Page 24 - Oundle Life January 2022

Oundle lives...
LIZ
DORMOR
Educating Oundle
In September 2017, Liz Dormor became Headteacher at Prince William School and although every day brings its new challenges, she wouldn’t change it for a minute...
Have you always lived in Oundle? It would be a lovely place to live, as it is a beautiful and thriving town with a fantastic community, but I currently live in Deeping, which is also a pretty market town on a river.
Tell us more... I was brought up in rural Worcestershire and have moved many times, following employment opportunities.
What three words sum up the school ethos?
Happy, learning, community.
What is the best thing about your job? The
variety! Every day is different, and I certainly never have a chance to get bored! Every day is a mixture of interaction with students, staff and parents/carers, supporting and encouraging, monitoring and analysing, consulting and planning, and covers everything from student progress to toilets!
....and the worst? The variety! Sometimes there is just so much going on you can’t even find the plates – let alone keep them all spinning! Even on those days I still enjoy the challenge!
How have you seen your role change during the pandemic? Where do I start?! Every normal school activity had to be reinvented: parent evenings went online, open days became videos, assemblies became PowerPoints, staff training sessions and meetings, and even lessons were all done via video-conferencing.
Maintaining a sense of community through lockdowns was difficult and we were also acutely aware that some students and some families were suffering massive difficulties,
and staff helped in every way they could, purchasing and posting supermarket vouchers to families of students eligible for free school meals, delivering laptops and dongles to families who didn’t have sufficient equipment to access remote learning, and even doing shopping for families if they were all isolating.
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