VALETE 139

NO DISTANCE OF PLACE OR LAPSE OF TIME CAN LESSEN THE FRIENDSHIP OF THOSE WHO ARE THOROUGHLY PERSUADED OF EACH OTHER’S WORTH.

ROBERT SOUTHEY

An excellent mathematician and a graduate of Glasgow, he was a valued member of the Mathematics team, always ready to share his passion for the subject with fellowresidents of the Lynam Thomas School, staff and students alike. The department will miss his friendship, his wellconsidered contributions to meetings, and his dry Scottish sense of humour. He was involved right across the sporting range and managed a number of teams, both boys’ and girls’, during his time at Repton, with the boys’ 2nd XI and U15A footballers and the U14B girls’ tennis players all benefiting from his coaching expertise and managerial enthusiasm. As a tutor Chris was always willing to help New Housians with their Maths, as well as finding time to review the day’s performance with the footballers. The boys will miss his accomplished piano-playing to signal the end of Prep; less so, his terrible putting in the corridor! We wish him well as he leaves Repton to move closer to family.

Neville Rothman

He brought vast expertise and experience to the hockey club and, an inspirational coach, made a crucial contribution to its continued success by taking senior teams, both boys and girls, to national titles. One OR wrote that ‘Mr Rothman has been the best coach that I have ever had the privilege of playing for. His attention to detail was phenomenal.’

These talents as a coach transferred easily to the classroom and, highly valued for his dedication, his Business Studies pupils will take away many valuable lessons from his instruction. As a tutor in School House, he will be remembered for a listening ear and his kind words of encouragement to all the boys. He will also be remembered for insisting on a strict regime of tidy bedrooms on each of his duty nights!

Naturally, much of Neville’s time for the first two terms of the year was spent on the hockey pitch, but he also co-coached the golf team in the Summer Term: many a Reptonian credits Neville for the steady lowering of their handicap. A keen player himself and a member of the Repton Amateur Golf Club, we hope he will make continue to make guest appearances over the years to come.

Neville has been a treasured colleague to many at Repton, as has his wife Lia, who has made a magnificent contribution as Development Officer to the Repton Foundation and OR Society.

They will both be missed but we wish them the very best of luck as they embark on their new life in Belfast where Neville takes up an exciting opportunity as Assistant Coach to the Ireland national hockey team.

Fortunately, she accepted the job. A young, dashing, idealistic Beak at the time, I was assigned as her mentor, charged with guiding her through her first year as a professional and instilling in her the best practice, the magic of the chemical experiment and, essentially, the craft of the classroom. She took on board the advice extremely well but also learned the other essentials of boarding school life: that extra-curricular activities define you and sleep is a luxury.

After four years of learning the ropes, she left a middling Chemistry department at Haileybury and joined a formidable one at Repton. Merely mention the names of the legends - Peter Bradburn, John Driver, David Morris and Val Cosford - and you realise that you had to be a big personality to survive and thrive, as she has done. In the orbit of such talent Julia was allowed to show how versatile she is. It was in these early years that she established her reputation as the one science teacher who was truly comfortable teaching all three sciences to A Level. To the non-scientist there is the belief that if you can teach one, you can easily teach the others. However, even a cursory glance at a specification will tell you that there are huge differences in philosophy across the disciplines and it is unusual even to have the confidence to do so. She also demonstrated the very valuable ability to inspire those who struggle with science - blending kindness and imagination with academic rigour and high expectations.

But anybody can teach. At the great boarding schools you have to be more than a teacher: no better compliment can be made of an employee of Repton than to be called ‘a good schoolmaster.’ A nebulous and slightly underwhelming phrase maybe, but to those on the job, it is the ultimate praise. It encompasses an unshowy ability to muck in outside the classroom, to enthuse on the sports field or the co-curricular, to care about house matters, remain enthusiastic in the darkest parts of a winter timetable when the work demanded goes beyond that of regular employers, and (most importantly) to put a shift in in Pedants. To my mind Julia is indeed a ‘good schoolmaster’, full of ideas and enthusiasms; whether it be her genuine love of animals and activities associated with it, or running swimming for a decade, or being out in the country on manoeuvres. One colleague called her ‘our very own dog whisperer’.

