MOTHERS and daughters alike love Loreto Grammar School's long serving mathematics teacher Liz Nash, who has just celebrated 40 years at the 'chalk face'.

Liz is a one school woman having joined the Altrincham Catholic grammar school in September 1976, straight out of Manchester University and her first teaching practices.

Eve Graham, 16, from Hale who is just starting her A Level Maths course, paid tribute not just for her generation but for the preceding era: “Mrs Nash taught my mum Cathy and helped her to get an A grade at A Level.

"My mum speaks so highly of her and what a wonderful teacher she was, and I feel exactly the same way, but I would like to go one better than mum and I hope Mrs Nash will help me get an A star.”

Liz, who is widowed with two sons in their 30s, and lives in Glossop, said: “Teaching the daughters of former students does happen more and more often and you can certainly see the similarities between mother and daughter. I'll know it will be time to go when they say, 'you used to teach my grandmother.'”

Today's students were incredibly grateful for the influence Mrs Nash has had on their lives from their first impressions of 'big school' to their intensive studies today.

Eleri Murphy, 16, from Sale, said: “She's so incredibly nice and just so approachable, we all love her.”

Gabriella Kitson, 16, from Sale, said: “She is one of the teachers I am most grateful to, back in Year Seven she helped everyone get used to the new school.” While Orla Felcey, 16, from Chorlton, said: “She's simply a lovely, lovely lady.”

Liz, a member of the Senior Leadership Team at Loreto for 16 years, is responsible for the curriculum and assessment, and has increasingly specialised in teaching A Level Mathematics, but has also taught Religious Education, ICT and occasionally Spanish. She thinks teaching has improved dramatically during her career.

“The expectations are so much higher in every area of school life, but particularly in helping the students to achieve their best results and as teachers we now do so much more to identify weakness early and intervene to help students get back on course.”

She added: “Loreto has always been a good school, warm, friendly and caring with a mission to enable students to make a positive contribution to society, but it just keeps getting better and better and better, and I feel that I want to continue as long as I am enjoying my work and feel I am making a strong contribution.”

Loreto Grammar School Headteacher Jane Beever said: “Liz has been a cornerstone of Loreto's success and the way different generations of students feel about her reflects both her caring personality and her wonderful professionalism.”