John Sayer Obituary
John Sayer, my late father, was an accomplished headteacher and educator who possessed a great passion for international collaboration among universities. Additionally, he served as a vice-chair of the General Teaching Council of England and Wales (GTC).
Born in Romford, Essex, to Hilda (nee Salmons), a bookkeeper, and Arthur Sayer, a railway clerk, John grew up singing in various church choirs, starting as a choirboy in Boxley church.
He earned an open scholarship from Maidstone grammar in Kent to Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1951, majoring in French and German. John’s fondness for Racine influenced his authoring of the books "Jean Racine: Life and Legend" (2006) and "Jean Racine: Echoes Across Europe" (2020). During his university days, he joined the Labour party, which he stayed committed to throughout his life. However, he abandoned active campaigning after the 2003 Iraq invasion.
John met Ilserose Heyd, from Hamburg University, during his participation in a pan-European student union, Amical. He and Ilserose fell in love and married in 1955 at the Friends’ meeting house in Oxford.
John dedicated his life to improving the world through education. He taught French and German at Itchen grammar school, Southampton, between 1955 and 1959, before serving as the head of German, deputy head, and headteacher at various schools in Somerset. In 1973, he became the principal of Banbury school, which was a vast, multi-site institution in Oxfordshire, with one of its sections currently called Wykham Park academy.
In 1979, John was elected as the president of the Secondary Heads Association (now the Association of School and College Leaders). He advocated for the establishment of the GTC during the 1980s and helped establish it in 1988, later serving as its vice-chair in 1994. He authored "The General Teaching Council" in 2000.
From 1985 to 1991, he directed the education management unit at the University of London and served as an Oxford University department of education research fellow from 1990 onward, where he established the Schools for Democracy in Europe program. In 1991, John became the project director of Trans-European Mobility Programmes for University Studies (Tempus), which aimed to foster cooperation among higher education institutions in European countries, including Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Russia.
As a result of his work with Tempus, he became an honorary professor at Perm State University in Russia in 1995.
Ilserose passed away in 2020, but John is survived by my brother Christopher, me, and his grandchildren, Jamie, Jennifer, and Dominic.
