Covid-19: Tributes paid to former Stoke-on-Trent principal

Tributes have been paid to a former head teacher who died with Covid-19.

Gareth Jones, 66, who was principal at Ormiston Meridian Academy in Stoke-on-Trent, has been credited with helping to turn around a host of failing schools over a 40-year career.

He was admitted to the Royal Stoke University Hospital in January and died last week.

His widow, Lynn Jones MBE, said "thousands and thousands of messages" had been left for the family.

She said Mr Jones was a "very principled" man and would always do "the right thing by everybody and would put himself out".

Mrs Jones added she was "only going hour-to-hour, day-to-day at the most, because he is the energy and the life of our family".

She said: "We have had thousands and thousands of messages from the Blurton and the surrounding area of the community supporting us and telling us how amazing my husband was.

"They've all got anecdotal stories of him... we've laughed and we've cried when we've read them."

Mr Jones was principal at Ormiston Meridian Academy before retiring in 2019.

When Mr Jones retired, he continued his community work teaching English to young people in Stoke-on-Trent while enjoying the company of his family and his first grandchild.

The academy's current principal, Claire Stanyer, said: "When he took over, the school was in special measures and in super quick time, it came out of special measures into a category of requires improvement."

Floral tributes continue to be laid outside the Ormiston Sir Stanley Matthews Academy, where Mr Jones was deputy principal.

Mark Stanyer, of Ormiston Academies Trust, said: "He was a Stoke boy and he wanted to do good in Stoke schools and that's exactly what he did, so he was an amazing leader of people."

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