Geoffrey Marshall, my father, passed away at the age of 92. He was a dedicated headteacher for 35 years, leading three primary schools with a deep conviction that education should be a selfless service to children. His approach emphasized the uniqueness and individual needs of each child as the foundation for all classroom activities.
Born near Borstal, Kent, Geoffrey was the youngest of three children. His father was a school attendance officer and amateur violinist, while his mother owned a children’s clothes shop. After attending Bromley grammar school, Geoffrey did national service with the Royal Air Force in 1946. He then pursued a degree in law from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, before embarking on a 12-year teaching career at Lady Boswell’s in Sevenoaks and Kevington primary in Orpington.
It was Geoffrey’s enrollment in the Education of Children in the Junior School course at the University of London’s Institute of Education in 1962, taught by the renowned educator Christian Schiller, that transformed him into a lifelong advocate for education. He met and married fellow teacher Jill Campbell in 1957, and they had two sons, my brother John and me.
Geoffrey served as headteacher of three schools: Shoreham village, Northcourt in Gravesend, and Sherwood Park junior school in Tunbridge Wells, where he retired in 1989. His teaching philosophy was rooted in the belief that children learn best by reflecting upon firsthand experiences and making their own choices. A classroom visitor would have observed a wide range of learning opportunities that encouraged purposeful activity and independent thinking.
In his retirement, Geoffrey wrote several articles criticizing the government’s education policies, which he saw as overly focused on standardization and testing. He believed that such an approach stifled creativity and hindered children’s natural desire to explore the world around them. In his words, "If children are encouraged to choose, they will flourish in all the fields of inquiry and once more astonish the world."
Geoffrey’s wife Jill passed away in 2019, and his son John also predeceased him. He is survived by me and his three grandsons William, James, and Richard.