When Raewyn Lightoller​ started at Stratford High School as a third former in 1963, she never dreamed she would be there for the next six decades.

But the student, who went on to become a teacher at the school, is finally calling time on her post, which she only left while completing her teacher training and for short stints when her children were babies.

“I’m leaving before I start to teach the fourth generation,” the 73-year-old says.

“For some time now, Year 9s will say to me: ‘did you know you taught my mum and my Nana?’ It’s just the cutest thing to hear, they think they are telling me something I’m not aware of.”

Talking about leaving brings tears to her eyes, but impending changes to the NCEA Level 1 curriculum that she says she cannot condone have prompted her retirement after 54 years as a teacher, she says.

There have been so many students over the years, she can’t remember everyone. But she’s well remembered by many she taught.

“I was at home one Saturday afternoon and I got a call from a student of mine from many, many years back, who now lives in the South Island,” she says.

“He was sitting on his tractor and must have been thinking about his time at Stratford High School. He rang to tell me how much he enjoyed having me as a teacher, and that I had left a lasting impression on him.”

She was inspired to go into teaching by her own shorthand teacher, Mrs Patricia Quirk, after choosing the commerce course at school because she was fascinated with shorthand.

At teachers’ college in Auckland, she studied shorthand and typing, before returning to teach at Stratford aged just 19.

She would spend her evenings making tape recordings for students to practice their shorthand skills.

“It wasn’t uncommon for students to bring me a cassette tape of their favourite songs, because they wanted to know all the words,” she says.

She’d take down the words in shorthand, then transcribe the lyrics for them.

These days, when she writes a note in shorthand, her students think it’s just made-up scribbles.

As technology evolved, she switched from manual to electric typewriters, then to computer keyboards.

In the 1970s, as well as teaching, she married Jay Lightoller, and they had two children and bought a farm, so she spent years milking cows and feeding calves before getting the children ready and dropping them off with her mother when she left for school.

“I had an amazingly supportive family and parents, and we lived quite close to the school,” she says.

“I couldn’t have done all these things without all the amazing support I have had from so many people.”

In 1980, she returned to school after the Christmas break and discovered she’d been allocated a year 11 (fifth form) accounting class.

“I happily took up the challenge. I had realised with the rapid development of technology, that shorthand would not be used to the same extent,” she says.

“I read up on accounting and managed to stay a couple of pages ahead of the students.”

She went on to further study and developed a real passion for the subject.

The one time in her whole career when she didn’t turn up to a lesson, she found a handwritten note left by the students, who had taken the roll and got on with their work.

“Behaviour was good overall, and we found the answer book,” the note reported.

She always expected good behaviour in her class, and if anyone didn’t do their homework, a signed note was required from home.

Once, her own son produced one – signed by her husband.

Teaching both her own children, Paul and Katherine, and working alongside Katherine when she was teaching agriculture and science, are highlights of her career.

She also taught three of her five grandchildren.

“Being called Nana in class has been pretty special.”

She hopes she will be remembered as a teacher who went the extra mile to encourage and support her students to be the best they could be, she said.

She is still planning her life after school.

“I’m going to let the dust settle over Christmas, and try not to turn up next year,” she says.

“I’d like to do some voluntary work, maybe join the Lions, learn to play bridge and golf croquet and join the gym.”

Principal Cameron Stone, who is the seventh principal she has worked with, said Lightoller was the school’s longest-ever serving teacher.

“She’s well past retirement age, she’s been doing it because it makes a difference,” he said.

“What I love about Raewyn is there have been a lot of changes here at the school, and over 54 years of teaching she’s always been willing to reinvent herself, she has the ability to continue to grow herself.

“She’s amazing, she knows her students really well, and what they need.”