But I will never forget the incredible Parkes-organised trip to Borneo: nine days of the sort of animal encounters that remain genuinely unforgettable for all who were lucky enough to be on the trip. The highlights were too many to mention, but our boat breaking down on a jungle river as the sun set over crocodile-infested waters remains with me. Others will have similarly enduring memories of the Galapagos trips she organised.

Julia was always a big lover of outdoor pursuits, initially in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme, but for the last decade her commitment and championing of all things CCF has been remarkable. She finally rose to Contingent Commander in 2021. Her dedication and support for the armed forces and her profound and inspiring Remembrance Service sermons will linger long in the memory. In a world as uncertain as it is 2023, reasserting what soldiers do and why we need them is essential.

Julia’s commitment to the bigger picture was no better illustrated than in an editorial she wrote for the Repton Scientific Magazine which she introduced in 2015. Under the heading ‘Zombie Apocalypse’, she wrote: “Closer to home and all together more terrifying is the use of the mobile phone. Walk near any school, or through any town and you will see hoards of people, head down, staggering, oblivious to the events around them. Regardless of the beauty surrounding us, somehow the little screen holds all our attention. The smart phone is manipulating our minds, we have become zombies, and the condition has spread everywhere.” It was one paragraph in as eloquent a piece of science writing as you can see, but it also expressed her wish for all Reptonians to be more at one with what is around them and live a full life, rather than focussing on the inane.

She leaves to become Head of Chemistry at Stafford Grammar. We have big shoes to fill.

A true woman of the 21st century, Laura brought her new-born baby Florence with her from Belgium to attend her interview with Alastair Land, and in this regard she is an inspirational role model - managing to balance her growing family with an utterly professional approach to her career. Laura brought significant experience to her new responsibilities, having been a Deputy Housemistress at Cranleigh School, and her stewardship of The Abbey reflected the wisest of personal commitments to the development of young people. Laura is simply a wonderful champion of humans, inspiring all in her care to be the very best version of themselves with her simple philosophy of life, based on the Christian values of kindness, tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness. Laura herself has a very evident growth mindset, and those under her care benefited enormously from this aspirational approach to their Repton journey.

Alongside her role in The Abbey, Laura really did influence the body, mind and soul of Reptonians, teaching Biology, Psychology and Religious Studies! Her academic prowess matched her pastoral expertise, and colleagues in these departments were always confident in both her personal ability and subject understanding, and in her strength as a team player.

Laura is the epitome of grace and generosity and so many of her colleagues benefited from these qualities. In an increasingly demanding COVID-impacted working life, and as Laura and Matt added Benjamin to their little family unit, Laura continued to offer huge support to colleagues. Quick to offer cover or to share an end-of-term communication with those of us who were tardier with administration - and no-one could turn around admin better than Laura! - she simply wanted to help every individual she came across, and through that guiding principle her very active faith shone through.

It was a privilege to be a fellow Housemistress with Laura, especially as she and I embarked on that role together, and I, alongside many others, miss her very much. Never without a warm, welcoming and genuine smile, Laura cared so deeply for us all and, despite being so diminutive, there is a very large colleague hole where she once worked so lovingly. But there was never any doubt that Laura had a meteoric career journey ahead of her and we wish Laura, Matt and the family the very best as she takes up an exciting post as Deputy Head Academic at the newly-founded Rugby Tokyo. We feel blessed to have worked alongside Laura and, while her true legacy runs much deeper, she will be pleased to know that many an MS Form and House Policy bear her mark!

CJJ

Having achieved a joint-honours degree in Biology and Education from King’s College London, she became a founding member of the senior management team at Derby Grammar School as Head of Curriculum and she spent almost 25 years in a hugely successful career with them, teaching both Biology and Chemistry to A Level in addition to her leadership roles.

During her very first term at Repton the COVID pandemic hit, and it is a true testament to Lesley’s strength of character and perseverance that she worked tirelessly to get to grips with the unfamiliar world of remote teaching and the ‘joys’ of Teams. Indeed, we were sad to see her leave at the end of Summer 2020 and especially because we were not able to thank her in person.

