4 minute read
A happy retirement to Philip Robinson & Jeremy Dowling – Matt Doggett F’07
A happy retirement to…
Philip Robinson
Advertisement
Philip Robinson retired from teaching this Summer for the third (and final?) time, after 50 years as a teacher. Having retired in 2013 for the first time, like Sinatra, he was persuaded to return just two months later, completing another 9 years. Then he taught one more year of A level finishing in the Summer of 2022. Philip developed his passion for Classics at school in Manchester, where he considered himself one of the fortunate ones, given the opportunity to study both Greek and Latin. This led to his reading Classics and completing his teacher training at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Philip first joined Worth in 1972, under the Head Master Fr Dominic Gaisford. To give an idea of what the School was like in 1972, the Old Rutherford building, which has since been demolished, had only just been completed and the Abbey itself was not completed until two years later. During his time at Worth, Philip has been involved in a wide variety of different activities. Alongside his being Head of Department for Classics, Philip was for a while Head of Sixth Form, and also ran a number of Games teams, particularly Tennis and Squash. As a Classicist, Philip developed a reputation as a wellrespected teacher and colleague. I am sure that generations of Worth students, myself included, have fond memories of being taught by Philip: from his catchphrases, such as ‘WLCs – Words Liable (to be) Confused’ or ‘Tape-recorded message number 1’, to the games of Botticelli and Leonardo. A more recent pupil referred to him as “the taskmaster” due to his fast-paced lessons and his insistence of accuracy and attention to detail.
As Philip’s teaching commitments have begun to winddown over the past few years, he has become a leading light in local amateur dramatic associations, including being head-hunted for a performance in Lewes. Philip has been a keen actor for many years: I remember seeing him star in a teachers’ production of Dracula Spectacular at Worth many years ago, his Dracula terrifying me as a young child! Alongside his Drama, Philip will be using his retirement to travel the country visiting family, friends, and former colleagues. P.S. At the time of publishing, Philip has been asked to return to Worth to teach a few more lessons of A level Latin. I’m sure he will be looking forward to retirement number 4!
Jeremy Dowling
Jeremy first joined Worth as a teacher in September 1982, having been appointed by the then Head Master, Fr Kevin Taggart. Worth in 1982 was a very different school from the one we see today, with 400 boy full-boarders in total, lessons finishing at 6.55pm and students only allowed to return home 4 weekends a term.
While Jeremy was employed as Maths teacher, he quickly became involved in the Pastoral life of the School, working under Fr Luke in Chapman House from 1983. During his time in Chapman, Jeremy worked under two other Housemasters, Guy Walker and Glen Robertson, the latter of whom oversaw the transition of Chapman into the first Day House. When Chapman grew too large and was split into two, Jeremy moved into the newly formed Farwell House, where he was Deputy Housemaster from 2002. In his early career, Jeremy led a number of theatre trips to London, taking advantage of the cheap deals that the theatres used to offer to schools. These trips were much easier to run in the days before Health and Safety forms and EVOLVE - students would simply get into the van and go! As a member of the Maths Department, Jeremy taught students across the whole age range and abilities. Later in his career, he developed a niche, regularly working with the lower sets of Year 10 and 11, helping many students who found Maths a real struggle achieve their GCSE pass grades. Jeremy really enjoyed working with these students, although his choice was not entirely altruistic, with the lower sets having smaller numbers of students and therefore much less marking! Jeremy also took a lead on the Maths Studies course, part of the IB program that the School adopted in the early 2000s, alongside the A levels. Jeremy has also been at the forefront in the use of technology in the classrooms, fully buying in to the use of the first SmartBoards to arrive at Worth. Over the course of the years since, he has developed huge number of resources on Smart Notebook, many of which are still being used by staff to this day. Jeremy was also significantly involved in the sporting life of the School. In his early days, he took students in the old Junior House for Rugby, Football and Cricket. However, when the Sports Hall opened in 1988 Jeremy jumped at the opportunity to move out of the Winter weather and started to take Year 9 & 10 squash, teaching several generations of students to play the game, including myself! When Philip Robinson stepped down from Senior Squash, Jeremy also took on this role, until he went part-time in 2017. Even after stepping back from coaching, Jeremy continued to play regularly, challenging colleagues to matches during free periods. Now that Jeremy has retired, he and Christine are looking forward to travelling to visit family abroad and to spend more time with the grandchildren.
