IT'S a simple wedding photo but it clearly means a lot to retiring deputy head teacher Maureen Shackleton.

The snap which she has on display is not of a family member but of a former pupil, and it was sent with a note from the girl saying how well her life was going.

"This young lady was a child who had real problems at school," she said. "But she has sent this card saying this is her wedding photo and that everything is hunky-dory," Mrs Shackleton said.

It's a small gesture but one which means a lot to a teacher who is obviously dedicated to helping her charges make the most of their lives.

Mrs Shackleton has had several letters and cards from former pupils and their parents since she announced her decision to retire after a lifetime of teaching - including 17 years at Ilkley Grammar School.

And she admits she is both touched and delighted when former pupils get in touch to thank her for her help or to let her know how they are doing

"You never do know what effect you have had - or not had," she said. "Someone once said it is like taking your hand out of a bucket of water - it is as though you have never been there."

"But I hope it is more than that."

Mrs Shackleton's own life was changed thanks to a good school and dedicated teachers. "My family were working class and no-one had ever gone into higher education," she said.

But the young Maureen had set her heart on becoming a teacher and she won her mother's support in her determination to stay on at school.

"I fought my family - particularly my grandmother who thought a woman's place was to have babies," she said. "My teachers helped. Every parents' evening they would say what a good teacher Maureen would make."

It was through school that she was introduced to a whole new world she had never before encountered - a world of restaurants and the theatre.

And she still has an abiding love for Shakespeare thanks to those early theatre trips. "I loved school and I had a wonderful set of teachers," she said.

She said her own head teacher firmly believed in encouraging children to fulfil their potential.

"We were given opportunities to do things we had not done before. It is thanks to education and the people who believed in me that I am here now."

Not that she and her classmates were always the best behaved.

"We could be awful," she said. "We had the record for reducing a teacher to tears in three minutes."

As kind and caring as she seems to be you can't imagine Mrs Shackleton being reduced to tears by a class of unruly students. And she firmly believes one of the keys to successful teaching is to build a relationship with the children.

"You have got to establish yourself as a human being and you have got somehow to build a rapport with the class. A sense of humour is important - and you have got to be able to laugh and cry with them."

"It is ruling by consent, you cannot do it with a big stick."

And there is another crucial point. She adds: "You have got to like kids - that is the bottom line."

And there's no doubt about the fact that Mrs Shackleton, who is Pastoral Deputy, really does like the kids at Ilkley Grammar.

"The children are a delight, they have made this job," she said. "It really has been a privilege teaching them. It might sound patronising but it's not meant to be. They are such lovely kids."

During her years at the Grammar School Mrs Shackleton has been impressed by the kindness and concern the students have shown towards each other.

"They will come and talk to me and say I am worried about my friend. Perhaps the friend is not eating, or is suffering from problems at home."

She said the students had rallied round several years ago when a fellow pupil had been diagnosed with a brain tumour - making rotas to visit her in hospital, and helping her back on the road to recovery.

The retiring deputy head also has nothing but praise for the rest of the staff and the head teacher.

And she stresses her decision to retire at the age of 59 was not an easy one.

"I have loved my life here," she said. "I am not leaving because I don't love the place, but because I feel it is time."

Mrs Shackleton, who leaves at the end of July, said her decision was prompted by the death of her parents within months of each other.

"It is stopping and taking stock and thinking what I want to do with the rest of my life."

She says she now has other plans, including spending more time with her baby granddaughter, Evie, as well as travelling and possibly doing a university course.

And she says she finds the concept of further study appealing - with no exams, no marking, but just the chance to enjoy learning for its own sake. But even though she is looking forward to her new-found freedom she is also feeling a certain amount of trepidation at leaving the job she loves.

"I have been ruled by bells," she laughed. "I have said all my teaching life when I die put a bell in my coffin, because I respond to bells."

Mrs Shackleton, who started her career in Lincoln, also taught for many years at Nab Wood where her husband, Brian, was head of history. "I went to Nab Wood on supply and left 13 years later," she said.

The early part of her career at Ilkley was marred by a terrible tragedy when her fellow deputy head at the school was killed in a caving accident.

Dave Simpson, who was just 42, was also a friend of her husband's and had invited him on a caving trip to the Dales.

The group of four set off but Brian, who was a keen climber, didn't enjoy the experience and decided to leave.

"When my husband came out he said he was kicking himself and thinking what an idiot. He tried another pot and that was fine, so he went back into the first pot but had these bad vibes again.

"The others went on. They took the wrong corridor and the ceiling collapsed on them," she said. "It was horrendous."

"My husband was going to go with them, and he could well have died."

Her son, John, who was 16 at the time, had also been planning to go but had pulled out at the last moment because of the pressure of schoolwork.

A cherry tree now blossoms at the Grammar School in memory of the teacher Mrs Shackleton describes as an "excellent deputy head, and a very dynamic young man."

During her years at the school she has also witnessed the pain of families who have lost children to accident or illness.

"I have gone to the funerals of young people here and wept with parents over the years," she said. "It is not a job where you can't afford to cry."