In January 2021 Lesley kindly returned to Repton, this time as cover for Mrs Lucy Jones. We had jokingly agreed that at least her teaching would be in person this time only for another lockdown to hit just as she started! Her expertise at ICT was now wellhoned; seeing some of her pupils for the first-time during a remote parents’ meeting could have put off even the most-experienced teacher, but such an experienced professional took it in her stride.

Before her third stint with the Faculty of Science in Michaelmas 2022, Lesley was snapped up by Repton Prep for a term of science teaching, and she quickly became an equally popular and highly regarded colleague there too, with the pupils loving her science lessons, especially the experiments which were ‘fantastic’!

And so to this academic year, where Lesley has stepped up once again to teach Biology at the senior school. Her dedication, compassion, and hard work have left a lasting impression with us. She always finds the time to listen to her pupils, and her empathy and interest in others is one of her greatest strengths. As any science teacher will agree, her lemon drizzle and chocolate cakes - that mysteriously appear just when you need them most - are legendary and will live long in the memory!

Lesley’s resilience, unwavering support, and enthusiasm for learning are hugely appreciated and she will be missed. We’re reassured, however, that she will only be down the road in Hilton and, should the call come, have no doubt she will rise to the challenge once again. I’m secretly looking forward to the next chapter… and especially to the cake!

SMI

Nigel Kew has worked at Repton across five decades in a spirit of modest dedication to the School and its pupils.

A true friend, a trusted colleague and a selfless schoolmaster, he began his career here in September 1987 and his 36 years in the gown, two of them under the desert sun at Repton Dubai, have been marked by an unswerving commitment to a tradition of quality. If a job is worth doing, it’s worth devoting the best part of your life to it. From his own experiences as a boy at King’s Taunton, he knew first-hand how the guidance of a teacher could inspire a pupil and in this the influence of David Exham, as first his Housemaster at Taunton and then Second Master at Repton, was central in shaping the supportive and enabling schoolmaster he himself became.

When I first met Nigel in 1991, the young Kew – and it will come as a surprise to some that Nigel and I were ever in our twenties – was already a fixture in the giddy social whirl of a more carefree time. He seemed to have a natural ability to induce sympathy so instantly in an older generation that he rarely seemed to have to cook for himself. The Mylwards, Scotts,

McClarens and Muirs would keep open house for him in Brook House, The Hall, The Orchard and New House, and on a Sunday he would often be seen striding up Burton Road with the other two hungry musketeers, Messrs Bradburn and Amherst Lock, shamelessly drawing upon the boundless culinary generosity of Nim and David Wilkinson. On the rare occasions he found himself without an invitation, the three oven-shy bachelors could always summon up the energy to walk over to the Coach House in Milton where a table was kept permanently reserved for them.

In my first term at Repton, I coached the U16s football team with Nigel and a team which had not won a match in their two previous years did not lose one all season. It wasn’t always pretty but it was effective, and it was the hours Nigel spent talking to individuals, giving them self-belief, which were as important as any tactical masterstroke he might have employed. Nigel has been involved in sport throughout his time at Repton. Nearly twenty years on the U14 cricket from 1988-2007 alongside the grit of Bradburn was a masterclass in inculcating a love of the great game and its traditions, not to mention a feat of superhuman patience. He then took over the 3rd XI, for a further ten years from 2011-2021, overseeing a more cavalier but no less entertaining version of the sport. In Lent Nigel took hockey teams and umpired, but it is football with which he has been most closely identified. Having an unerring ability to look much older than he really is, as an eminence increasingly grise, Nigel wangled a role on the 1st XI from 1992, abandoning me and Chapel Hall for the glories of the Square and a partnership with that tracksuited sage Noel Bennett which they enjoyed for more than fifteen years. It didn’t go unnoticed that he casually slid back into this enviable slot on his return from Repton Dubai after a brief and successful show of solidarity with us lesser coaches on the 2nd XI. Undoubtedly, his partnership with MMC and Ash Hill on the 1st XI in recent years has given Nigel some of his happiest memories of Repton, as a succession of outstanding individuals and great teams have achieved so much. Matt Carrington would be the first to attest to the vital help he has received from Nigel in attending to the many needs of the Repton football machine, particularly when the former was a Housemaster. Indeed, the sum total of Nigel’s years spent on coach journeys to away matches probably exceeds the life spans of our newer entrants. Sadly, his own sporting career (as a stalwart of the Repton staff football and cricket teams) has been somewhat truncated by persistent injury. Unhappily, Nigel seems to have been gifted hamstrings tighter than a bursar’s purse and more recent decades have often been spent in recovery from a resurgent run. His preferred aquatic method of rehabilitation has mystified generations of Reptonians who, on seeing him striding across the shallow end of the pool in a rubber ring, have long considered him perhaps the most persistently inadequate swimmer in history.

