DANIEL Lysaght has left Winifred West Schools after 21 years of service.

It is the community that has impressed Mr Lysaght during his time at Mittagong.

"The parents, teachers, board members and the students are all very exceptional people," Mr Lysaght said.

"They are all highly motivated and the single focus has always been the children."

As warden, Mr Lysaght has been responsible for the management

of the three schools of Winifred West.

Frensham, Gib Gate and Sturt are all part of the group that for the last two years has seen Julie Gillick at the helm.

Mr Lysaght worked very closely with Ms Gillick and he has seen many changes at the school.

He came to Mittagong for a change in lifestyle having spent time as an accountant in the Port Kembla area.

Winifred West gave him the opportunity to expand his horizons taking on responsibility for property management, school finances and administration.

He said that Winifred West was ahead of her time in her way of thinking about education and that level of staying on the edge has always been maintained.

He sees Winifred West Schools heading in the right direction and always ahead of the pack.

Service to the education of the students has always been paramount and working within an educational group of schools has been different to other businesses that are guided by profits.

"I have learnt to become a much more lateral thinker," Mr Lysaght said.

"I started as an accountant and now I can pick a leaky sewage pipe at 30 paces."

Looking forward to his semi-retirement he left for the UK to join his wife, Pauline, on a holiday today.

They moved to Austinmer several years ago and he has been commuting to work.

When they return from the UK Mr Lysaght will be busy preparing for his trip to the Antarctic next year.

He has always been a keen traveller having walked the Pyrenes, travelled one leg of the 1988 voyage of the Endeavour re-enactment, visited the outback twice in six months, attended a wedding in Tunisia, and visited Komodo to see some dragons in their natural habitat.

He said that you should never do the things that you don't really like but you should have fun doing the things you do.

This spirit of adventure remains and he plans to make more memories.