CHILDREN at a Newport nursery are preparing to say goodbye to a nursery nurse who has given 42 years to do the job she loves.

Wendy John, 60, from St Julians, who works at Fairoak Nursery will retire this month.

Reluctantly she is having to give up the job she loves because of problems with her back and on her doctor’s advice.

She said: “I had to make a decision, I didn’t want to go. I just love being with children and I feel at ease with children.”

The mother-of-two started her career as a nursery nurse at Our Lady Of The Angels Primary School in Cwmbran.

She spent two years training for the job after leaving school at the age of 16 and said it was the only thing she ever wanted to do.

“I sawa programme when I was about ten on television all about nursery training and I knew that it was what I wanted to do,” she said.

After a year at Our Lady Of The Angels, Ms John spent eight years working at Two Locks Nursery in Cwmbran before moving to Rockfield Nursery School in Newport, where she worked for 18 years.

Ms John moved to Fairoak Nursery, where she has worked for 17 years, and has been a Flying Start leader there for the last five years.

She said: “It’s a lovely nursery.

The staff are great we have such a laugh. I’ll miss that.”

Ms John said some of her pupils have gone on to be doctors and lawyers but she said the highlight of her career was meeting Princess Anne during her visit to Fairoak Nursery in 2005.

Ms John said she will continue her voluntary work with guide dogs and is looking forward to spending more time with her dog Nadia, who is a former guide dog.

She said she is also planning to visit her daughter in NewZealand when she moves out there next year.

She will be celebrating her retirement with past and present colleagues with a party on July 4.