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Four new teachers joined us in September. Matthew Faulkner, from
Port Regis School, took up his role as Deputy Headmaster and
French teacher; Helen Lord transferred from Cokethorpe to be Head
of English; Eddie Orr, returning to the independent sector after a
lengthy spell teaching in a state secondary school, became our new
Head of Art; and Sarah McPhail arrived from Korowa Anglican Girls
School in Melbourne to teach Maths. We welcomed Sophie Baillie
as the new Domestic Bursar, and later in the term Freddy Fairhead
(OS) came to spend the rest of the year as teaching assistant and
sports coach – APWB was particularly pleased to see him back on
the fives courts again.
In the school office RachelleWinn took on the post of School
Secretary and Ann Snow became Communications Officer, whilst the
Bursary and HR department were pleased to have further support
from newly appointed assistants, Jennie Duffin and ChristineWiles.
Zindzi Cresswell,
Development
Officer since
February 2015, left
us in May to take
up a position at
the Said Business
School in Oxford.
We were also
very sorry to
say good bye to
two stalwarts of
Hobson’s. First
Sister Wendy Cubiss
retired in March,
after four years
here, and then, later
in July, Cath Young
left us after two
and a half years as Head Sister. Both of them showed conspicuous
dedication to the health and the care of the boys, combining
admirable common sense with compassion and good humour. They
will be sorely missed and we wish each of them, in her next chapter,
much happiness.
Just before Christmas we said thank you and farewell to the Duchess
of Leinster after 18 years of teaching in our Learning Support
department. It is impossible to acknowledge adequately all the
The whole Summer Fields community was shocked and deeply
saddened to hear, in the final week of the Summer Term, of
the news of the sudden death of Gavin Hannah. Following
his retirement from teaching at the school three years ago,
he had maintained an active interest in the place through his
involvement in mentoring younger colleagues as they fulfilled
teacher’s qualification requirements, and, more obviously,
through his editorship of the book, Summer Fields – The First 150
Years, that was published in November 2014. He remained in
regular touch with many of us and had enjoyed his first year of
shared retirement with his wife, Ann, our long-serving Domestic
Bursar who stood down last summer. To her, and to Gavin’s two
sons and their families, we offer our heartfelt condolences.
To produce an obituary for GWH here would be, largely, to
repeat everything that was written so comprehensively by JHB in
the Valete section of the 2013 Summer Fields magazine. However,
it would be wrong not to, once again, pay tribute to a man who
spent so much of his working life at Summer Fields. As a History
teacher, he was enthusiastic, knowledgeable and inspirational; as
Director of Studies, he was rigorous, efficient and ambitious for
the school; as a colleague, he was conscientious, kind-hearted
and supportive. More will be said about GWH at the memorial
service to be held in the Lent Term 2017. For now, the most recent
testament to Gavin’s association with the school should be the
150th Anniversary souvenir book – his baby, as he liked to call it –
and it’s also worth observing that the dedication inside was to his
sons, Marcus and Giles (both OS), of whom he was very proud.
Summerfieldiana
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