Staff Leavers

Amy Grogan

Amy Grogan joined St Paul’s with a degree from Bristol, a teaching post in northern Sicily and a PGCE under her belt 8 years ago. It is with great sadness that we bid her farewell.

Amy’s contribution to our school has been immense: teaching Italian, Spanish and General Studies, Oxbridge classes, F club president, assistant head of charities, co-chair of the Paul’s 4All Committee, residential languages trips to no fewer than six destinations, Eurosoc talks on translation and Italian masculinity, editor of Métro, and a committed tutor. Amy is a teacher who has always sought to help her pupils really understand and master her subjects. ‘Miss Grogan was perhaps the most understanding and supportive teacher I have had when someone did not understand something – she would quite happily pause a lesson to patiently explain something no matter how easy it may have seemed to other students.’

Amy has been an inspirational teacher. Her pupils tell me that Amy always treated them like adults. She introduced our A Level pupils to Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan quartet and its sometimes difficult subject matter, challenging them to debate the most weighty issues and always encouraging them to question their own and each other’s viewpoints. ‘Miss Grogan is one of the best teachers that I have ever had. As a teacher, her passion for languages always shines through’. From the start, Amy has been a collaborative, supportive and positive person to work alongside in the languages department. With her dedication and creativity as editor of Métro and her fascinating Eurosoc talks, Amy has always gone the extra mile to help her colleagues with their homework and to promote modern languages in the school. Amy has also given up weeks and weeks of her holidays to accompany teenagers on residential trips to exotic locations: Alghero, Siena, Seville, Malaga, Barcelona, Bordeaux, and East Grinstead. Sunday lunches on Alghero’s bastioni and department outings will never be quite the same without Amy. Amy has been a committed member of the staff netball team and her goal shooting abilities are unrivalled (and somewhat better than her softball). Amy’s conviviality manifests itself too in an openness with her pupils, and a genuine interest in her tutees. One Upper Eighth pupil told me, without a whiff of cynicism, that Miss Grogan ‘is genuinely one of the nicest people I’ve come across at my t ime at SPS’. Another told me that ‘Miss Grogan can put a smile on our faces at a moment’s notice and cheer us up during even the hardest of times.’ Chatting to Amy has been described by one colleague as ‘like having your own personal cheerleader’.

Amy is a compassionate soul. Not only is she a kind and thoughtful friend, she also works hard to make a difference in the world. Since she first burst onto the charities scene in a breathtaking Bocelli/ Bieber dance remix with Beckie Rahim in St Paul’s Got Talent, Amy has continued to do her bit for good causes. I am reliably told that she has been instrumental in raising £100,000 over the last 4 years as Chair of Paul’s4All Committee and Assistant head of charities. This is done in her usual unassuming manner, without fanfare, whole-school emails or powerpoint presentations. Her character is such that she has quietly and assuredly gone about promoting an ethos of kindness, generosity and charity among students and staff. Amy and her beloved fiancé Pietro leave Barnes to start a new life in Cheltenham, where they will be closer to Amy’s parents and her sister’s young family. Amy is also preparing to say ‘Sì lo voglio’ for when she and Pietro get married in Pietro’s hometown of Castelbuono in August. I know that planning a Sicilian wedding from London (or from hotel COVID quarantine in Sicily) has been a somewhat long and torturous road, but if anyone can pull it off with style it’s you Amy. I’m sure everyone would like to join me in wishing you both a very long and happy marriage. Amy has made an outstanding contribution to the life of the school. She will be greatly missed. Future Spanish and Italian classes really won’t know what they’re missing. She has a lot of friends at St Paul’s who hold her in high regard and even higher affection.

Joe Rocca

Joe Rocca joined the school as a short term maths teacher in October 2017 to provide some cover, but quickly impressed and when the opportunity arose to offer him a permanent role, we were only too happy to keep him. With a degree in Maths from Waterloo, he had written software professionally and these computing capabilities came known and the Department of Computing recruited another mathematician to see the light.

