I was so very sorry to hear about Dave. I worked alongside him teaching English and Media Studies at Hall Cross, and valued his knowledge, friendship and support over the years. Dave was admired and respected by all his colleagues. He was a great teacher and his yearly ‘Favourite Teacher’ award was well-deserved. I remember students cheering when they found out they were going to be in Mr Cooke’s set for English. Dave was never too busy to help others and I was always in awe of the breadth of his knowledge about practically everything, especially music and film. He influenced many young professionals, including my daughter who worked in his classroom as a Teaching Assistant. She credits Dave as the reason she became a teacher. There will be many others who say their future successes were inspired by ‘Mr Cooke’. The young people of Doncaster were lucky to have known Dave and he will always be spoken of as a great guy.