Much-loved teacher retires from the Salford school where she’s spent her entire 45-year career

She was a newly-qualified teacher in her twenties when she arrived at the secondary school

When Sue Kirk first arrived at Moorside High School as a newly qualified teacher she never imagined it would be the place she’d spend her entire teaching career.

Yet last week, the ‘legendary’ Mrs Kirk, who some students will also remember as Miss Crabbe, led a conga out of the school as she retired after an incredible 45 years.

The Swinton school was on the opposite side of the East Lancashire Road in Salford when she started there, initially travelling from Bradford before eventually settling in the area herself.

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“It was my first teaching role and I taught girls PE,” said Sue, who counts footballer Ryan Giggs among the pupils she’s taught, revealing ‘he was the fastest runner I ever saw’.

“I walked into that building with a leaky roof and narrow corridors and for some reason I never wanted to leave.”

She’s enjoyed various roles at the school including PE teacher, English teacher, head of year and director of culture – affectionately known by colleagues and students as ‘director of fun’.

Over four and a half decades, Sue played a huge part in school life, organising sporting trips, competitions, performances, memorable experiences for students and fundraising events including sponsoring a Guide Dog and raising money for Cash for Kids with the radio station Key 103, an event which saw a helicopter land in the school grounds with presenters and Westlife’s Kian Egan back in 2014.

Her legendary trips took students to Wimbledon, Wembley, Venice, Barcelona, Paris and beyond, while she also helped take thousands of pupils to Blackpool and supported national championship volleyball and hockey teams.

Seeing 45,000 children go through the school, including the children of pupils she taught earlier in her career, Sue’s been behind some of Moorside’s most memorable events, including whole-school congas, space hopper races, I’m a Celebrity challenges, Blind Date and the much-loved ‘Strictly Come Moorside’. She also organised Christmas parties for elderly members of the community and visits to dementia centres.

In all her time there, Sue, whose own daughter Jennifer attended the school, leaving in 2007, says there’s never been a dull day.

“I can honestly say that I’ve laughed every day,” she said. “And I don’t know anybody who can say they have laughed in their job every day for 45 years, but it’s the kids that have kept me there. Lots of things have changed over the years but the kids never do and that’s what keeps you going.

“They say the funniest things and Moorside kids are unique, there really is something special about them.”

The old Moorside building dated back to 1934 and still had the separate entrances for boys and girls visible in the brick work, as well as a wartime Anderson shelter under one of the classrooms.

Many aspects of school life are now very different to Sue’s earlier career. Back then the mini bus carrying two sports teams would have just wooden benches down the side.

“You couldn’t imagine it now with health and safety rules,” said Sue, who was reunited with Giggs when he opened the new school building in 2013.

And she has fond memories of when teachers had more freedom to be themselves, adding: “We could be real individuals and decide what we would teach and how. These days it’s all a set curriculum and it’s not as easy to be yourself.”

During her tenure, Sue says she’s ‘seen off’ 12 headteachers, including the ‘formidable’ Peter Spencer who was in charge when she was first appointed, and Nigel Ogden, who was head for more than a decade before the current principal Helen Ryles-Dean.

With more time on her hands, Sue says she will be throwing herself into her sporting activities including golf and spending more time in Spain when she eventually plans to relocate.

While Sue’s energy and sense of fun are legendary, staff at the school say it is her ‘care for people that will perhaps be remembered most’ and wherever retirement takes her, she ‘will always be a Moorsider’.

She’s always been ‘passionate about supporting students who could easily be overlooked, building confidence and encouraging young people to believe in themselves’. Former pupils have shared memories of the difference she made to their lives, while colleagues have described her as a mentor, trusted friend and someone who was always there when they needed support.

Mrs Ryles-Dean said: “Forty-five years at the same school is an extraordinary achievement, but what makes Sue’s contribution so special is the number of lives she has touched during that time. She has truly been at the heart of Moorside.

“Sue has always expected the very best from young people, while showing them an enormous amount of care. Her greatest legacy is the people she has supported and the memories she has created for generations of Moorsiders. We wish her every happiness in her retirement – she has more than earned it.”