After a period of having a foot in both camps he moved wholly across to computing where he has made a solid reputation for getting stuck in, whether with a 4th form Monday activity on JavaScript, leading Get Creative courses using imaging apps like Blender or just seeing boys to answer questions. His slightly leftfield view on making useful work meant giving his sets genuinely interesting tasks, definitely preferring to ask the boys to learn by doing, not just by reading about the theory: installing Linux in a virtual machine on their laptops, exemplifying graph theory through the medium of a criminal network, actually having a class install industry tools to crack an (old) Wi-Fi

protocol. He was always happy to answer questions, bringing a solid practical knowledge to his lessons. A reliable presence and a nurturing one in his classroom. He took his classes for a journey and they loved him for it.

It is regret that we bid him farewell, but he leaves us to return to industry and, possibly, a chance to return home to his native Canada. Chris Harrison

Ginny Dawe-Woodings

Ginny joined us in May 2019 and promptly set about what I now understand to be the main job of an archivist – buying expensive silver cardboard boxes. Within weeks all the odd, interesting items sitting on the shelves had been corralled into one of these boxes. Previously a walk along the shelves meant a view of everything from scarab beetles to gas masks all in no particular order. After many hours of boxing and sorting you are now faced with a wall of silver cardboard. It’s much more professional and items are safe from dust and bugs, and of course we can find things much more quickly, but it isn’t quite as much fun.

Ginny was never happier than when proving that someone’s great-great grand-uncle had attended the school and finding that piece of information that really brought the ancestor to life. Shouts of ‘found him’ or ‘he was only 6 stone!’ would ring out and she would happily copy the proof into emails. Dr Brigham asked about the school’s ceremonial chairs and said that the briefing note he received proved Ginny was “always happy to go the extra mile in exploration of even the most elusive and eccentric aspects of school history”.

Ginny has achieved many things over her time with us: making the early issues of The Pauline publicly available online; her display highlighting the records which never entered our collections; her materiality session with Dr Ruddick’s history extension class; the Old Pauline Club’s donation of arctic explorer and OP George Murray Levick’s book so that all displays since have included his comments about ‘hooligan bands’ of Adelie penguins, and his dreadful Greek. However, her most important achievement has been making the role of Archivist indispensable, being enthusiastic about our collections, and passing that enthusiasm on to others.

We will miss Ginny very much. We wish her only good things in her new role with Bart’s Hospital. HKC

Basil Strang

Basil Strang joined St Paul’s in 2018 as a rugby coach for the 1st XV. Educated at Royal Grammar School, Newcastle he moved to Durham University to complete his BSc in Zoology. With a developing passion for teaching, he decided to study at Oxford University for his PGCE and MSc in Learning and Teaching.

During his time at University his talent in rugby was recognised, and whilst at Oxford, he became a Blue in 2014 and 2016. He moved into professional rugby in 2017, playing for London Scottish, having previously represented Henley Hawks and Worcester Warriors.

Basil’s previous teaching post was at Kingham Hill School where it offered him a truly comprehensive experience of secondary school teaching. On arrival at St Paul’s, it was clear that his expertise lay far beyond the rugby pitch and in 2020 he became a member of the teaching staff in the Biology department.

Throughout Basil’s time at St Paul’s he has provided the pupils with outstanding rugby coaching. His technical and tactical knowledge of the game is vast and he has the intellect to connect with pupils. He has been hard-working and dedicated to both individual and team development, always putting pupils first. Being a great rugby player and a top sportsman, he also gave time and attention to coaching rugby sevens, cricket and athletics. Roles and responsibilities that he did enthusiastically and always with a smile on his face.

Inside the classroom, Basil has been a dedicated, dependable and inspirational teacher. He dealt with the novelty of remote lessons with professionalism, and his passion for teaching and learning was admired and respected by the pupils. He has also been a caring tutor, providing outstanding pastoral care. He has taught PSHE and has been an influential EPQ mentor.

Basil has provided invaluable support to the Co-Curricular program. This has included supporting and organising rugby trips to Italy and his hometown, Newcastle. He has been thorough and organised with an eye for detail. He has been very positive and always looked to evolve and modernise current practice.

He has been a very sociable colleague, often playing football on Friday evenings, or golf and cycling. He was also keen on his personal fitness, and as a Strength and Conditioning coach, he would regularly be educating the pupils on their own journey.

