Tell me about the teachers that made a good impression on you, or that you remember fondly.

[GroutyShouty]

I have three that really stick out:

> Mrs Yeo, secondary history. She was a formidable Scottish lady who seemed like she'd walked straight out of a Dickens novel. It was a deprived, rough school with some serious behaviour issues but Mrs Yeo brooked no bullshit and kept everyone in line in her classes. I learned so much and fell in love with history.

> Mr Pennington, secondary RE. In contrast to Mrs Yeo, his classes were riotous. He was camp as Christmas and always had a great laugh with pupils. When we were choosing our GCSE subjects in year 9, school was weirdly putting loads on pressure on (if you don't choose the right subjects, you'll get terrible results and fuck up your life). In one RE lesson he said a really throw away line which was "In 15 years, you won't even remember what subjects you chose" and it really took the pressure off.

> Mrs McDowell, secondary English. For context, my school was probably about 75% Black and Asian pupils. We were reading a book about an African girl living in the UK in the 1800s, which had a version of the N-word in it. Mrs McDowell read the word out loud which one of the Black girls took issue with. Mrs McDowell then told us all to close our books and she spontaneously facilitated a really sensible and sensitive discussion about whether we should censor books, how language changes etc. This was back in the late-90s before these kinds of discussions were commonplace. It really stuck with me - both the content of the debate but also the lovely way she handled opposing views.

Mr Dennis in primary school. He was fab. He saw us all as individuals and allowed us to earn privileges such as not needing to ask permission to go to the toilet during lesson time as he'd trust us not to abuse the privilege.

Our classroom looked out onto the school playing field and on nice days in the summer term he'd have us all climbing out of the ground floor windows and he'd conduct lessons outside.

Mrs Daniels - my music teacher in middle school. She was a lovely Welsh lady who had time for everyone. She was particularly gentle with me when I needed emotional support and being around her just felt like a warm environment. I will never forget her, she was a true teacher who taught me things without even speaking.

My favourite ever teacher was Mr Seakins, last year of junior school.

He was an absolute riot. He used to sit watching us all work with his glasses halfway down his nose and then randomly announce: I'm watching you all with my beady little eyes. If someone disagreed with him, he'd throw his hands up and say: Ah, what different cats we are. There was a boy called Martin and every time some artwork fell off the wall, he'd shout accusingly MARTIN!! There was another boy called Josh and he'd creep up behind him singing: Joshua... Joshua... how like orange squash you are! He'd also randomly start singing Beatles songs at us whenever the mood took him. Also, if he saw one of his old pupils on break from the secondary school, he'd jump on the table so he could get to the tiny high window so he could shout at them to get back to their work. We'd be begging him to stop sometimes because we couldn't breathe with laughter.

He was also a really good teacher, as well as hilarious.

My other favourite was Mr Roland, the headmaster of the same school. He was really musical. He was well known for getting a chair out in assembly so he could get a leg up on it and play us Froggy went A-courting on the guitar. He also chose our hymns and we'd look forward immensely to a sing song. Our favourite was Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud about some hippos. We used to belt that out with him enthusiastically leading us with a big metre stick.

He was also super kind and you never dreaded getting sent to the office. He'd patiently listen to your side of things every time. The worst punishment he'd dole out was to sit quietly in his office with a book.

I dearly loved them both.

Miss honey Matilda 🤣

Can't remember her name but there was a substitute teach we always had on a Wednesday in primary school. Older lady, used to give us easier work 😂 but so kind and always let me write on the whiteboard. Sounds silly but it's something that always stuck in my head. Just very kind natured and always found her easy to talk to.

Of course that was supposed to say *teacher!

What a lovely, lovely thread 🥲

Mr B & Mrs G, both maths teachers who made me like & understand maths
Miss G, v strict head of year which I was petrified of till I had her as a geography teacher & realised she was actually quite fab & only lost it with kids who took the piss (which I was far too scared to do!)

@SparklesandRainbows Oh, talking of substitute teachers - we had a couple of fabulous ones too.
I can't remember her name but we had her for quite a long time in year 5 when our teacher was off-sick. She was an American lady who'd lived/worked with Native Americans all her adult life. She used to tell us all the folk tales and get us acting out ceremonies. I very distinctly remember the whole class howling at one point.

On a similar vibe there was Mr Oyebanyi (not sure I've spelled that right) in secondary school. He used to cover science but would spend the whole lesson telling us about his childhood in Nigeria and sharing folk tales. One lesson got into a discussion of Nigerian women's hair and somehow, no idea how, morphed into him giving everyone in the class marks out of ten on their hair styles 😅

Also I worked as support in a 6th form & experienced many a crap teacher but also some where I enjoyed the class & learned some new things!

@GroutyShouty that sounds brilliant ☺️😂

Mrs lamprey in primary was so kind to me.
I was quite neglected as a child and she really looked after me.
She did my hair & got me clean uniform from lost property.
Taught me tables manners and how to eat soup correctly with a spoon.
She was a kind person and always looked out for me .
I think of her often