A SCHOOL will close tomorrow as staff join family and friends at the funeral of a long-serving teacher.

Barbara Day, deputy head of Sunderland's New Silksworth Infants School, died on Monday after a short illness. She was 48.

Mrs Day taught for 27 years, and spent the last 13 in the Sunderland area, having previously worked in South Tyneside.

She also served for a stint with Sunderland education authority's advisory service.

A statement issued by the education authority said: "Barbara gave freely of herself and her time to help children, parents, new staff and pupils in the school.

"She had been extremely tired and initially believed this to be the normal overload of work at the end of a school year.

"At the end of September she was unable to continue teaching. She was admitted to hospital in early November and diagnosed as suffering from bowel cancer.

"Sadly her condition deteriorated, culminating in liver failure. She died on Monday."

Mrs Day, of Shiney Row, on Wearside, leaves a husband, Alan, son, Robert, 18, and 14-year-old daughter, Jennifer.

Her funeral will be at St Oswald's Church, in Shiney Row, at 1.15pm tomorrow, before cremation at Sunderland Crematorium, at 2pm.

Prayers have been said in the school, where Mrs Day was said to be "much loved and deeply missed".