Tributes paid to dedicated teacher Pam

Pam Lewis, who lived in Atherton, worked as a teacher at Rowan Tree Primary School for the past 30 years and was aged just 51 when she passed away suddenly last month, following a short illness.

Her friend and colleague Karen Partridge paid tribute to her “lovely, happy” friend who always looked for the positives in any situation.

She said: “She was one of the first people appointed at Rowan Tree Primary by the then headteacher and had been there for 30 years. She deserves an award for long service.

“She was a very, very good teacher. She was very funny, and very amusing. She used to write poems for every occasion. She was famous for her poems.

“Her favourite was when we used to sing a hymn called ‘thank you Lord for this new day’ and we used to change the words to whatever the assembly was about. She used to do that every assembly.

“She was brilliant. All the staff who ever worked with her always had a good time with them.

“She wasn’t very outdoorsy but because she was my friend and she used to miss me at school when I took the children on a residential trip, she started coming with us.

“We would all be out on the lake canoeing or kayaking but she would just sit on the banks waving at us. She used to say she would look after the children who didn’t feel very well today. Very occasionally we would get her in a canoe.”

Pam, who died at Salford Royal Hospital on July 7 after contracting pneumonia, leaves behind two children Harriet, 20, and 17-year-old Dominic and her partner Alan Window.

“She was very exuberant, she was always very positive about everything. She was an incredible person,” Karen said.

“She loved the school and is loved and missed by the children.”