Disadvantaged teenagers are to be provided with support and education in honour of Ted Wragg (right), teachers’ champion and TES columnist. His memorial fund has raised more than pound;14,000 which will be used to support further education and training for young people in his home town of Sheffield.
Donations have come in from heads, teachers and academics around the country, often accompanied by tributes to the former professor of education at Exeter university. A primary head said: “He was a beacon shining above the stormy seas of political dogmatism and intervention.”
A retired special needs teacher said: “He wrote so much sense, when so many in education seemed to have so little understanding of children and young people.”
Ted Wragg, who wrote a column in The TES for more than 25 years, had a heart attack while out jogging on November 10 last year.
Many prominent figures in education and politics attended two memorial services held in February.
In October the first Ted Wragg teaching award for lifetime achievement was presented to Gerry Curran, head of Featherstone primary in west London.
The fund in Professor Wragg’s name will begin to be distributed in the new year.
Fred Jarvis, former general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, who is helping to co-ordinate the fund, said: “Ted’s loss is still tremendously felt everywhere. He did a colossal amount of research, wrote books, lectured. Literally thousands of people miss him.”
Donations should be sent to: Ted Wragg memorial fund, co John Bigley, Access and Inclusion, 1 Union Street, Sheffield, S1 1SH.
