A Teesside classics teacher enjoyed a celebration yesterday after 25 years' service at a school.

Carole Rossiter received a floral bouquet at the private, all-girls Teesside Preparatory and High School, in Eaglescliffe, to mark the event.

Mrs Rossiter, from Hutton Rudby, has taught classics at the school part-time for the past quarter of a century.

She moved from North London in 1978, having spent four years teaching in a girls' grammar school, Mrs Rossiter spent two terms at another local school before she joined Teesside High.

During the celebrations, she revealed how she came to work at the school.

She said: "I overheard two Teesside High pupils discussing their Latin homework on the bus home one day.

"They sounded so enthusiastic that I decided there and then that I wanted to teach there. I cannot believe that was 25 years ago."