Basil leaves St Paul’s after 4 years and it will be very difficult to replace someone with such a unique skill set. He has been a great teacher, coach, colleague and friend to the St Paul’s community and will be missed. We wish him the very best of luck as he moves to Harrow School where he will inevitably be a great success.

Linda Johnson

Linda joined the Geography department at St Paul’s in 2015 after a career in the practical application of the subject working as a Geographical Information systems expert, specialising in Oil and Gas. With this wealth of experience in the professional world she was set up well to succeed in this subject and on arrival she threw herself into teaching the subject and to all that St Paul’s had to offer across the co curricular sphere.

During her time here she has contributed hugely to the offering of field trips and expeditions having been a core part of running DofE Bronze expeditions (2015-2020), Geography trips to Iceland and Botswana, climbing in Fontainebleau (2017 & 2018) and the school expedition to Borneo. But her exploration has extended within the subject as well as across the globe. In her role as Head of Geography projects Linda has carried out research into the pupils’ experience of studying Geography at St Paul’s and this has shaped the development of teaching and learning resources and provision of the department for years to come.

Linda leaves such a strong legacy here at St Paul’s: co-founding EcoSoc and raising environmental sustainability high on the school’s agenda; pioneering innovative data gathering methods for our Geography field trips, drawing upon her knowledge of GIS; and most recently heading up special projects for the department.

Linda is an inspiring Geography teacher and a caring and thoughtful form tutor and her tutees and pupils have hugely valued her energetic and enthusiastic teaching style alongside her pastoral care which is typified by her care and thought for her tutees. Linda has been such a core part of the community at St Paul’s and she has made lifelong friends in the common room, she will be profoundly missed as a colleague but more so as a friend to so many. Linda now goes on to relocate to South East Asia and we know she will make a great success of the pursuits to come, we wish her the very best of luck and look forward to welcoming her back and hearing all about how her adventures have continued. Matt Poynter

Paul Collinson

Paul Collinson left us in December after an outstanding 29-year career at the school. In that time he taught generations of Paulines French and German, he was an excellent boarding house master for thirteen years, a club president, head of General studies, gave Japanese lessons, and set up what was to become an extremely successful Japan exchange.

One of the most impressive things about Paul, however, was the breadth and accuracy of his memory. Indeed, his memory has been described by one colleague as ‘elephantine.’ This gift was allegedly honed as a child when Paul would memorise the number plates of the cars on his road. He can no doubt still recall them. Latterly, Paul would impress us all by remembering birthdays – not just those of colleagues, but he somehow knew the birthdays of our family members too (had we ever actually told him?) and would locate them in his memory in relation to those of former colleagues. In short, if you have ever met Paul – and even if you haven’t – there’s a good chance he’ll know when to wish you many happy returns.

In the light of this, it seems rather reckless to even attempt to recall Paul’s life at St Paul’s for him, because he undoubtedly remembers better than any of us do. Perhaps better to concentrate therefore on Paul the man, the colleague, the friend. Many of us will remember his extraordinary good humour. He had a warm and natural relationship with his pupils and almost every time I saw him teach, he had his class laughing, brightening the mood and setting them at ease. He was always one to walk into your classroom with a friendly smile to make a little quip, or relate an amusing anecdote from one of his many travels. In fact travelling is very much one of Paul’s passions and many stories have arisen over the years from what happened on various school trips to places like the Cévennes, Le Pont de Montvert or Lourmarin. He accompanied countless trips to France and Germany, but would also use every opportunity in the school holidays to visit family homes in Ireland and Yorkshire, or escape to some exotic destination. Many trips included sending back to us photos of the quirky things he saw along the way, and as his retirement so far seems to have involved more travelling than ever, we can be fairly sure that these are things we will continue to enjoy.

