RACHAEL BROCKLEHURST – Ex Shirebrook Academy pupil

My favourite teacher at Shirebrook Academy or Shirebrook Community School as it was known then, was Mr. Rodgers. I had the pleasure of having Mr. Rodgers as both a form tutor and an English teacher. He was a huge Bob Dylan fan and when you arrived at his classroom the plaque on the door said ‘Dylan’s Room’ and the giant poster on the ceiling above his desk confirmed this was where you landed in ‘Dylan’s Room’.

Free thinking, radical, challenging, questioning, empowering, words and sentiments he drew from Dylan’s music and instilled in us.

We were completely absorbed when he spoke, we cared about George and Lenny from ‘Of Mice and Men’, we felt angry when Jack and the boys bullied Piggy in ‘Lord of the Flies’ and we were terrified by the gentle rapping at the chamber door as he read from ‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allen Poe.

We hung on his every word, he made us believe we could be or do anything. He let us know it was alight to question things and have opinions even if they were different from the norm.