Ms Tanaka is an adult female who teachers at Sussex Academy as a physical education teacher. She is a lean, mean machine, woe-betide any pupil who tries to duck out of her classes. She is a firm believer in the benefits of exercise and sport; her claim to fame is that she nearly qualified as an Olympic rower back in the eighties.
A firm disciplinarian, she loves using the whistle that hangs around her neck. She often remarked that Shirley Holmes has difficulty with team sports, which Shirley agrees with, as she doesn't see the point of a group of people charging at her just for a ball.