Roger Stanbridge, the ‘avuncular and no-nonsense’ former head of Stratford Girls’ Grammar School has died at the age of 75
ROGER Stanbridge, the no-nonsense, avuncular head of Stratford Girls’ Grammar School for 14 years, was loved and respected in equal measure by his students, his gruff and laid-back demeanour concealing a passion for teaching and a determination for his pupils to achieve their full potential.
The school’s first and, to date, only male headteacher joined the staff as deputy head in 1987, becoming headteacher in 1991. In a tribute on the school’s Facebook page he is described as “a fiercely dedicated leader, whose legacy is still seen at the heart of the everyday here at SGGS.”
During his headship, the tribute continues, the school “witnessed a considerable leap in academic results, our student numbers, and the huge expansion of our sixth form, earning us a regular place on the National League Tables. In his time at the school, he oversaw the renovations of new science labs, the old library, the old drama studio and established well-equipped technology classrooms, and our beloved music centre. All of this was despite the financial restrictions the school had faced.”
Roger Stanbridge was born on 22nd June 1948, in Brighton. He attended Varndean Boys’ Grammar School in the town whose other moustached alumni included Des Lynam. During his formative years he began his lifelong support of the local football team, Brighton and Hove Albion.
As a teenager growing up in Brighton weekend jobs included deckchair rental on the beach.
Reportedly this involved him sunbathing on said deckchair, taking the money and then leaving the customers to take their chairs and set them up themselves. This laid-back, but highly efficient and effective, approach would later become a characteristic of his management style.
After declining a place at Oxford, Mr Stanbridge studied organic chemistry at Hull University followed by a post-graduate place at Newcastle University studying geology and chemistry.
It was here in 1971 that he met his future wife, Sandy, a nurse, working in Leeds. They married in Burnley in 1972 and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last November.
Mr Stanbridge’s first teaching job – in Salisbury – proved eventful: the explosion resulting from his use of unstable old chemicals found at the back of a cupboard was not the only ‘lively’ chemistry lesson he was to conduct. Fortunately, it proved no barrier to his appointment as head of chemistry at Wren School, in Wellingborough, nor, later, to being appointed head of science at Moulton School, Northampton.
At this time he became an examiner for the Cambridge Examinations Board, later becoming the principal examiner for setting and marking international chemistry papers, work he continued after his retirement in 2005.
His no-nonsense approach was immediately apparent on his appointment as head of SGGS. He got rid of the purple berets the girls used to have to wear as he was worried that trying to hold them on their heads would cause those who cycled to school to fall off their bike. He also set up a school council to give the students a voice in the way the school was run.
Though he loved teaching, his staff, his daily interactions with students and the knowledge that he was making a difference to their lives, he found the bureaucracy associated with his management role increasingly frustrating and tiresome. Former Herald editor Chris Towner, a school governor at the time, recalls that Mr Stanbridge’s verbal reports to governors’ meetings were sprinkled with his familiar catchphrases: “It’s a total shambles, really” and, “As useful as a chocolate teapot.”
“However, despite the very difficult financial position for schools at that time, for 14 years he remained totally passionately committed to teaching and to making sure that each one of his students should achieve her full potential in the challenging, but loving and supportive, educational environment of Stratford Girls’ Grammar,” Mr Towner added.
Mr Stanbridge died on 23rd July at the age of 75. He is survived by his wife, their three daughters, Nic, Lisa and Anna, and seven grandchildren.
