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OPUS • Issue 6 • Spring 2012
Portsmouth Grammar School • www.pgs.org.uk
The Triumphal Arch
Claire Jepson (née Sawyer) OP (1988-1990) Claire Jepson became Head of English at PGS in 2006. She read English at University College, London before gaining a Masters in Marketing and having a top-flight career with Proctor and Gamble, responsible for the promotion of some of the nation’s most beloved brands, including Bendicks of Mayfair and Werther’s Original, before re-training as a teacher. Claire is the author of several published GCSE English revision guides and is a former winner of Strictly School Dancing, the PGS version of the popular television show!
Stuart Price OP (1984-1986) Stuart Price will join the staff at PGS in the Summer Term as a Mathematics Teacher. He has a Masters in Mathematics from the University of Warwick and a PGCE from the University of Portsmouth. Stuart was a Research Assistant at the University of Barcelona and is currently teaching Mathematics at St Vincent College, Gosport.
Which was more nerve-wracking: passing under the school’s historic arch as a pupil on your first day at school or as a new employee?
Which was more nerve-wracking: passing under the school’s historic arch as a pupil on your first day at school or as a new employee? I started at PGS in the pre-prep department, when I was 5. I don’t remember much about my first days in the school, but my teacher was Mrs Compton and I really enjoyed lessons with her. It’s definitely more nerve-wracking to come back as a new employee, although I am excited by the prospect of continuing my career at the school. Are there any current Common Room colleagues who you remember being taught by? The physics department has barely changed since I myself took A-level Physics - even Mrs Brown is still there in the prep room. At interview I saw a few familiar faces in the common room, including Mr Hampshire and Mr Elphick-Smith. Who or what inspired you to become a teacher? Even during my school days, I enjoyed helping fellow pupils with their maths. I was inspired by the subject knowledge and teaching styles of Mr Foxton and Mr Orton in maths, and Mr Hawkins in Spanish. During my degree I was able to continue peer-tutoring in a more structured way, and then I became involved in facilitating summer schools.
I love being able to explain complex mathematical ideas to people who don’t believe themselves capable of understanding them. Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having seen the school through the eyes of both pupil and teacher? Although I will have the advantage of knowing the layout of the school and already knowing some colleagues, it is clear that much has changed since I left in 1996! What is the single biggest change at PGS since you left as a pupil? The inclusion of the Cambridge barracks within the school’s grounds. I’m going to be teaching in that mystical building that used to be beyond high chicken wire fencing, conifer trees, and that had a security guard by its entrance barrier! Best and worst subjects at school? My strongest subjects at school were Maths, Physics and Spanish. I had consistently poor reports in PE, Art and Music. The only one of those that has since improved is my interest and ability in music, with learning the piano - I must have been a late-starter!
Best school trip? The only trip I can remember was a Geography coursework visit to Hengistbury Head in Dorset. I’m not sure I would describe it as a best trip - standing on a windy, rainy beach measuring pebbles was not my idea of fun... If you had not become a teacher, you would have loved to have been a ……? A dolphin trainer. Or any other role working with animals in a zoo. I guess that’s not too disimilar from teaching now I think about it... Best film about teachers: I do think the History Boys film was an excellent follow up to the play. The most memorable line from your school report? Aside from the “could try harder” lines in my Art and PE reports, my A-level subject reports were very complimentary. However, the four words that have stuck with me ever since described me as “free from intellectual arrogance”. I think that phrase encapsulated the balance I strike between developing my own subject knowledge, and patiently sharing that knowledge with those around me.
As I joined from a very small private girls’ school with only 15 pupils in year 11, walking through the arch in September to join the Sixth Form was pretty overwhelming. I remember that three of us all started from the same school and we stuck together fairly closely for the first few weeks. At that time there were not that many girls in the Sixth Form and so we did stand out. We all felt a little intimidated in the initial weeks, but then soon settled in to PGS Sixth Form life. (We got to know The Dolphin well, as I recall!) Are there any current Common Room colleagues who you remember being taught by? I was taught German by Andrew Hogg and David Hampshire directed me as Mrs Sowerberry in a production of Oliver! in 1989. Mr Blewitt was a ubiquitous presence although he wasn’t one of my teachers. I was also taught History by Alan Kittermaster, who retired two years ago – he was a great teacher but responsible for the only time I ever got asked to leave a lesson. It was Friday afternoon and I was idly doodling in my history book, rather than diligently taking notes. Unfortunately I was sitting in the front row at the time. Oops!
Who or what inspired you to become a teacher?
What is the single biggest change at PGS since you left as a pupil?
My English teacher at PGS was Paul Dean who was the most incredible inspiration. He had a unique combination of vivacity and erudition and would think nothing of bursting into song – usually something from Twelfth Night – at the slightest whim. He was a demon if he suspected any kind of plagiarism, however, and I remember him making at least two boys cry when he pounced on their written homework and unpicked it line by line for “borrowed” ideas. He is, without doubt, the most inspiring man I have ever met. I can vividly recall how he somberly read the line, “I know thee not, old man…How ill white hairs become a fool and jester” from Henry IV, part 2 and it still makes me feel like weeping. When I joined PGS he sent me a congratulatory letter, alluding to “Mr Bleaney”. He was a teacher who, I always felt, like Eliot’s Webster, knew the skull beneath the skin.
The style of teaching, the size of the school community, the vast array of opportunities available to pupils and the pace.
Are there any advantages or disadvantages to having seen the school through the eyes of both pupil and teacher? To be honest, the school is scarcely recognisable. Twenty years have made the most enormous difference and, in many ways, it feels like an entirely different establishment. I do feel privileged to be able to say that my roots are firmly entangled in G Block, though
Best and worst subjects at school? My best subjects were English and history. My worst was definitely Maths (I was taught by a Mrs Wright (how’s that for nominative determinism?) and I distinctly failed to live up to her low expectations!) Best school trip? I remember going to an (unintentionally) hilarious production of the compelling German play, The Firestarter If you had not become a teacher, you would have loved to have been a ……? A mixed-media artist Best film about teachers: Apocalypse Now The most memorable line from your school report? From my PE Report when I was 10: “Tries hard, but must improve her hit”.
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