Barbara Steele MBE

Mrs Steele began at the school as a volunteer, helping to take children on the bus to Winsford to go swimming. She also worked at the school as a cleaner, but it was in her job as a midday assistant, or dinner lady, and staff room tea and coffee maker that so many of the school community came to know her – probably around a thousand members of staff over the years, and literally thousands of young people.

To say that she worked at Tarporley High School for the best part of 40 years, and that so very many of us knew her does not do nearly enough justice to her contribution and what she meant to us. She put her heart and soul into her work; she supported the school and she was loyal, hardworking and utterly dependable. She spoke her mind, but never without good reason, and she had a wonderful sense of humour and fun. The fact that Tarporley High is a school with a strong sense of community, where people care about each other, is very much thanks to the kind of values and spirit that Mrs Steele had in such abundance.

Mrs Steele got to know people; she was kind and caring and she looked after students and staff alike. She kept a close eye on the new Year 7 students when they joined us from the Primary Schools, looking after any that felt lost or lonely - giving kind words or a quiet bit of good advice when needed. In the old days she broke up fights on the school yard, and she ruled over the dining room, calling all our students to order and making sure they tidied up after themselves. When she needed a bit of help carrying trays and cleaning tables, we bought her a trolley, painted in school colours, and put a personalised number plate, BARB 1, on it.

The staff also benefited from her kind words and good advice. Teachers dashing into the staff room at break for a welcome hot drink before their next lesson were reminded by Barbara to relax, laugh and chat with each other. She knew when the staff birthdays were and she led the Happy Birthday singing in the staff room, always wore her Christmas outfit at the end of the autumn term and reminded us how to have fun and look out for each other. When she retired from the dining room, she was serenaded in verse in the staff room by Mr James Blackford. We all celebrated with a packed and memorable staff party for her in the upstairs room of The Swan.

It is a great honour and privilege to be the head teacher of a high school, and to have the chance to make a difference for the better to the school community and its young people, but in my 11 years as head teacher, there is one very great privilege that came my way and that stands out for me, which was when I was contacted by a former member of staff, suggesting that I might put forward Mrs Steele’s name for a national honour. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and so I my wrote a nomination and obtained some wonderful letters of support from senior staff past and present. This was when I learnt from my former colleagues about Mrs Steele’s very great contribution over the years, and throughout the whole life of Tarporley High School. It was not difficult for me to write about her merits and the recognition she deserved, because she was who she was. I had to keep the nomination a secret, throughout all the highly confidential phone calls I received from the Cabinet Office, and it was such a joy when Mrs Steele was informed that she was to receive her MBE in 2006, and we were able to talk about it at last. In the weeks that followed, and when she received her MBE from Prince Charles, we all shared in her excitement and pleasure and celebrated together with her.

I speak for all of us at the High School when I say how shocked and devastated I was when I heard about her sudden death. Our thoughts now are with her husband and her family as we say goodbye to our most highly distinguished member of staff and a very dear and special person, who will always be in our hearts.

Sarah Lee
Head teacher
January 2012