You always remember your headteacher, don’t you?
Few people are in such a position to shape young lives. They are teachers, mentors, guides, advisers, and early authority figures tasked with keeping their young charges on the straight and narrow. A visit to the head’s office is not necessarily an encounter to look forward to.
The nature of their leadership influences the culture and success of the school, and its reputation rests on their shoulders.
An enormously responsible role, then. In this selection we remember just a handful of the special individuals who have been the figureheads of Shropshire schools big and small down the years.
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5. They did a runner and were given a shield
Ernest Wray was one of a generation of headteachers whose lives were forged by war. A Regimental Quarter Master Sergeant serving in the 5th Battalion, the East Yorkshire Regiment, he had been captured in Libya in June 1942. In captivity he had the idea of launching a magazine to keep prisoners in touch with friends and colleagues from whom they had been separated. Called The Courier, the first issue came out in April 1944. Mr Wray was first head of Pontesbury Secondary Modern School when it opened in 1957 and was there all the way to his retirement in 1975. It would become the Mary Webb School. Here he is in February 1973 presenting the shields for the area cross country championship | Shropshire Star archive
6. School's out - forever
A farewell barbecue in the summer of 1994 to mark the closure of Hadley’s Manor School in Telford. Head Eleri Woods and chairman of governors Councillor Keith Austin were on hand to serve the food. The Manor and John Hunt School at Trench closed to make way for the new Sutherland School | Shropshire Star archive
7. Big day at Ellesmere College
Mr D J Skipper, the headmaster of Ellesmere College, at the speech day and annual prizegiving in June 1970. We're not sure who the other distinguished-looking gentlemen are, but we'll take a guess that they're school governors | Shropshire Star archive
8. The visit by Stockport County fans which closed a school
If Gillian Smith, head of Crudgington Primary School, is not looking too happy in this November 1987 picture, it's because the school was dealing with the aftermath of a visit by Stockport County fans. Three coachloads pulled up in the layby outside the school for calls of nature while on their way to Stockport's match against Telford United. The upshot was that children had to be given the Monday morning off while demountable buildings were disinfected | Shropshire Star archive