Former teacher’s £800,000 bequest to benefit education WITH money now uppermost in the mind of every school head in Herefordshire, the legacy of a philanthropic former teacher is still something to be relied on.

Canny Sylvia Short could always size up an asset – that’s how she amassed an £800,000 estate willed to the county’s young on her death in 1996.

More than a decade on, the estate is still paying out in the name of the Sylvia Short Educational Charity, which has granted £227,000 to school and pupil causes since its foundation in 2003.

Confirmation of the grants for 2008 show two payouts – one of £18,016, the other £16,615 – for needs as varied as a field trip to the Lugg Meadows and trips to Borneo or Uganda.

The woman behind one of the county’s biggest bequests remains something of an enigma. At face value, an endearing elderly eccentric with a ramshackle self-built home by the Wye, where she raised geese and goats.

But face value masked the authoritative, independent idealist worth so much more, as friends subsequently discovered and generations of Herefordshire school pupils continue to learn.

Sylvia spent time at Byford as a teenager and retired there in 1971, having devoted a teaching career to Haggerston Secondary Girls School in London’s East End.

By all accounts Sylvia was an inspiration, a Jean Brodie or maybe “Miss Chips” with her vivid, engaging approach to geography, history and the arts.

She would regularly take her inner city charges to camp beside the Wye at Byford, sharing a love of nature that such surrounds nurtured in her at the same age.

Over the years, Sylvia taught herself finance and proved an able pupil in amassing her £800,000 estate, with property and shrewd investments accounting for much of it.

Her initial hope was that the Byford site could become a study centre for culture and the environment.

Her estate was left to Herefordshire Council with this in mind, but – as the Hereford Times reported in 1999 – several criteria meant such a project was not possible.

So the educational charity was set up instead – with two of Sylvia’s friends as trustees – to promote learning opportunities outside the classroom.

Any of the county’s schools or their pupils can apply for its bi-annual grants.

Sylvia died aged 83 at the then Hereford General Hospital on Christmas Eve 1996.

True to form she had kept a long, brave battle with cancer to herself until hours before the end.

Ivington Primary School pupils were able to create batik murals thanks to funding from Sylvia Short.

Pictured are Corey Locke (left), Meg Chandler, Ellen Munford, James Seaborne, Rosie Littleworth and William Caley.

091302-1. Picture by James Maggs.

The Sylvia Short Educational Charity Grants awarded in June 2008. Alexander Naylor: £250 – National Youth Music Theatre course. Aylestone School: £1,150 – Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award, two-day expedition. Aylestone School: £150 – Year 7 field trip to Lugg Meadows. Aylestone School: £600 – Taking two Year 10 classes to Drayton Manor Theme Park as part of science curriculum. Broadlands Primary School: £195 – Transport and entrance to science festival. Clehonger Primary School: £1,500 – Outdoor classroom and sensory garden. Cradley Primary School: £1,360 – Cultural awareness day. Cradley Primary School: £250 – Contribution to expeditions to Clevedon and Hellens house. Ellen Hayword: £1,000 – Work experience in South Africa. Lea Primary School: £500 – Helping to fund theatre trip. Leintwardine Primary School: £500 - Funding transport to Cardiff for residential course. Longtown Primary School: £350 – Supporting needy children on trip to London. Marlbrook Primary School: £240 – Transporting Year 6 pupils to science festival. Mordiford primary School: £850 – To finance three-day Indian dance workshop in school. Pencombe Primary School: £800 – Funding artist for two one-day workshops on Picasso and Van Gough and four half-day workshops for musical theatre. Pencombe Primary School: £140 – Providing transport to arts day. Queen Elizabeth Humanities College: £690 – Transport to science festival for Years 7 and 8. Riverside Primary School: £250 – Coach travel to science festival. St Mary’s Primary School: £500 – Transport for theatre visit. St Martin’s Primary School: £174 – To send Years 5 and 6 to science festival. 2Faced Dance Company: £2,000 – London expedition to experience other dance styles. Wellington Primary School: £350 – Funding music workshops and purchase of art materials. Whitbourne Primary School: £1,000 – Towards costs of attending The Green Goblin project in Rockingham. Whitbourne Primary School: £207 – Transport to event at Worcester University. Whitecross High School: £1,500 – Helping with costs for needy pupils attending a Year 7 camp. Wyebridge Sports College: £960 – Transport and admission to science festival. Wyebridge Sports College: £500 – Transport and admission for BTEC students to Cadbury World. Total value of awards in June 2008 – £18,016.

The Sylvia short Educational Charity Grants awarded in December 2008.

Aconbury Pupil Referral Unit: £750 – Visits and expeditions. Ashfield Park Primary School: £750 – Fieldwork course in Devon. Bredenbury Primary School: £1,000 – Help to set up pond. Brookfield School: £1,500 – Contribution towards costs of Arts Award programme, purchase of musical instruments. Brookfield School: £1,500 – Contribution towards costs of Arts Award programme, purchase of musical instruments. Kit Holden, John Masefield HS: £320 – Course fee for National Youth Theatre. Cradley Primary School: £2,000 – Help with funding a Year 5 and 6 residential course in Wales and a similar one in Ironbridge and Carding Mill Valley in Shropshire for 29 pupils aged seven to nine. Ivington Primary School: £550 – Pupil production of a school mural supervised by the Eek Batik company. Also to fund a whole day’s multicultural dance workshops. John Kyrle High School: £1,800 – Help with funding a charitable and educational visit to Uganda. Luston Primary School: £1,440 – To enable nine pupils to attend a three-day residential course at Malvern Hills Outdoor Centre. Madley Primary School: £950 – Contributing to cost of activity/environmental course in Pembrokeshire. Marden Primary School: £630 – Towards the cost of Year 5 and 6 residential course at Twy Gwyn Centre, Snowdonia. Nichola Symonds: £240 – Lessons by the Dyslexia Association. St David’s Centre at St Weonards: £1,000 – Outdoor equipment. Shobdon Primary School: £240 – Transport costs to outdoor activity centre, Stottesdon, Cleobury Mortimer. Sian Watkins: £800 – Attending Guide meeting in India. Whitbourne Primary School: £220 – Coach hire for expedition to Goodrich Castle. Whitecross High School: £850 – Resources for running Duke of Edinburgh award groups. Supporting other educational activities. Wigmore High School: £725 – Helping to fund a puzzle challenge day for local primary schools. Withington Primary School: £350 – Transport cost for theatre visits. Clehonger Primary School received a £1,500 grant for an outside classroom and sensory garden. Getting their fingers dirty are Sue Bright (left), Sharon Gane and Sally Bounds with pupils Alex Hughes, Chloe Rosser, Owen Jones, Alice Williams and Antonio Celozzi. 083905-2. Zoe Geraghty, Fairfield HS: £250 – Contribution to travel costs in joining the Herefordshire Expedition Group’s trip to Borneo in July 2009. Total value of awards in December 2008 – £16,615.