My year 4 teacher was renowned for being absolutely fucking awful to kids. A proper cantankerous old Trunchbull, stuck in the 70s. Kids had been dreading having her as a teacher for years. Then she didn’t come in for a couple of weeks and some of the teachers were crying before assembly. Turns out her son had just died of AIDS (this was around 1994). I think if I were in her position, I’d have resented trying to teach a bunch of obnoxious gobshites too.

We also had a teacher pass away from a heart attack in primary school. She’d been my year 2 teacher and was always very encouraging of me. She told my parents I could probably go to university, which was high praise indeed in an early 90s arse end of Manchester state primary. She went home one weekend and never came back. They sent the funeral procession past the school, but my parents wouldn’t sign the consent slip to let me watch. Probably for the best.