CARING children planted a tree outside their school in memory of a teacher who died of cancer back in 2004.

Jeanette McGlashan passed away after a long battle with breast cancer, just days before she was due to retire due to ill health. 

The mother-of-two had worked at Kirklandneuk Primary in Renfrew for 18 years and her death was a shock to everyone in the school.

Almost two years after Jeanette’s death, staff and pupils felt it was the right time to do something in memory of the popular P2 teacher. 

Two pupils from each class, including some taught by Jeanette, helped plant a Sorbus tree and 1,000 bulbs outside the school, which would flower every spring as a living reminder of the well-loved member of staff. 

Headteacher Wendy Gibbons said back then: “The whole staff felt they wanted some kind of visible memorial to Jeanette, so we thought of the tree and every spring the bulbs will come up and the staff will be thinking of them as Jeanette’s flowers.” 

The school also established an annual award in memory of Jeanette, which was to be presented to a child who had done something outstanding in the course of the year. The first winner was P5 pupil Ewan McCormick, who had battled leukaemia.

Wendy said: “He had been in Jeanette’s class and empathised with her and was a real battler, and he just seemed the obvious choice.”