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Interviewer: How does it feel to be leaving after nearly a quarter of a century here?

Teacher Ann: Very odd! Hampton has always been not so much a job, more a way of life! One of the things I've really liked about this school is the way it is so easy to become part of it. A fair bit of my social life has been bound up in it, too, because so many of the staff have become not just colleagues, but friends.

I: Is that the main reason you've stayed here so long?

T: One of the reasons, obviously. I suppose it comes down to the fact that I've been happy here. Teaching in today's world can be immensely difficult, frustrating and stressful, but in a school like this we are extremely privileged - we get all the good bits! There are no real discipline problems, and you are daily in the company of interesting and genuinely pleasant people whose intelligence and legal demands constantly force you to widen your own boundaries as you try to encourage them to widen theirs.

I: So it's been an easy ride from the start, then?

T: No, I don't think anyone would describe teaching as an easy ride, even here. Everybody has moments when they feel exhausted and overwhelmed, usually by the ever increasing paper work! Classes can be uncooperative, and you yourself can he uninspiring. This happens to us all. But the pleasure of having a class that really seems to be enjoying learning is what makes teaching here so rewarding.

I: Would you say that you have enjoyed teaching the younger classes more than the older ones?

T: I like the enthusiasm of the Lower School classes, but one of the greatest privileges here has been to be a Sixth Form Tutor. The tutor groups are small, and the more relaxed and informal atmosphere gives both students and teachers the chance to see each other and to communicate as individual human beings rather than categorized as teacher and pupil.

I: Were there any events which stick in your mind?

T: Yes, the fund raising! In the beginning we had to raise for ourselves almost every penny we spent, and we ran some wonderful events - I particularly remember a very successful Craft Fair. There was a huge variety of goods on display, and it was extremely colourful. But the main fundraiser has got to be the Fashion Show, which we put on about eight years ago. Now that was a show!

I: Finally, have you any regrets about your time here?

T: Not as such, but things have happened in the world of education that I think are to be regretted. In a system which is now driven by League Tables there is a severe danger of losing sight of the real aims of education in its broadest sense. I regret that at University one can no longer take a subject for the pure intellectual pleasure of increasing one's knowledge of it. In today's, more practical world, it often seems that it is not understanding which counts, but usefulness to a career. Students tend to assess information; not according to whether it expands their knowledge or understanding, but according to whether it will 'come up in the exam'.