Samantha Griffiths

Our teacher goes above and beyond her call of duty at school and personifies the epitome of pastoral care. She has been a head of year, a mother figure and above all, a friend to every single one of the 140 girls in my year group. She is always there for anyone who needs a chat and no matter how much work she has to do (which is a lot) and how stressed out she is, she will always pull you aside to chat if she knows something is wrong. When a girl in our year suffered with anorexia and overdosed, our teacher was the person who noticed and as a quote from the girl `I literally owe her my life... she put my life back on track`. I recently found out I have dyslexia and have always felt I am stupid because of my lack of understanding in class and the knowledge that I have this problem has meant I can access the help I need. Without her, this never would have happened. Dyslexia tests are expensive and for me the money to pay for the test would have been hard to find, but she arranged meetings with different teachers and managed to find a way for my test to be paid alternatively. She has united our year group, and as the leavers of 2011 we will miss her greatly. Without her our High School would not be the same and we all love her so much. You could not find a greater teacher, she is an inspiration to everyone she meets.