VOICES, MANY VOICES VOICES OLD AND NOW
Interlude: Mary’s Sabbatical and in her own words:
for
Mrs Mary Mitchell “Let not many of you become teachers, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness”, (Epistle of St James, Ch 3, v 1)
and with such wonderful seminar preparation. I look back on those classes with such fond memories, whether it was trying to master an Irish accent for Translations, or coming to terms with linguistics for the first time. Mrs Mitchell introduced us to a world outside literature, a world that continues to fascinate me. My studies at University would have been harder had Mrs Mitchell not taught us how to plan, organise and write literary essays. I consequently found myself teaching my uni colleagues the Mitchell Way when they struggled to express themselves.
Typical Mary Mitchell, laughing till the end!
“Mary excelled in many areas of the school. She had been Deputy Head of the Middle School and a temporary co-ordinator of Learning Support. After she was made Senior Teacher, she worked as Head of Admissions and Outreach. She was at times acting Second in the English Department and as acting Head of Department she worked assiduously to promote the Department and good practice within it”. (EEB) “We each have a teacher we remember from our school days, one who is essential to our being the kind of person we are today. For me, it’s Mary Mitchell. I don’t know whether it was her passion for her subject or her eternal patience, something rubbed off. You always got the feeling, when you walked into the classroom, of a kind of intimacy with the text you studied; that is the reason why I studied English at University. Knowing her and having the pleasure of being taught by her was a truly invaluable experience. I know PGS will lament her going”. (Ruth Ingamells, 1996-2010) “Mary’s qualities as a teacher are exceptional. She was interested in getting the best out of all her pupils, pushing each one onwards and cheering them when they exceeded their aspirations or when they received their excellent exam results and won their university places”. (EEB) “Mrs Mitchell made it easy for Years 12 and 13 in her Tutor Group to mix. On our very first day, she partnered pupils from Year 12 with those in Year 13. So on our very first day in September we had already become integrated. She also encouraged us to have Tutor Group meals which we all enjoyed. She encouraged us to organise Secret Santa over a Christmas breakfast. Mrs Mitchell, always happy, always made us smile”. ( Tutor Group). “As a colleague, she was supportive and caring for each one in the Department. We shall all be the poorer for no longer having her down-to-earth advice, at times that very direct advice! She was a trusted friend, someone to moan to, and someone with whom to share a laugh. We missed her in the summer of 2007 when she went on sabbatical to study the poetry of John Milton”. (EEB)
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At Friday Break in the English Office with Mary’s home-made cakes, she was often indiscreet, always amusing, though never personal or uncharitable. We were surmising recently that if she ever wrote her autobiography it would have to be called Oh Gawd! What Have I Just Said? (EEB) “Although I always enjoyed reading, Mrs Mitchell’s passion for literature encouraged me to explore books and authors that I had never previously considered. She clearly loved her subject. Her lessons were always fun and engaging; her enthusiasm was particularly infectious. I remember her telling me once that Meade Faulkner’s Moonfleet, which I was reading at the time, was one of her favourite books. I am not sure if my memory is absolutely correct or if this was true. Yet it was a book I was enjoying as I read it and was encouraged and reassured to hear that a teacher liked the same books that I did. I benefitted from my time under her easy guidance and am now still extremely grateful to her”. (Robert Price, 2002-2007) “Some years ago Mary became Theory of Knowledge Coordinator for the IB and has done so much to promote that new part of the curriculum. She leaves us to spend more time travelling with Paul and with Alex, their daughter”. (EEB) “Mary is a wonderful, larger than life personality. It has been great working with her and I am really going to miss her smile and laughter”. (HD, IB Secretary) “I first met Mrs Mitchell at the start of the Sixth Form. My clearest memories of her was to arrive in her classroom and find her pushing aside tables and chairs to create a circle; for the rest of the lesson, and for many more, we sat and discussed our authors, our texts, our books. Everyone spoke. No one was shy. We all thrived from the passion Mrs Mitchell gave our classes. When three years ago I went to University and joined a seminar, all my uni classmates were baffled how to react. It was at this point that I realised how privileged I had been to have a teacher like her
