Dinner lady at same Oldham school for 40 years congratulated by Jamie Oliver

When Alison Hopkinson first started serving school lunches, Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, George Michael's Careless Whisper was No 1 in the charts, and celebrity chef and school meals campaigner Jamie Oliver was still at school himself.

The 64-year-old dinner lady and cook last week celebrated 40 years in the job at Greenfield St Mary's in Oldham – the same primary school she herself attended as a child.

To mark her four decades at the school last week, staff celebrated with a special assembly, with messages from Jamie Oliver and MasterChef winner Simon Wood.

"My mother was the secretary, and we'd moved into the area, and that's when I actually started school here," she told the Guardian.

"My children came here, and my son started in 1984, and that's when I started, actually the week that he started, working in the kitchen, because obviously then there wasn't the childcare like there is today."

"Obviously I've been very happy," she said. "People say, 'aren't you bored or fed-up?', but every day is different where children are, and it's an experience, really, but I really have thoroughly enjoyed it."

"She is part of the spirit and the bones of what we are here," headteacher Susan Hall told the BBC.

"We have values which talk about being safe, caring, achieving our very best, being respectful and friendly and Alison epitomises all that with everything that she does."

Over the past 40 years, some things have changed, Hopkinson said. Children are now offered more choice, and school dinners have become healthier. But, she said, "children are children", and the pupils' favourite meal was still her traditional meat pie.

In his letter, she said, Oliver said "what an impact it will have had on children for over 40 years, and how they'll go out and they could be the next future of chefs."

His message, and the assembly itself, came as quite the surprise, she added.

"I was quite emotional because it was such a shock," Hopkinson said. "I did think they would have done something to recognise it, but when I got in the hall and it was packed, and then obviously I got this letter from Jamie Oliver, it was just very, very nice, it was lovely, emotional and amazing, really."

While she hasn't made any firm decisions about retirement yet, Hopkinson said: "I did say to the headteacher I've just got two more Christmas lunches [until I can retire], and then I'll have done 41, and I haven't missed any."

"I can't really make that decision at the moment," she added, "and my colleagues are laughing because they said you'll get up on that Monday morning and you'll probably just come to the door, because you've always done it."