Dedicated teacher died after table fall
A dedicated teacher who died following an accident at a Yorkshire school had cut short her holiday to prepare for the new term.
Lynsey Haycock was putting up posters at Forge Valley School in Stannington in Sheffield when she broke her leg jumping down from a table, an inquest heard.
A DEDICATED teacher who died following an accident at a Yorkshire school had cut short her holiday to prepare for the new term.
Lynsey Haycock was putting up posters at Forge Valley School in Stannington in Sheffield when she broke her leg jumping down from a table, an inquest heard.
The 41-year-old motherof-two was taken to hospital, where she died early the following morning, on September 2 last year, after going into cardiac arrest.
An inquest yesterday heard how the “conscientious” science teacher was not due at school for another couple of days but had come in early to get her new classroom ready.
A post-mortem examination found no conclusive cause of death, but pathologist Dr Julian Burton told Sheffield Coroner’s Court that sudden arrhythmic death syndrome – a heart abnormality he described as the adult equivalent of cot death – was one of three possible causes.
Dr Burton said the other likely causes were non-alcohol related hepatitis or severe obesity, but he could not rule out another cause altogether.
Andrew Stringer, one of Mrs Haycock’s colleagues, told how she had been putting up posters on the afternoon of September 1 last year when she placed her hand on the table and jumped down.
He said she had landed “very, very awkwardly” and was “very much in pain”, but had thought first of her children and then of the school which she felt she had “let down” as she knew she would be off work for a long time.
Mrs Haycock was taken to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, where she was found unresponsive early the next morning and died despite efforts to resuscitate her.
Her widower Tim Haycock said she was “strong and active”, and they had just returned from a family holiday in Norfolk. He described her as being “very clever, very caring and very strong”.
Coroner Laurinda Bower praised the “conscientious” teacher for returning to work early to get her new classroom ready.
The court heard how staff were expected to request a caretaker to carry out work at height, but Mr Haycock said his wife was the sort of person who “just wanted to do something and get it finished”.
Dale Barrowclough, the headteacher at Forge Valley School, said Mrs Haycock had joined the school in 2015 from Horizon Academy in Barnsley. He praised her as a very “knowledgeable” and “enthusiastic” teacher who had been “very popular” with pupils and staff and had worked hard to transform the school’s struggling science department.
Her death was the first of three tragedies to hit the school this academic year.
In December, 15-year-old student Hakeem Pickering-Smith was seriously injured when he was hit by a car and in March, 14-year-old Scott Marsden died after collapsing during a kickboxing contest.
She was very clever, very caring and very strong. Tim Haycock, widower of Lynsey Haycock.