Thatcham school pupils raise £3,500 in memory of teacher

Kennet pupils donated the money to charity and raised a further £4,500 for school equipment

PUPILS and staff at Kennet School, Thatcham, have raised money for charity in memory of a teacher who died this summer.

To celebrate the working life of chemistry teacher Harbhajan Kooner, the school set up a fund,and decided to donate £3,500, raised at various events over the past three months, to the British Heart Foundation.

Headteacher Paul Dick said that Mr Kooner was sorely missed by both pupils and colleagues.

He said: “He was a bright, lively person who loved chemistry and enjoyed enormously teaching pupils.

“They found his lessons stimulating and memorable in every way.”

Mr Dick added that a further £4,500, raised for the same fund, had been invested in a mass spectrometer for the school.

He said: “This is an exceptional piece of scientific equipment, rarely found in a school, and something that Mr Kooner would have loved to have been able to use.

“In this way, his memory is preserved and his contribution to the education of pupils at Kennet continues.”

Mr Kooner died of a heart attack in August, aged 51.

He had worked at Kennet School since September 1991.