BURY Grammar School’s Head Girl, along with a number of teachers and I, were honoured to be invited to the Victoria Wood Exhibition at Bury Art Gallery last Saturday, which we found hugely entertaining and enlightening.

As a strong Northern woman and fabulous role model, we will always be proud to count Victoria Wood as an old girl of Bury Grammar School Girls.

Her humour, warmth, intelligence and winning combination of self-confidence and self-deprecation have made her an inspiration to our students over the years, and it seems that a new generation has become inspired by her work since her untimely death.

This exhibition beautifully captured the humour (of course!), skill and intelligence of Victoria as an artist ­— but most of all, what came over to me, was her attention to detail and continual desire to make her work better.

There were annotated scripts showing that the addition of just one or two words, or a very slight rephrasing, might bring a whole new comic slant to the phrase in question.

I understand that Victoria was famous for last minute re-writes, such was her commitment to comedy perfection.

We all know that most success is very hard won and, in this regard, Victoria Wood really is an excellent role model for our young people.

It is important for pupils (and all of us) to accept that it is to be expected that you might need to draft, re-draft and draft again if you are serious about producing excellent work.

I know that former pupils of Bury Grammar School Girls (and perhaps some of Victoria’s peers) read this column and would suggest that, if they are popping in to see us in school, they might like to take a few steps down the road and visit this wonderful exhibition. What an inspiration Victoria Wood was …and continues to be!