Tributes to popular and respected Burnley teacher

Mrs Joy Smethurst, who taught and gained huge respect at Burnley Wood Secondary School for Boys, then Ivy Bank High School and Rosegrove, died on April 9th.It was following the death of her baby son Guy that her mother suggested she apply to be a music teacher at Burnley Wood.

Throughout her career pupils benefitted from her innate caring and motherly instincts.

Former pupils recount good memories, saying she was an inspirational teacher, relating to children with her firm but fair approach, good sense of humour and enthusiasm about her subject.

Mrs Smethurst loved her work so much that when she reached retirement age she asked the local authority whether she could continue. This was allowed for some years.She began her career under the headship of Charlie Brunton at Burnley Wood, then followed him after a three-year Teaching Diploma, to teach English at Ivy Bank High School and Rosegrove and in the end becoming peripatetic too.

In early life she gained a Music Diploma from Manchester and became Fellow of the Royal College of Organists as well.Her funeral will be held on Thursday April 28th at 10-15am at St John’s Church in Read followed by 11-30am at Burnley Crematorium, after which friends are invited to join the family at the Stork Hotel in Simonstone.

No flowers, please, but donations to Bleak Holt Animal Sanctuary C/O Birtwistle’s Funeral Directors, Burnley Road, Padiham BB12 8BN.