A TEACHER whose career was ruined by an ex-pupil who claimed he had an affair with her met again at (From Warrington Guardian)

A TEACHER whose career was ruined by an ex-pupil who claimed he had an affair with her met again at

Kerry Harrison, who resigned from her job at Knutsford High School, told the Knutsford Guardian on Friday how she had bumped into him by accident at a city shopping centre.

The former pupil, Eddie Ellis, who lives in Knutsford, was shopping in Selfridges at The Trafford Centre when Miss Harrison overheard his name.

When she confronted him in the busy shop and asked him if he knew what he'd done to her, Mr Ellis allegedly replied: 'It wasn't that bad.'

But just 24 hours earlier Miss Harrison had quit her £18,000-a-year English teaching job at Knutsford High School.

"I felt it was in the best interests of all concerned," she said.

On Friday, speaking from her home in Sale, Miss Harrison said: "His crush on me has destroyed the career I loved."

Mr Ellis, now 19, claims he had a two-month relationship with the teacher while he was a pupil at the school.

Miss Harrison has consistently denied the story and is taking legal action against the Sunday People which carried the original story.

Last week as she contemplated her future, she looked back on a life that began on a Blackpool council estate.

She was raised with her younger sister as catholics by her mother after her parents divorced when she was five.

"It was hard at times but my mother was wonderful," she said.

At school, she had a good relationship with her teachers.

"I think they liked me because I was a hard worker," she said.

But the teenager was yet to blossom and preferred books to boys.

"I was quite plain as a child," she admits.

But her lively personality shone through, winning her lots of friends, while her conscientious approach to learning earned her three Bs at A-level.

"I was completely surprised by my results and couldn't believe I was going away," she said.

She studied management

and philosophy at Leeds University.

But a combination of the course and her mother's ill health meant the student was pulling pints in a Lancashire pub before Christmas.

Determined to return to Leeds and coupled with an interest in literature, she chose to study English.

"I loved it and at the end of the course my tutor said: 'Why don't you do teacher training?'" she said.

After a stint as a temp, the graduate began her PGCE at Manchester University five years ago. "It was something I always wanted to do but I thought teaching had a certain image," she said.

Knutsford High School was the third position she applied for.

"It was the most difficult interview of them all," she said. "They were looking for a teacher who could inject enthusiasm."

Her bubbly personality was exactly what the school wanted.

"I can't tell you how happy I was when I got the job," she said.

The Lancashire lass quickly became a firm favourite with her pupils with her humorous approach to teaching.

"I liked to involve them and often began my classes 'You'll never guess what happened today'.

"But I was strict when I needed to be and told the children what I expected of them," she said.

But her four-and-a-half-year's of classroom contentment came to a crushing end when she received a telephone call from headteacher Kevin Hollins, telling her she was being suspended on full pay.

The day was November 22 - the day after a Sunday national newspaper published details of her alleged affair with Mr Ellis.

"I can't explain how I felt," she said. "I was running round the house and friends would not let me read the article.

"When I finally read it I found it hysterically funny."

The teacher's union representative came to see her the next day.

"He was amazing," she said. "He told me I was probably thinking I would never want to teach again but said the union would support me."

She describes the next few days as among the worst of her life. "Every time I went out I thought that people were looking at me and saying: 'Look it's that woman in the paper'," she said.

But the English teacher was helped by sympathetic messages from colleagues and letters from pupils.

Then just before Christmas she made the joint decision with Knutford High School to resign.

"I had to use my head instead of my heart," she said. "And I felt it was in the best interests of all concerned."

FORMER Knutsford High School teacher Kerry Harrison has made a pop record.

The 29-year-old, who resigned from18 her £18,000-a-year post just before Christmas, spent the weekend in a Manchester studio, recording a dance version of The Power of Love.

She had been approached by London record label ?? to re-record Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 198? hit.

"I enjoy singing and have had training in classical and opera singing, but at the moment it's a means of getting some money," she told the Knutsford Guardian on Friday.

"But I don't really want to be famous."

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