Amazing retirement surprise for Wigan teacher on Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

Mrs Crawley, who is deputy headteacher at Ashton Saint Thomas Primary School on Hodnet Drive, thought she was doing an interview about her career for a news programme.

However, she was then shocked when her daughter Becky and a programme employee guided her onto the set of the Saturday evening entertainment show and brought her face-to-face with the famous presenting duo.

And that was only the start of the surprises as Ant and Dec revealed how they had got in touch with many of her ex-pupils to make her last year in education special and thank her for all her efforts helping generations of Wigan youngsters.

Calling their efforts Operation Thank You Miss, they pulled out all the stops throughout the year to reward her for her work in the town over four decades.

Viewers saw Kath treated to a range of surprises arranged by the programme with people she had once taught.

Florist Debs Gaskill dropped a huge bunch of flowers off at school on the first day of her last academic year before supermarket worker Lee Forkin gave her a free shop at Asda and limo driver Dave Sandercock took her to a lunch in style in a bright pink and luxuriously kitted-out Mercedes.

Decorator Scott Taylor then organised a makeover of her classroom before another group of former pupils visited school to secretly transform the hall into a festive wonderland for the Christmas party.

This gave Kath one of her biggest shocks as the programme revealed comedian Jason Manford, one of her favourite entertainers, had turned up in disguise to play the role of Santa Claus and had visited her home to read an excerpt of the poem The Night Before Christmas.

Many of Kath's former pupils then turned up on the video wall of the TV studio to say an emotional "thank you Miss" one last time before Ant and Dec revealed their retirement present to her was a static caravan, something she had saved for over the years, donated to the smash hit show by manufacturers Willerby after the firm was contacted by the programme's producers.

The holiday home was filled with gifts suggested by her current pupils.

Ant and Dec paid tribute to Kath's career, describing how hers was the first face new pupils arriving at school would see, how she had taught some 1,300 children in her 32-year career and how she had gone the extra mile arranging care home visits by the school choir, spending lunch hours with youngsters needing extra help or support and doing walks for charity.

An overwhelmed Kath said: "I can't tell you how much I'm going to miss it. It has been my life.

"Being a parent is the best job in the world but being a teacher is like being a parent but to a lot more children."

Her daughter Becky told Ant and Dec how she was "massively proud" of her mum, who had "dedicated her whole life to putting other people first".

Viewers also heard how Kath inspired her own three children to follow her into caring professions, with two of them becoming teachers and the other working as a nurse in the NHS.

Kath admitted she "had not a clue what was going on" during the year, although she admitted she thought being told "thank you Miss" in connection with each surprise was a little strange.

She said: "A few people have got a few questions to answer when I meet them!"

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