Phil Taylor obituary

My father, Phil Taylor, who has died aged 81, was head of several secondary schools in Greater Manchester and regularly appeared on television and radio in the 1990s to chastise successive education ministers for their meddling and lack of support. His first headship was South Manchester high school in Wythenshawe. He was a charismatic leader whose first acts as head from 1988 were to ban uniforms and the daily bell. The school also housed a farm that saw peacocks wandering around the corridors. One of his pupils was Jason Orange of Take That, who later told family members that Phil had been a positive influence on his life. Phil was born in Bristol, to Betty (nee Stanley) and Ron Taylor, a United Reformed Church minister. Phil later became an atheist, but nonetheless inherited a sense of social justice. As a boarder at Caterham school in Surrey, he was made a prefect, which gave him the right to beat younger boys, but Phil made it clear that he would never do this. After A-levels, he taught for a year at an Ipswich school. He then went to North Western Polytechnic in London (now part of London Metropolitan University) in 1963 to do an English degree. While there, he became president of the student union, and stood for president of the National Union of Students, only to be beaten by Jack Straw. After doing a PGCE at London University, Phil taught at Crown Woods school, in Greenwich. There he met Gill Donnelly, a fellow English teacher, and they married in 1975. He taught at two more schools, Hadfield, in Derbyshire, and Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire – where he was head of English – before joining South Manchester high in 1984 as deputy head. He was head of the school for 11 years before being parachuted in as head of Ellen Wilkinson high school, Manchester, for a year. During this period he also put on trad jazz nights. A keen trumpeter, he was very proud when his band, the Staffroom Stompers, performed at the Royal Northern College of Music. From around 2000, Phil was head of Stamford high school, Ashton-under-Lyne, before becoming education adviser to Tameside local authority (2003 to 2009). A lifelong socialist, he was a Labour party member until his dislike of Tony Blair’s leadership led him to join the Green party. As well as appearing frequently on BBC news and current affairs programmes, he wrote regularly for the education press, and also in the Guardian. His marriage to Gill ended in divorce in 1994. In 2004 he married Sue Legg, and from retirement five years later he cared for her as she faced early onset Alzheimer’s. As her health declined, Phil began to experience dementia himself. Sue died in 2018. However, his final years still held moments of joy with Stacey, his carer, and with his family. He is survived by his sons from his first marriage, Benjamin and me, two stepdaughters, Becca and Emma, and seven grandchildren, Ottilie, Orson, Max, Grace, Mydi, Belle and Tabi.