Paul was always the unanimous choice for showing prospective teachers round the school, since he was guaranteed to create a good impression of the place with his warm and caring nature. This was where I first had the pleasure of meeting him, and he immediately struck me as someone who would be terrific to work with and drew me to the school. The subsequent twelve years did not disappoint, so when he revealed that on one of his many trips to Yorkshire, a chance conversation on the beach had led him to consider retirement seriously, there was a huge sense of disappointment. But I think that anyone who has worked with Paul will be able to agree that it was a great privilege, that we learned an enormous amount from him and always felt we had someone around who took an interest in us, was instinctively supportive and could always cheer us up. He goes into retirement having equipped and enthused reams of pupils in their

language study, and cared and guided even more. We are hugely indebted to him and wish him every blessing and happiness in his well-deserved retirement. Nigel Briers

Juliet Latham

For just shy of 22 years, through the tenure of four different High Masters, Juliet demonstrated in her characteristically unflappable, seemingly effortless way not only the diversity of her role, but also the value of having such a consummate professional looking after the teaching staff. Her arrival coincided with St Paul’s embracing the digital workplace and there was nothing that Juliet didn’t know how to do at lightning speed. Which was just as well because the transfer of resources from paper, OHP film and in some extreme cases, Banda paper, to electronic copy would have proceeded at a glacial pace without her prodigious skills.

School trips (and the staff trying to organise them) would have suffered without her help: no one in the MFL department could enter over 40 sets of passport details onto an airline web-site within the 20 minutes cut-off time; the production, sending, and collation of permission forms, health forms and itineraries all happened seamlessly, and on top of the administration, she also accompanied trips – to Montpellier, the battlefields of Flanders and to the Galapagos Islands, amongst others. In her early days at the school, she carefully nurtured those nervous of electronic communication through the trauma of learning how to use email, followed some time later by helping countless teachers to get to grips with Firefly and iSams. Whether organizing a staff party or taking minutes in a complex management meeting, helping Drama with their ticketing or producing name labels for parents’ evenings, Juliet got things right every time. The parties were great, no one ever contested the minutes, and parents were able to find the correct teachers.

Juliet’s true value lay not in the administrative support that she provided for teaching staff, notwithstanding how important that was, but in the ‘soft’ support that she offered. Discreet, sympathetic and with an endlessly patient ear for colleagues with worries to unburden, with frustrations to vent, or just in need of a chat, Juliet quickly became the unofficial common room counsellor. Several generations of teaching staff benefitted from her sense of humour and her empathy. The real value of her contribution to the smooth running of the school is immeasurable and unquantifiable. Juliet will be greatly missed and she leaves with the very best wishes of the teaching staff for her retirement. SMac

Gary O’Brien

Gary O’Brien first came to St Paul’s School in September 2015 as a sports graduate assistant and Head of Tennis; he had previously been a sports graduate and assistant rackets professional at Harrow School. During the seven years that I have known him I witnessed his willingness and infectious enthusiasm to tackle a variety of new challenges, and with much success. He became a more rounded individual having made varied and significant contributions to school life in general. In addition to his input into school sports teams, he delivered PSHE and EPQ courses and delivered sports science content at the Avni Lectures.

His passion for teaching PE was very apparent and he completed his teaching training through the Buckingham University scheme whilst at St Paul’s. It was only a matter of time before he looked to move on to fulfil his hunger for the subject by teaching it on a full time basis; he has been able to do this at Oakham School in the last couple of terms. However, he did leave several holes to fill when he departed in January of this year and his efforts and input should certainly not be underestimated. He produced successful 2nd XI football teams and enriched the 4/5 XVs. He galvanised and promoted Squash and Tennis as Head of both sports; his proudest moment in the latter was seeing two tennis teams recently reach the Nationals.

Having been promoted to managing the sports facilities he also inherited the responsibility of outside lettings. Combining this role and his leadership in squash, he managed to attract Middlesex junior squash coaching to the school courts. As a very accomplished squash player himself he enjoyed playing for the Roehampton Club and now represents Leicester Squash. He kept the pupils active in this sport during the COVID lockdown by posting coaching and fitness videos and also contributed to football too in a similar fashion.

Arguably his most important role was overseeing the sports options for all the pupils in the school. This is a painstaking but critical role and I was most grateful for his endeavour and input into this area during my tenure as Director of Sport.

Gary has long wanted to travel to New Zealand to teach and coach and this will probably be realised this coming October where snow-boarding and an active lifestyle really appeal to him. He will also continue to take squash seriously as a player.