Nigel was more fortunate in his attachment to New House as a tutor and then to The Hall as Resident Tutor, with the example of Messrs Muir and Scott preparing him well for his own very happy 11-year stint as Housemaster of New House, or Kew House, as the house sign was creatively vandalised to read. The kindness so evident elsewhere in his teaching life and the high standards he insisted upon prompted a flourishing generation of green-shirted loyalists.

It is often forgotten that Nigel was one of the first staff to venture overseas to work in the Repton Family of Schools – at Repton Dubai 2008-2010 on the SMT as Head of Boarding – but his true motivation was probably more to do with sunshine than educational initiatives. No-one feels the cold more than Nigel and he exists in a near-hypothermic state for most of the winter timetable, surviving only through regular forays to Cayman and the Canaries and carefully selected football tours to Florida and Spain.

One persistent professional thread has been his love of teaching German – and French when that wasn’t possible. He has been acting Head of Department in his time and has always done much to maintain links with our many and valued German ORs. This has been a career full of activity: Assistant Director to Martin Amherst Lock for some of the finest school plays witnessed here (one thinks of ‘Oh, What A Lovely War’, ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’), putting on Junior School plays, singing in the Chapel Choir since 2010 and MusSoc before that, involvement and management of 9 Pedants shows (the true gauge of a Repton schoolmaster and including his masterful turn in ‘La Comedie Francaise’), a house tutor in recent years in The Priory, running the General Knowledge Quiz since 2011, and working in the OR Office. Mighty new staff should look on his works and prepare.

Now Nigel departs for a quieter life in the West Country. I feel personally disadvantaged by this decision, given he is the only person to whom I could refer pupils with the phrase: ‘You’ll have to ask Mr Kew: he remembers when this was all just fields’. Nigel has given much of his life to Repton: it is our debt of gratitude that will be repaid time and again with genuine affection by a host of Old Reptonians and colleagues, delighted to see him in future years at OR events, on the touchline of a Dunn game, or back at Repton slipping unobtrusively into the Undercroft one breaktime. For Nigel, Repton is his ‘heimat’ and we will miss him.

JGG

He came with a very impressive pedigree: from a family of international competitors and highly-regarded coaches and a seasoned international himself, he had represented New Zealand in World Championships, Commonwealth Games and two Olympics – Sydney in 2000 and Athens in 2004. Joining from one of Australia’s biggest swimming clubs and its national team programme, Scott instantly made an impact as Director of Swimming. His job was, ultimately, to make Reptonians go faster in the pool and he certainly did that. The technical input he provided was outstanding, as was his attention to detail: in a sport of small margins, he knew where to find them. The programme - very much in its infancy at that stage –met with immediate success and he saw two of his swimmers crowned British Champions in 2022 and Repton leading the medal tables at county and regional events.

Beyond the swimming pool and Sports Centre, Scott took the chance to get involved in Repton life to the full. His debut in the staff cricket team saw a direct hit run-out and some decent bowling figures, as well as using his iPhone on the pitch to mark his run-up out. He was a popular and well-liked member of the Common Room and his Aussie tones were always welcome over a coffee, despite JGG questioning his choice of jeans as a dress code for the Headmaster’s announcements. Many will also remember how he wrestled himself into a shirt and tie in the Headmaster’s garden, just in time for the Common Room photo!

Scott is an exceptional coach and his legacy is a swimming programme that continues to rocket forwards at great speed. His impact was appreciated by many, as was seen with the superb turnout from Repton Swimming at a gathering to wish him well for his new role. During their time at Repton, Scott and his wife Lucy were joined by Charlotte, a younger sister to Bella, and now as a family of four they leave for Canada where Scott will take the post of Head Coach at the National Performance Centre in Vancouver. We wish them well and thank Scott for the invaluable part he has played in putting Repton Swimming onto the national stage so quickly. IMP