Your obituary of Tim Brighouse (20 December) mentions his writing of letters to classroom teachers and ancillary staff. What it didn’t mention was how difficult those letters sometimes were to decipher. I have several such handwritten letters from his time in Oxfordshire, and the very first one, on my appointment as headteacher, ended with, I think: “Your local head colleagues will also help – they may even tell you how to read this.”
I remember the partnership meetings of secondary schools plus feeder primaries, when he brought wine and loads of encouragement. He remembered everyone – I felt that if we’d met walking down some street in foreign parts he would know who we were. A rare model of a chief education officer. And then there were the unannounced visits, when children were his prime focus.
When he left Oxfordshire he was sorely missed, and the world of education has now lost a true champion.
Martin Kirk
Botesdale, Suffolk
• I once wrote to Tim Brighouse in despair about the effect some educational “reform” would have on my nursery class. He replied by return post and advised me to collect all the relevant paperwork, set fire to it in the garden and dance around it. “It won’t make any difference, but it might make you feel better,” he wrote. His letter certainly did.
Marilyn Rowley
Manchester
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