THE walls of Gary Smith’s office are adorned with inspirational messages from iconic figures urging determination, courage and true life values.

Mr Smith, the headteacher at Market Field School, can relate to these as they are principles upon which he lives his life and which he passes on to his pupils.

Mr Smith has been head at the school for children with special needs for 28 years. For 20 of those years, it has not been an easy ride.

The school in Elmstead Market, which opened in 1977. It is now marking its 40th birthday but over those years has faced potential closure, a battle for proper facilities and a fight for equal opportunities.

However, Mr Smith remains positive, saying they have won the battle and are even closer to winning the war.

He said: “The school was small when I started. There were only 60 children in total.

“It was a lovely school but it needed a bit of work and I can

remember trying to come to terms with what the local authority was trying to do with special schools.”

The school decided to specialise in autism in the Nineties. However, not long after this, the Government developed an educational strategy to close special schools and encourage children with special needs into mainstream education.

Mr Smith spent the first ten years of the job fighting to keep the school open.

He said: “I fought to keep schools like this vibrant and positive, it wasn’t an easy start.

“I was a lone wolf for the most part but I had people around me who were supportive.

“I just carried on and any decision made was in the best interests of the children. Nobody proved me wrong.”

But the school became a victim of its own success. Parents with children with additional needs wanted to attend Market Field and it became vastly overcrowded.

The playground was so full of temporary classrooms it was nicknamed Shed City.

Mr Smith appealed to millionaires, philanthropists and politicians, including the Prime Minister, for money to rebuild the school.

His calls fell on deaf ears for close to a decade but eventually Essex County Council found the money for a new £7 million school to be built on the site.

Mr Smith said: “It took ten years for us to get the new facility and the papers were vital in raising awareness and making that happen.”

Now Mr Smith has a new challenge. Ever the optimist (he is a West Ham supporter after all), he now wants to ensure the children nurtured by the school have a meaningful life after education.

When the Government changed the compulsory age to leave education from 16 to 18 in 2015, it left some students with nowhere to go.

Mr Smith used the situation as a springboard for opening up a new sixth form college at a school site in Jaywick.

The establishment of the sixth form in the former Bishops Park College is the outcome of that ambition first mooted 18 years ago.

Mr Smith said 20 students a year will go to the college which will also give vocational training to some younger students from the school.

He said: “We are looking

at challenging the status quo, because it’s not good enough.

“People say it has been tough but I don’t think it has.

“I think if you believe in a cause everything just falls into place. It has just been something we have had to do.”

In 2000 Mr Smith wrote a vision document and it has been his ambition to achieve it by 2020.

He thought with a bit of luck, along with his dedication and persistence, he could help to ensure there is a good life after education.

He added: “You need to believe in what you are doing. There was an article I read which was about special schools and how headteachers meet people from all walks of life.

“We should be there for them, unequivocally.”