Dedicated teacher dies

From the The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald, first published Tuesday 10th Jan 2006.

POPULAR Devizes School teacher Debbie Nichols has died after battling cancer.

Mrs Nichols died aged 50 on December 18 after being diagnosed with cancer last summer. She had been off work since last May.

The funeral of Mrs Nichols, who lived at Atworth, was held on December 21 and Atworth Church was packed with mourners.

She had spent her whole career at Devizes School after she came into the teaching profession late in life.

She joined the secondary school in September 2001 as a probationer for a year and then became a qualified teacher.

She taught English to all age groups at the school and also oversaw a tutor group of year ten (15-year-olds) pupils.

Fifteen teachers, two pupils from her tutor group and six sixth formers attended her funeral.

Devizes School headteacher Malcolm Irons said: "Debbie was a very good English teacher.

"If you had been taught by her you would have enjoyed the lessons and felt as though she knew us.

"She was a very caring lady and popular among her colleagues and the students.

"She will be remembered at school for her caring and dedicated approach to her teaching and pastoral care for members of her tutor group."

Mrs Nichols began a project at the school involving sixth form students called Model United Nations.

It was a student version of the United Nations and she accompanied a group of students to Bath for an international conference where they debated world issues.

Outside school Mrs Nichols was a dedicated supporter of RUSH, a small charity that works with AIDS orphans in Nairobi.

Mr Irons said Mrs Nichols raised a great deal of support for the charity and had raised money in the school.

He said as a tribute to her it had been decided to raise money for the charity.

"We are going to use house bricks which have a dimple in the middle and we will ask people to put money into the dimple as a symbolic gesture that they are building something," said Mr Irons.

Mrs Nichols is survived by her husband Matthew and her two daughters and two sons.

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