It took her three attempts to apply for teacher's college – but each time she fell pregnant. On the third time she concluded it just wasn't meant to be.

'I wouldn't speak to my husband for a whole week,” laughs Tauranga's Geraldine Reweti.

Tauranga's Dene Reweti has worked for Bethlehem School for 58 years. Photo: Tracy Hardy.

She was determined to fulfil a career in education – and she never gave up. That's her style.

It's why she's stayed loyal to Bethlehem School for 58 years. 'Yes,” she says. 'No problem. I can do it with my eyes closed.”

Her pupils call her Nanny Dene or Nanny Reweti. Mrs Reweti is just too formal.

Nanny Dene officially retired at the end of 2014. It's been a long-standing joke at the school that she'd never leave. Not that they wanted her to.

She admits it's been a challenge – but she's loved it.

'It's just something that I do,” says Dene. 'Seeing how much I can give to the children, to my job and the teachers and do the best I can, when I can.

'It's been an enjoyable time in my life – I could still carry on.”

At age 88, Dene is possibly New Zealand's oldest junior teaching assistant. But she's finally been convinced by her daughter to enjoy retirement. She's still finding it difficult to relax though.

'When you retire you lose everything don't you. You get mangere (lazy).”

She can sleep in now. 'But I don't like it.”

Dene's first encounter with Bethlehem School was when she enrolled as a student in 1932. Back then, it was called Paeroa Native School and it was just across the road from where it is now on Carmichael Rd. 'We were natives,” says Dene.

In the late 1930s, Dene went to Queen Victoria College at Parnell in Auckland. She didn't get a scholarship to go there because she lived to close to the school.

But for some kind reason, a Maori mission worker used her money to send Dene to the college for two years.

'She paid for my tuition and everything,” says Dene. 'All my mother had to do was make my clothes.

'My mother was an amazing woman. I had the best blouses in the school.”

After college, Dene began her first junior teacher assistant role at Maungatapu School. She taught there for three years before she accepted her late husband's proposal and married at the age of 20.

'That's why I'm still alive,” says Dene. 'I had a lovely married life.”

He loved classical music. So did she. 'That suited me down to the ground.”

She has a piano in her office at Bethlehem School – but her pupils aren't allowed to play it during class time.

'They're supposed to be working or outside playing but I let them fiddle around,” laughs Dene.

In 1956, Dene was helping a friend – 'Mrs Skipper” – do the ironing. '16 shirts a week,” says Dene.

'The headmaster must have noticed me and asked me if I'd like to teach Maori culture at the school.” She said yes 58 years ago – and she's never left.

Dene's been both the pupil and the teacher. Today, her son Takiri Reweti teaches in the Maori unit at Bethlehem School – and her nine-year-old granddaughter Takiri Mai Te Ata Reweti and seven-year-old twin grandnieces Hine Tuahiahi and Pania Atwood are pupils there.

One of her roles was with the school library – something that was 'quite a task,” says Dene.

'I had to write down all the names of the books and at the end of that year pack them up again and make sure none were missing.

'It was my job to place them in the alphabetical order.”

'But I used to love reading. We were too poor to buy books so I had to grab anything I could get hold of.”

The school has now named the library after her. Her name Geraldine Reweti hangs above the entrance.

The school is celebrating Dene's retirement with a special service on March 13.

The Prime Minister John Key has been invited to attend, along with close friend Helen Clark – and Education Minister Hekia Parata, Tauranga MP Simon Bridges, Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby and other ministry representatives.

Even though she's retired, Dene will be back three days a week to 'make sure they're doing it right”.