Another key memory is Henry James’s Washington Square. I hated it. I was openly belligerent about it. Now as my teacher Mrs Mitchell could have responded with frustration at me. She did not because she understood that my belligerence was through a lack of confidence in myself to tackle the text. She continued to support me and in quiet ways that support restored my confidence. Now some three or four years later I see Washington Square as a beautiful piece of writing and I have used it to inspire a piece I have myself written”. (Tobie Robinson, 2002-2010). An overheard Year 10 conversation: “...the best English teacher I have ever had. ...when she is teaching, she is natural; she does not have to strain ...always relaxed yet always in control ... even the quietest pupils are encouraged to take part and the noisy ones are kept in their place by quiet and direct engagement, yet does not patronise. She goes beyond. She’s fun but with an underlying seriousness. Incomparable.” (Evie, Katie, Georgie, Eloise). “I was horrified two years ago when I heard Mrs Mitchell was to be our GCSE teacher. Rumours of fearsome discipline and of essays longer that I believed could ever be written loomed on the horizon. I am dyslexic and English was not my cup of tea anyway; it would take some kind of miracle to get me an acceptable grade at GCSE. So the year started with an air of nervousness, but as the weeks drew on we all began to relax and to enjoy English – something I never thought I would say! She really warmed to my class and we to her, often joining in the class banter and giving regular high fives for good work. Yet she ruled the class with a firm hand and, as a result, only a daring few risked not doing homework. This suited me very well because I respected her authority. I really had time to listen to what she had to teach me and as a result I became very successful in English. Towards the end of Year 11 I think we all came to the conclusion that she was actually a big softie.
Once upon a summer in the dim and distant six years ago, I set off on my sabbatical, not knowing how it would go. In those days, Tim Hands had the principle that you “just do what you will enjoy for your own enrichment – whatever that will be”. So I arrived in Cambridge, at New Hall, to find myself in a sunny room overlooking lovely gardens, a ‘prospect of flowers’, as Andrew Marvell once said. This place was now my oyster just for a while. All I knew for sure was that I wanted the time and the facilities to study Milton’s Paradise Lost at an ancient university that had historical links with the man himself. For two weeks, I trawled the shelves in the Library, looking for texts that would inspire me, that would enlighten me about John Milton and about his great Christian epic of 1667. Like a detective I followed trails and clues to understand the man, the context of his time and, of course, the powerful work itself. I booked time to go to the closed section of the Library where I could study rare manuscripts. I remember once I got so excited because I was handling a first edition... only it was a first edition about Milton and not the work itself. Nonetheless I worked like a demon, (though not one of Milton’s), searching, asking and answering my own questions. I spent the evenings in Cambridge tea-shops, browsing, and walking along the Cam. I moved to Oxford, to Christ Church, and was thrilled to find I had a room overlooking the Meadows. (Did I see Nicole Kidman sunbathing during a break in the making of Amber Spyglass?) I spent my days discovering the riches of the Bodleian, my early evenings mooching around the bookshops. I marvelled at this rarefied life I had stumbled into, at which one or two members of my family might smile and call me pretentious. Dining at the high table in Christ Church was a highlight; I sat next to a history professor who helped me especially as he was Italian. I had to pinch myself.
I read at least three books during my two years with Mrs Mitchell and that is worthy of some sort of school prize in my eyes! These were really the first books I persevered with.
I read and read all the books of Paradise Lost. I heavily annotated my own text ,( though not to the height of Milton’s high Heaven). I learned that I preferred Satan to the good guys – he is far more interesting.
Mrs Mitchell is one of the few teachers who still says “Hi!” to me around the school and asks how I am. This is a credit to her wonderful personality and to her resilience in putting up with me for two years and she still has the will to speak to me. I wish her a very happy, bookfilled and completely sober new life. Goodbye old sport”. (Ted Ellis, Year 11)
My sabbatical was an experience I never dreamed I would have. I had the taste of a life that until then I could only dream about and I loved being a student of Paradise Lost. Lost Paradise? Not a jot! I wouldn’t change the experience for anything and I will carry it with me always.
St James,”the brother of the Lord” would be proud of Mary Mitchell.
Compiled by T.M.
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