A FORMER head teacher of South Wilts Grammar School will be remembered for the positive difference she made to those around her.

Frances Stratton (also known as Fran), who died earlier this week, was head at the school between 2003 and 2011, and had previously worked as vice principal at Luton College, before moving to Corfe Hills School in Dorset, as deputy head and later as head teacher.

Current South Wilts head Michele Chilcott, and chair of governors Helen Stewart, said: “Her contribution to education was longstanding and her legacy lives on.”

Under Frances’s leadership the school flourished, they said, moving from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’.

In 2007 Ofsted inspectors recognised the contribution she had made, and said: “The headteacher’s outstanding leadership underpins much of the success of the school. The students are reaping the benefits of her passionately held belief that high-quality teaching and learning lie at the heart of school improvement.”

Mrs Chilcott and Mrs Stewart added: “Fran was vibrantly passionate about the contribution that education could bring to the opportunities for students and she had true empathy for the challenges that young people faced.

“She was an outstanding class room practitioner; geology was her joy and she inspired it in others. She was loved by the students she taught, with many going on to study this at higher education. She was actively involved at a national level in her subject, leading on and influencing curriculum development. She was an advocate for the importance of science and particularly girls in science. She wanted to provide the opportunities for girls to flourish in the traditionally male dominated subjects.

"She was a far-sighted, strategic thinker, who saw and grasped opportunities to turn ideas into reality. Under her leadership the school moved to become an academy. She understood the importance of collaboration and how schools could learn from each other, this can be seen in the pivotal role she played in formalising collaboration between schools in the south-west.

"Humane and empathic, Fran was such a stalwart supporter of her staff, trusting colleagues to give of their best, and always there to contribute and direct when called upon. She went well beyond expectations of her leadership role, guiding and nurturing colleagues through the ups and down of their professional lives.

"A key element of Fran’s legacy for the professional life of the school was to empower her colleagues to think hard about their teaching, about how they can make girls’ lives and educational experiences better, and how we must strive to improve."

"Ultimately, perhaps what Fran should most be remembered for is how she made such a positive difference to the lives of those she worked with and for, adults and young people alike. Her enthusiasm, her conviction that education matters, her humility and daily kindnesses always without self-regard are the key facets of what we admire and will miss about Fran."