I’ll never forget the day.

It was 21 October 2011 and I’d pulled into the staff car park, early as usual. I’d hardly got out of my car when a colleague, one of the teachers in the geography department, walked over to my car looking solemn.

“Have you heard the news?” she asked. “No, what?” There was a pause that seemed to last forever and a million thoughts went through my head - had the head resigned? Were Estyn inspectors coming?

“James Beck has died,” she said. My heart just sank. 

It had happened the night before. James was a 14-year-old lad from the village of Meliden, situated a few miles from Prestatyn, where the high school was. He and some of his friends had gone out to the local quarry. They’d climbed some rocks. James had slipped. The police helicopter came. There was nothing they could do. He died at the scene.

It hit me really hard, like so many others. I taught James. He had been in my history class. But that’s not the part of the story I want to focus on.

In that same Year 9 class was his twin sister, Gemma. I’d taught Gemma since she was a Year 7. She’d been sat in my first lesson as a NQT in 2008.

I had a special bond with every student in that class because I’d taught them the “skills curriculum” and saw them for six hours a week for that first year. The bond carried on until they left (and I left) at the end of Year 11. I’m still in touch with many of them to this day.

I had a really good relationship with Gemma and many of her friends at school. My immediate thought, and that of many of the other teachers, was how Gemma would cope with this. Apart from being an incredibly down-to-earth, sincere and smart girl, Gemma also had a big heart.

I was dumbfounded by how she dealt with the tragedy of losing her twin brother. I remain so to this day.

Not only did she refuse to take any time away from school (she had just started Year 10), but she showed everyone how incredibly strong she was. Gemma stayed in lessons. She kept her head. She showed unbelievable resilience. I went to seek her out a few times in the weeks following James’ death, and what I saw was a girl grieving and confused and suffering, but still as steady as an anchor in the sea. She continued to be a good friend to her friends and a brilliant student to her teachers. The one thing I remember more than anything: she kept smiling.

How? I’ve no idea. If it were me, I think I’d have probably (at least temporarily) shut down. Not Gemma.

To teach Gemma was a blessing and it reminded me how fortunate I was to play just a tiny part in trying to help her through. And other kids going through similar, but perhaps less stark struggles. It kept me going. It inspired my lesson planning - however pathetic that sounds. It made me realise more than ever that every moment with these kids mattered. Gemma was a bright kid and everyone not only wanted her to succeed, but would have felt like they’d let her down if she didn’t.

GCSE results day in 2013 was, I’m sure, remarkable. That summer, I’d moved on to be a head of department in another school so wasn’t there to witness it. But I wish I’d seen Gemma get her remarkable results, a raft of high-grade passes that included some A*s.

Prestatyn is a tough area, really. It’s a former industrial town in North Wales that is now deprived of much of its former glory, and with it has come some insularity. But Gemma, against the tide of grief she felt and the social constraints presented to her, achieved something wonderful. She now studies radiotherapy and oncology at the University of Wales, Cardiff. I’m so proud to have known her, never mind taught her.

To me, Gemma represents that child we’ve all taught who taught us more than we taught them. She was just an ordinary girl from an ordinary place, but she did something extraordinary in coming through her own personal struggle.

She still reminds me, to this day, why I entered this profession, why I love this profession, and why I fight for the teachers inside this profession.

Thomas Rogers is a teacher who runs rogershistory.com and tweets @RogersHistory

For more columns by Tom, view his back catalogue

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