I would like to wish him well as he continues his journey and thank him for all he did for St Paul’s sport. Nigel Briers

Katy Waterfield

Katy Waterfield joined St Paul’s in August 2016, Peter King’s replacement in the Classics department. A daunting prospect to live up to the classical powerhouse that is PJK; but Katy immediately showed herself to be a formidable classical scholar in her own right – as her ex-Head of Department Simon May, has pointed out, she knows her Greek accents – praise indeed (just take my word for it – praise indeed!).

It was soon clear that Classics at St Paul’s would never be quite the same again. Department meetings, for example, became much more fiery occasions –Katy would scrutinise Simon’s every word, and Simon’s desperate attempts to tell us that, of course, “this reminds me of the time when everything was not quite oojah-cum-spiff between Madeleine Bassett and Gussie FinkNottle” wouldn’t quite wash…

Katy took over from Simon as Head of Department in 2019. It is incredible how hard she works and how much she does, and yet she apologises for not doing enough. During last year’s TAGs, she kept saying to us, “I’m sorry that you have to do so much work with this”, when she had done literally everything she could to help us. And even after the last half term, she commented to Tom Carter, “I haven’t done much work this half term – just put together all the set text booklets for next year…” Now, for any other Classics teacher this is a huge amount of work, as she produces twenty or thirty page booklets for both Latin and Greek, prose literature and verse literature, at both GCSE and A level – that’s A LOT of different booklets…

During last year’s TAGs, grades needed to be finalised soon after summer half term, so Katy thought, why not have a meeting in half term –on bank holiday Monday?… Strangely she and I disagreed on this one, but no one else in the department seemed to be too phased by it, even though Alex Stewart had to join from holiday in Portugal. But in the end Katy was, of course, right – the final grades were sorted out early in the week, leaving the rest of half term week much more relaxed; and also meaning that, when other departments were in back-to-back grading meetings in exam week, we could be free to focus on marking… Which brings me neatly to another of Katy’s innovations which I think has become semilegendary amongst some staff –Marking Club!

Yes, Katy likes us to gather in her classroom during exam week, to mark scripts together, so that (in her words), “we can iron out any inconsistencies in marking and make sure the marks are standardised between us”. Now some might say that this is a chance for Miss Waterfield to keep an eye on her naughty Classics boys and make sure that they are prioritising their marking, but in reply I would say that that can’t be the case, as Hannah Mervis is also included in the Marking Club, so it can’t possibly be about Katy keeping an eye on us… Can it?...

Katy has been a brilliantly supportive and nurturing mentor to Classics PGCE students, and every Wednesday she can be found in Room 122 teaching GCSE Latin to the Hammersmith Latin Outreach pupils. But her Pauline life is not just about Classics.

Katy has been an extremely efficient and totally professional Universities adviser. Neville Sanderson adds that “her trade mark was a very welcome instant reply to any emails I sent her”.

As a co-editor of the Pauline too, Dan Brigham writes that Katy is a consummate professional, fearsome when it comes to deadlines, and a pleasure to work with. Dan can find only one fault: that she’s leaving!

And Katy is a valued member of the Staff Netball Club: Kate French, Amy Grogan and Keri Cloete have all said lovely things about her involvement –they will miss your enthusiasm and eye for the rules; and my favourite comment, “Katy wins the prize for most talented netball player who plays in flip-flops – not something most would even attempt, but seriously impressive!”

Katy can also be quite a private person… Back in February when the whole department except Rob Taylor was off with COVID, Katy and I were having what I thought was a fairly boring what’s App exchange about COVID, which went as follows: • Katy: I’m just worried that Supratik (Katy’s boyfriend, or so I thought…) will develop positive COVID test results next week with serious knock-on effects for my wedding plans in half term. • Me (thinking she must mean that they are going to a friend’s wedding over half term, but naively thinking

I would play on the comedy of the ambiguity of her message, even though it can’t possibly be her wedding…) YOU’RE GETTING

MARRIED IN HALF TERM??!!! • Katy: Yup. • New message from Katy: How did you miss me fiddling with my ring all this term? BECAUSE I’M VERY UNOBSERVANT. And, in my defence, Hannah Mervis didn’t know either… Though apparently Rob Taylor and Alex Stewart had noticed the ring, and the PGCE student knew too… So I obviously am pretty unobservant – though it’s the first time that finding out about a colleague’s engagement and wedding has been a pass/fail test – I’m not sure, Katy, if this is going to catch on as a teaching and learning walkthru technique…

So, what have we learned about Katy? Consummate professional, super-super organised, unbelievably hard-working and dedicated, a formidable Classicist, multi-talented, hugely competitive, but most importantly, hugely thoughtful, and kind (all right, Katy will probably say that the competitive bit is the most important…!).

