TO SIR, WITH LOVE AT HEAD’S FUNERAL
School shows appreciation for Gareth
AN ENTIRE school erupted into clapping as hundreds of students and staff honoured their former headteacher.
Gareth Jones, who died this month after an eight-week battle with coronavirus, had transformed Ormiston Meridian Academy, in Meir, during his time there.
He had joined its predecessor school to lead it out of special measures and stayed on to establish the new academy before leaving in 2019.
But the 66-year-old was back in spirit yesterday as his funeral cortege slowly made its way round the school car park.
Students and staff lined the road to give him a rousing send-off. And in the classrooms, work stopped so every pupil could join in with the groundswell of applause.
Staff from other schools also came to pay their respects to Mr Jones, who had played a key role in school improvement work across the city.
Fifteen-year-old Amber Loforte, from Lightwood, said: “We just wanted to thank him for all he has done for us.”
She was one of several pupils holding up a banner, which read: ‘We will never forget you’.
Amber remembered the impact Mr Jones had on the former Sandon
Business and Enterprise College’s fortunes after he arrived in 2014.
“He was strict, but in a good way. He made sure everyone really felt at home here,” she said. “His biggest impact was on behaviour. “It became a better learning environment. “He had that drive to make students want to achieve.”
Alicia Clutton said the whole school had been left shocked by his death. The 16-year-old, from Meir, added: “We wanted to have this massive show of respect for him.”
Mr Jones, right, from Hartshill, was born and bred in Stoke-ontrent and spent most of his career working in local schools.
He worked for 25 years at Blurton High, before later returning to become vice-principal of its successor, Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy.
After leaving Ormiston Meridian yesterday, his cortege made its way to his old Blurton school, where staff and pupils were also waiting to give him applause. Then the procession passed Mr Jones’s beloved Port Vale ground before the funeral at St Paul’s Church in Longton.