School to pay tribute to popular teacher

A SCHOOL is set to honour a popular and respected young teacher who died suddenly only weeks before her wedding day.

Great Cornard Upper School will pay tribute to Shelley Baisden at a special service this Friday at 2.45pm in St Andrews Church, Great Cornard.

Miss Baisden, who taught English at Great Cornard Upper School and Technology College, had been fighting cancer for two years when she collapsed unexpectedly at home on March 17.

Mike Foley, Great Cornard Upper School headteacher, said the school was also planning a smart casual dress day on Friday to raise money for a charity of the her family's choice.

The service will also include readings by pupils reflecting on their memories of the “inspirational” teacher.

One pupil said: “From the moment we saw Miss Baisden we knew we had struck gold. The time we had with her was unique.”

Another wrote in Friday's order of service: “Words cannot describe how much Miss Baisden means to us, and trying to come to terms with what has happened is the hardest thing life could throw at us.”

Graham Smith, a business studies teacher at the school, will also cycle 100 miles on a cycling machine in support of the school-wide effort.

“The school has lost a teacher and two pupils to cancer and I lost my father-in-law - all in the past year,” he said.

“So I hope to raise money for St Nicholas Hospice, in Bury St Edmunds, and Macmillan nurses.”

Mr Foley said he had lost a “courageous” member of his staff who had proved a popular teacher despite only joining the school in September.

Miss Baisden had pursued her dream of training as a teacher despite the spectre of cancer, which had also killed her mother two years ago, and in her approach to teaching she won staff and pupils' respect, said Mr Foley.

The young teacher had been working at the school as a newly qualified teacher. She was brought up in Essex and went to Kent University where she gained a BA degree in English and American Literature.