Me and my School

I've been thinking about my school teachers of late. Strangely I can't really remember anyone from my Primary school apart from the Head, Miss Shepherd and the song we used to sing in assembly which went "I am The Lord of the Dance Settee". Never worked out what that was.

Mr Draper

At my middle school there were two classes for each year. Although I wasn't in his class, Mr Draper took us all for Drama. I was in the after school club too and I have him to thank for the beginning of my journey into story making. He had such a friendly face and a beard that you could have hidden a small gnome in. Hello Mr Draper!

Mrs Fenton was my class teacher in the Second Year. She was incredibly glamorous and for the first half of the year she looked like Farah Fawcett in Charlie's Angels. Her hair was huge and curly and she wore fabulous clothes and lots of lip gloss.

Mrs Fenton aka Farah

Then one day she came in with brown straightened hair, in the days when such a thing had to be done by a professional with CHEMICALS! We barely recognised her; she now looked like Agneta from Abba with her fringe flicking up at the sides and the rest of it dropping straight down like a sheet of shiny paper.

Mrs Fenton aka Agneta

Most of the teachers who made an impact on me were from my Secondary School. I went to the country's first Ecumenical school, where we had both Anglican and Catholic upbringing. For this I can truly thank for my subsequent and wholehearted interest in Buddhism. Miss Jackson was the Head of my first year there (confusingly called The Second Year) in the Annexe away from the big kids in the Big School. She really did look like this. 

Miss Jackson

My Mum objected to me playing hockey because my sister had her teeth bashed in by a hockey stick in a rough game and Miss Jackson's response was that I'd be better at hockey than say, Netball, because at 4ft something, I was closer to the ball. We had a lot of names for her, none of them repeatable.

Mr Cooper

Mr Cooper taught us English. He looked like how I imagine Heathcliffe, handsomely scruffy, hair in his eyes, broody. Us 13 year old girls found it difficult to concentrate on anything at all whilst he was in the room. 

Mrs Woodcock

At about this age my Mum taught me to sew. I thought it was going to be my career for some time, until I discovered that Fashion didn't like me, but prior to this illumination, Margaret Woodcock taught me Dress Making right thought to A level. 

Me and Mrs Woodcock had a rather nice friendship and I was always pleased to see her and go to her lessons. She left about 6 months before I took my A level to have a baby. I only saw her once after that, when I took her a present for her newborn, but I shall never forget her. She was a star.


I had some wonderful art teachers; Mr White, who must have been named after the colour of his hair; Mrs Groves who reminded me of an ancient Oak, gnarled but grandly fantastic.

But the two teachers who I have to thank mostly for some richly fantastic lessons, brilliant shows and the foundations on which my work now stands - Geoff Sayers and Susie Gibbons.

Right from Mr Draper's drama club, I loved performing. I'm not saying I was much good at it, my timing was all wrong, I kept corpsing and I found it hard to BE someone else. But I still loved it.

Geoff Sayers was, as one might say, a confirmed bachelor and gosh, didn't we all know it. It was so refreshing to know someone like him who didn't conform and wasn't like the other teachers. 

We studies Equus on the quiet: I have no idea if anyone else knew about that, but it made a change from Shakespeare. We looked at Chekov and at A Taste of Honey and Dostoyevski. I was a fairy in A Midsummer Night's Dream and sang loud and flat while Puck was played by none other than Michael Greco aka Beppe from Eastenders.

Geoff Sayers

At some point during my O level in Drama, Geoff's mother became very ill and he took some time off to look after her. He shipped in his good friend Susie Gibbons, who became known as Susie Gubbins to us. What twits we were. She was like a little woodland pixie, short hair, small frame, gorgeous. She came into the room like a tornado and filled us all with a special sort of energy that only some teachers have the ability to give. I would love to meet her again.

Susie Gibbons

She was in charge when I took my O level and by some fluke I passed it. Although I am nothing of an actor, it gave me something that I use these days when I am reading my books to children. I guess you'd call it Luvviness.

Thanks to all you lovely teachers for shaping my future and for putting up with us 'orrible teenagers!!