There was not one but three teachers who were hugely important to me at school. They came to my wedding when I married at 28 - which, considering I left the school at 16, tells you a lot.
Miss Woolliter taught PE, Mr Flanagan taught RE and was also head of sport and Miss McMahon (who was actually a Mrs) taught geography.
It wasn’t an outstanding school - it’s been pulled down since I left - and the classrooms were at the end of their life. There were few resources and little technology. It was a time when there were lots of teaching strikes and teachers were discouraged from doing extra-curricular activities. But these three continued to do loads of activities.
Miss Woolliter would drive us all in the minibus to netball coaching sessions after school. Enthusiastic, hardworking and lovely, she had such a positive outlook. She encouraged me to try lots of sports - high jump and athletics, for example - and made me feel special. She told me that I had talent and encouraged me to use it. (She also used to bring Mars bars to the netball tournaments.)
Mr Flanagan, on the other hand, was a real disciplinarian. He was in his early forties, I guess, red-haired, slim, with a moustache. He used to run to school carrying his backpack - and it must have been about 10 miles. He taught RE and coached the football team and was scrupulously fair: if you were good, you were rewarded and if not, you were reprimanded. But it was meted out even-handedly. He also dressed very smartly and expected us to be proud of our appearance.
On one occasion, I went to school with a coat he didn’t like - my mother had given it to me and it was a long denim coat with a cartoon-illustrated lining. He said that it wasn’t “suitable” and told me not to wear it again. It was the only coat I had - though I don’t think he knew that - so I had to wear it or freeze. I froze.
Mr Flanagan also had impeccable manners - he was very much the product of his age. But this meant he also thought it was fair for everyone to get their chance to talk. I was close to him and he did the reading at my brother Daniel’s funeral. (Daniel was 15 years old when he died from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.) He was religious, but in a kind and compassionate way.
Miss McMahon was different again. She was a good teacher - she went on to become a headteacher - but she didn’t look anything like the way you thought a teacher would be. She had long, blonde hair, a bit like Farah Fawcett, was in her mid-thirties and wore really high heels. She was very glamorous. And she taught in a really engaging way. She was absolutely passionate about geography and made the world accessible to us in concepts we could relate to.
These teachers were all so important to me. They gave me a sense that I could be clever. Nobody in my family had been to university and no one expected me to go.
I think I also encountered these three inspirational teachers at the right time in my life, when I was ready to absorb what they had to teach me.
Though they were very different, they all gave me encouragement and the message that you don’t get anywhere just through luck and simply being in the right place. You have to put in the hard yards. Maybe it’s a bit ironic that I’ve become chancellor of Leeds Trinity University - two of those three inspirational teachers trained there.
Gabby Logan was talking to Jo Knowsley
PERSONAL PROFILE
Born: 24 April 1973, Leeds, England
Education: Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, Leeds
Career: Television and radio presenter and recently announced as the first chancellor of Leeds Trinity University
Other facts: Married retired rugby union star Kenny Logan in 2001. The couple have twins called Reuben McKerrow and Lois Maya, who were born in 2005.
