Anne Attwood

Last updated 21:12, Sunday, 23 November 2008

BEFORE reading on, just stop for a minute and think back to your school or college days and ask yourself if any of your teachers were outstanding?

By Anne Attwood, principal of Furness College

BEFORE reading on, just stop for a minute and think back to your school or college days and ask yourself if any of your teachers were outstanding?

When I was at school, most of the teaching was barely adequate by today’s standards and the quality of teaching was never questioned: if there was a problem, it was the fault of the student!

Despite this, one teacher I had was so good that I didn’t even need to revise – whether I can now remember anything she taught is another matter.

There are two other teachers that stand out in my memory: one in my primary school who inspired me and the other 49 pupils in the class; the other in secondary school whose passion for literature and theatre was contagious.

 Your memorable teacher may have been very different to mine.

Perhaps their enthusiasm and deep knowledge of a subject was transferred to you.

Maybe in primary school there was someone who helped you through a bad patch.

They may not have been particularly flamboyant, but through patience and understanding may have helped you grasp something you’d thought impossible, or helped you master something you’d thought was too hard.

But what did others think of these special teachers? If you’re a younger reader, did an education inspector visit your school and judge them outstanding too?

A school or college is only as good as its teachers and we recently had a difficult choice when asked to nominate one of our staff for a prestigious national award.

There seemed to be many possibilities.

We did eventually make a selection and currently we have our fingers crossed for the member of staff whom we finally nominated for a national star award.

It had to be someone who inspectors, students and peers have all graded as outstanding.

John Murray will be known to many readers as chef John.

He is the peripatetic chef (peri-chef) who has been working in primary and secondary schools with children and their parents throughout the whole Furness Peninsula, teaching, as well as doing professional catering at the college.

John is the consummate professional whose contagious passion for his subject comes across whenever you meet him.

As soon as he dons his chef’s whites, he is in role and every lesson is a performance.

There is real added value to any one of John’s sessions.

Discipline, health and safety, problem solving and team working are all integral parts of his success story.

His lessons are not to be missed – for everyone, but especially for those who get bitten by the cookery bug and find a real passion for creativity in the kitchen.

Whether or not John wins the star award at the sparkling gala night in London, for us he will always be a star.

Best of Luck John.