you to be miserable."