THE seeds for Vickie Pettett's teaching career were sown before she was even old enough to be a student.
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Growing up in country NSW, she remembers sitting on the floor and watching the sole teacher of Sandy Creek Public School, Jack Parker, make charts with letters and numbers.
"He lived at our house," Mrs Pettett said.
"People had to billet the teacher if they wanted their children to be educated.
"He used to say he taught me to read before I went to school and that's probably true."
She attended the school of 15 students until it closed due to low numbers.
"Around year four you start to learn on your own and help teach the little kids. We took them out to the playground to play."
Mrs Pettett, 72, would go on to spend almost 40 years as a teacher. including 25 at St Therese's Primary New Lambton, which she retired from at the end of last year.
"It hasn't really hit me yet," she said.
"I don't think it will feel real until term starts and I'm driving past the school.
"It feels like the right time. I'm leaving in the best possible way, with no bad feelings or anything. I will miss it and I will miss the people."
Mrs Pettett was the first recipient of the St Therese's Medal of Service, which was established by staff and the parents and friends association for teachers who serve more than 15 years at the school.
The medal is a bespoke design and manufactured by Michael Barwick from Heirloom Jewellers.
It features the Mercy Cross and the school's motto, Be True.
"That was a total surprise but a lovely one," she said.
"Years ago a teacher told me to make sure the year I was going that I had a really good class. I thought 'How can you make sure?' but the [year four] class I had was beautiful.
"They loved each other - there was never a nasty word between the 28 of them. They were ideal, perfect, beautiful children. I promised I'd come back to see them as year five and when they graduate."
Mrs Pettett began studying at Bathurst Teachers' College in 1966 and was appointed to Dunedoo Central School in 1968, where she met her husband John.
He was transferred in 1972 to Newcastle, where they raised four children.
She started teaching for the Catholic Schools Office in 1983 and returned to full time teaching at St Paul's Gateshead.
She taught at St Joseph's Charlestown, before joining St Therese's in 1994.
For the past 16 years she has taught three days a week and worked as religious education coordinator for the other two.
"I like to see the children blossom and grow, to talk to them and listen to them," she said.
"I've taught one, two, three members of the same family and some kids say 'You've taught my dad!'
Mrs Pettett is looking forward to decluttering, spending more time with family, travelling and serving the community, perhaps through Lions.
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