News > Catch up : Concord Staff > Celebrating 50 years at Acton Burnell with John Leighton

Celebrating 50 years at Acton Burnell with John Leighton

John worked at Concord for 42 years and still lives in Acton Burnell with his wife, Verona, who also worked at the College. We recently met up with them to learn more about their time at Concord.

	20 Dec 2023
	United Kingdom
	Catch up : Concord Staff

John and Verona Leighton

John Leighton joined Concord in 1975 as a science teacher, specialising in A Level Zoology and O Level Biology, Chemistry and later teaching O Level Botany too. As part of our '50 Years in Acton Burnell' celebrations John told us more about the 1970s and 80s, especially the Summer School and Christmas celebrations!

Q) Tell us how you got your job at Concord College in 1975.

“When I arrived at Concord for my job interview, I was quite nervous when I saw the impressive building through the front gate. Before Concord I’d been teaching at Park Hall near Oswestry. Some of the brighter students needed O Level science and to learn map reading, but most of them just needed to know how to write a letter asking for compassionate leave so this job was a big step up for me. I then went on to Aberystwyth to do my PGCE.

“My anxiety quickly disappeared when I was met by a large and friendly student, Mohammed Shafi, who came out of Main Hall to greet me. He took me inside to meet Mrs Ann Paul, a maths teacher who was so nice and made me coffee. Mrs Paul was married to Concord’s co-founder, Paul Oertel so her real name should have been Mrs Oertel – but the students couldn’t pronounce Oertel and so called them Mr & Mrs Paul! They called for Principal Tony Morris who was outside mowing the lawn and he arrived very relaxed in jeans and t-shirt to interview me. I had a letter just 2 days later offering me the job.”

1985 Graduation party

Q) What were your first few years in Acton Burnell like?

“Mr Morris promised to find me somewhere nearby to rent and then most of the houses in Acton Burnell were owned by the Bruce Smythe estate. We moved into a ground floor flat, there were 5 women who worked in the College kitchen living above us. By 1976 we wanted to buy somewhere of our own and a house in Acton Burnell finally came up for sale. We couldn’t afford to buy it as interest rates were so high (about 18%) so Frank Bell, who lived in Highfields and owned Concord College at the time, kindly stepped in and loaned us the money. We still live in that house today.”

Q) Many Concord staff and alumni will best remember you as Summer School Director, tell us more about it.

“Summer Schools have been run at Concord since Tunbridge Wells days. When Concord moved to Acton Burnell in 1973 John Case started one here too with long summer holidays. It was traditional in Spain and Italy for parents to send their children on trips in July before taking a family holiday in August and we were able to take advantage of that.

In the early days we ran two Schools every summer, one in July and one in August with 60 boy students on each one to start with. I was John’s assistant director, and we ran both courses until Tony Morris realised we had no summer holidays, so suggested we run one course each. At that time Concord did not have much money but the success of Summer School helped keep the College afloat. We also ran summer schools at Attingham Park where the girls went from 1977. John Case directed these for older students and Jenny O'Shea and I ran the courses at Acton Burnell for the younger students.

Back then the Summer School students’ ages ranged from 7 to 18 years and running two courses for such different age groups in very quick succession every summer was a real challenge. We went on trips to Warwick Castle, Chester, London, Oxford and Shrewsbury too.

Trying not to laugh while posing for a marketing photo!

I became The Director of Summer School Director when John Case died in 1996. It was a lot of work and our staff were amazing. At the end of the 3 1/2 week July course on a Thursday, our domestic staff would have the school ready to accept the August intake on the following Sunday. Even our menus changed in the summer with soy sauce being replaced with olive oil to reflect the different mix of nationalities. Last but not least, Rita, Vivenne, Caroline and Sharon as well as Lynne in HR kept everything running smoothly and found us some great British teachers who came back year after year, many who were teaching English abroad.

El Gazette consistently put us top of their Summer School league tables based on the British Council inspections and by the time Neil Hawkins took over as Principal we were enrolling around 300 students on each one, our biggest cohort being 319 with every room occupied.”

Q) As well as Summer School you have had other senior positions at the College, please tell us about them.

“In 1996 Concord opened its first Lower School and I was asked to be Head. I remember Emily Morris and my son, Paul cutting the ribbon. I worked with an international school in Moscow which had asked for our help in setting it up so spent a lot of time there. Verona and I used to go on marketing trips to Hong Kong, China, Eastern Europe and South America, and some with Tony and Gaynor. We worked at exhibitions, met agents and sorted out student issues. Being seen as family-run was very important to us and prospective parents.

At a recruitment fair

In early 2005 Jeremy Kerslake took over the role as Head of Lower School and I was appointed Vice Principal.”

Q) There are lots of photos of you in College performances in our archives. Back then the teachers liked to put on a show, tell us more about them!

“Every Christmas the teachers used to put on an end of term concert in Main Hall for the students. The teachers dressed up and the students loved it, as it drew their teachers closer to them to see them in an unusual way.

When we performed the song YMCA dressed as the Village People the students laughed so much they all rushed up to us to shake our hands afterwards. I remember the first Christmas concert we dressed as shepherds in Arabic costumes and in later years we dressed up as all sorts of things from Punks to fairies. One year we performed ‘There’s a hole in my bucket’, I was dressed as Liza, the woman holding the bucket and Tony Foster was Henry. Frank Bell loved to join in too and enjoyed dressing up.

One of our most memorable performances was as a Barber Shop Quartet (which had more than 4 singers!). It has snowed heavily and some of the singers couldn’t get in so it became a Barber Shop Trio."