Donny didn’t know what to say to that. Why hadn’t she kicked him to the kerb and sent him packing years ago? He’d never understood why anyone would stay with an abusive partner and struggled to find the words she was clearly wanted to hear.

Melanie took another sip of her wine and sat back in her seat, clearly deciding it was time to change the subject before she got upset. Donny could already see her welling up. ‘So, tell me a bit about you. Obviously I know you’re the headteacher, but I don’t really know anything more about you.’

Donny’s mobile started to ring; he stared at the screen and stood up. ‘I just need to take this call.’ He held the phone to his ear and started to walk away, but Melanie still caught snatches of the conversation. ‘I’m busy at the moment, but I’ll catch you later tonight, just crack on and I’ll ring you back soon.’ Donny ended the call and walked back to his seat. He raised his eyebrows and sighed. ‘Sorry about that, just a mate who needed a favour.’

Melanie smiled softly. ‘You’re a friend to everyone, aren’t you, Donny? The main reason I took this job was because of how you are with people. You have a great outlook on life and I’m glad to be a part of your team.’

Donny was chuffed. ‘It’s hard graft but I get so much more from the job. These kids need us, not just to teach them, they need to feel part of something. Sure, a lot of them will still face a few bumps in the road when they leave us, I’m not going to pretend we’ve never had a former pupil end up in jail or get pregnant underage, but lots go on to bigger things and sort themselves out. One lad who used to come to our school has his own business now. He owns a café in Miles Platting. On my life, he drove into the school car park one morning and told me. “Come and bring the kids to my café, it’s on the house.” Ten students and four staff went for lunch and he fed us all for free. He told the kids about how he started out and how he got to where he was today. It made me choke up really, it was so good to see someone that had been to our school make something of themselves. If I’m being honest a lot of the kids won’t even sit their exams, so if I didn’t step in they’d leave school with no qualifications, nothing. But I have a lot of work placements set up in the area, local businesses and that – the kids who aren’t academic, I’ll send them there in hope they might get a decent job at the end of it.’