But Katy is an incredibly thoughtful and supportive HoD, who will drop everything to help if a member of her department is struggling (I say, “drop everything”, but being Katy she will DO

everything and still be there to help) –I have benefitted personally from this on many occasions, and am hugely grateful to her for her patience, her thoughtfulness and her support when I have been struggling with things. Her thoughtful end-of-term notes to each member of the department always strike just the right note, and the croissants she buys for us are always a perfectly timed pick-me-up.

Katy is off to Magdalen College School in Oxford this September. She is relocating to Oxford to be closer to her husband Supratik’s work, and to be with her family who live in Oxford. We wish you and Supratik all the best in your life together in Oxford. And do keep in touch.

Robert Breslin

Robert leaves St Paul’s after eight years in which he has had a significant impact on the development of teachers and pupils across the school. He has organised and managed a highly effective induction programme for all new teaching staff helping every new teacher make the most of their first year at St Paul’s. He has been central in organising and guiding PGCE student placements and the NQT process, helping both mentors and teachers hone their skills and expertise. Insightful and effective, he never shies away from supporting other members of staff. He has been influential in raising the profile of teaching and learning and creating a positive and constructive environment in which genuine discussion and improvement have both been enacted. He will be remembered by many people who have worked with him in coaching rugby for several years and touring Japan with his team. Always professional in his duties, he would expect the same from his team.

He also taught drama where he was known for his dynamic and inspiring lessons, encouraging many young Paulines to take their first steps into the world of SPS Drama. He co-directed a number of productions including Zero for the Young Dudes! and Much Ado About Nothing.

In his work in the mathematics department, he leaves a lasting impact on all of us, not only professionally but personally. Robert is an inspiring person; he is well organised and untiringly professional with all colleagues across many disciplines. I’ve seen him develop into one of the most respected teachers I’ve ever met, and he now goes on to share his wisdom and experience at Eastbourne College. He will lead their mathematics department and will no doubt have an effect upon many other departments across the school. They are very lucky to have him, and he will be missed at St Paul’s.

Rupert Fitzsimmons

Rupert arrived at SPS after achieving a First-Class degree in History from Cambridge. Over three eventful years, he has contributed a great deal to the History Department and the broader life of the school.

It is difficult to do justice to all the contributions Rupert has made in his time here. He has involved himself in so many areas of school life. He loved coaching Rugby, working in the Boarding House, coaching Cricket and latterly taking two weekly sessions of climbing. I think the administration behind the scenes when running a Duke of Edinburgh trip tested even his patience, but it stands as yet another example of his commitment to the life of SPS. He has enriched the opportunities pupils have here and he brought an unrelenting enthusiasm to all his work.

In the classroom he was an outstanding teacher. His lessons afforded the opportunity for pupils to express themselves, although he was wise enough to prevent dominant voices. For this Head of Department, confronted with the revolting CAGs and TAGs process, I could not have found a more supportive and generous colleague. His industry, enthusiasm and level headedness helped me get through a process that I found genuinely difficult. He also had a knack of knowing how to obscure my inadequacies; on a ten-day trip to the United States, Rupert was quick to appreciate that I cannot read a map. He would get up ridiculously early and, on his run, he would plan the route for the day.

He moves to Uppingham where CCF, shooting and comedy trousers are the norm. He will fit in well, and I am convinced he is perfectly suited for the major pastoral role he will take up. I think, as teachers, we always try to improve pupils in many different areas of their life. Although young and relatively inexperienced, in three years Rupert made the History Department (and the school) better. I am so grateful that he cut his teeth here.