Jack Sheffield

The year is 1969 and Jack Sheffield is a young teacher in need of a job. In a room full of twenty-nine other newly qualified teachers, he's overjoyed when he's appointed to Heather View Primary. Jack is excited to start his first year there and to begin shaping young minds in a beautiful new location on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

But Heather View isn't as idyllic as it first sounds. In fact, it looks more like a prison than a primary school. With less than adequate funding and a head teacher who doesn't seem to care, it's no easy task to give the kids the education they deserve. But Jack's determined to do just that. 

For the residents of Ragley, the war is finally starting to feel like a distant memory. But Lily Feather can't quite forget the events of the war and the years that followed. Buried in her past remains a terrible secret from which she cannot escape but that still threatens her fragile family. After the death of their mother, her brother, Freddie, has come to depend on her and her husband. On the cusp of adulthood, Freddie's life is simple: all he really has to worry about is school, girls and a spot of rugby. But when he stumbles across his family's secret past it is his life that is changed forever.

1986 and it's the time of Margaret Thatcher's third election victory, Dynasty and shoulder pads, Neighbours and a Transformer for Christmas. And at Ragley School, a year of surprises is in store. Ruby the caretaker finds happiness at last, Vera the secretary makes an important decision, a new teacher is appointed and a disaster threatens the school. Meanwhile Jack receives unexpected news, and is faced with the biggest decision of his career...

It's 1987, and after a decade as head teacher at Ragley-on-the-Forest School, Jack Sheffield is looking to the future. He and his wife are expecting a new baby, the school is preparing for the introduction of the new National Curriculum, and the coming year promises a whole host of other surprises. Whether it's combing the church for an escaped pet mouse or dealing with the obnoxious new school governor, life in the village is always entertaining.

So when Jack is offered an opportunity that could change everything, he knows he has a difficult decision to make. Endings are never easy, but perhaps the thrill of a new beginning is exactly what Jack needs...

Hilarious, nostalgic and heart-warming in equal measure, Last Day of School is the final novel in the much-loved Teacher series.

1984 - and it's an important time for the children of Ragley-on-the Forest school... Their school choir is to sing a carol in a church in York, and is actually going to be on television! Helping to keep his excited children, not to mention their parents, under control during these momentous events taxes Jack and his staff to the limit. And at the same time, Jack has his own problems to deal with...

It's 1952 and Lily Briggs has just arrived in Ragley, ready to begin her first year as a teacher at the village school. There to welcome her is John Pruett who, after his years in the war, has settled into the role of headmaster. Tom Feather, the local bobby, is also on hand to make her feel at home up north. But Lily has a secret lurking in her past that threatens the new life she's trying to build. Can she move forward and begin to love again? Only time will tell.