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www sports tour programme with a hockey and netball trip to South Africa in 1999. This was followed in 2002 by a girls’ hockey tour to South America, which, combined with the boys’ rugby teams, consisted of 88 pupils, 10 staff and over 250 pieces of luggage. They visited Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, taking seven flights over 21 days. She took part in numerous other trips, including Third Form Field Weekends to bushcraft, cycling, skiing and trekking. Catriona comments that Marianne invariably demonstrates “unflagging enthusiasm and energy. She has cycled the length of Britain, Ireland and quite a bit of Europe. She thrives on challenge: the steeper the hill, the faster she goes!” Marianne’s favourite was a trip led by Paul Clark to Alaska and the Grand Canyon.
Marianne moved from PE to Geography in 2014, bringing with her her natural energy, enthusiasm for the subject and powerful desire to give the pupils the best possible experience, to challenge them to fulfil their potential. She was instrumental in the field work provision for junior pupils and the quality of her teaching ensured that many of those taught by her in the Third Form continued the subject to
IGCSE and beyond. As a teacher, she was interested, interesting and engaging, demonstrating to them the immediate relevance of the subject to their day-to-day lives. Philip Pitcher writes: “Marianne is a fantastic friend and mentor: wise, caring and genuinely interested in supporting colleagues, never missing an opportunity to support those around her.”
In 2014 Marianne took on the role of Head of PSHE and in this she combined her strong teaching skills, her organisational abilities and her firm belief that pupils need to be taken out of their ‘comfort zone’ to really learn about themselves. She worked tirelessly to create a stimulating programme of lectures and discussions, bringing in speakers who challenged the pupils on a range of topics, provoking thought and reflection. She believed in the importance of looking beyond the curriculum to ensure that aspects such as wellbeing and happiness are discussed and explored. Leading from the front, she was instrumental in the introduction of the Learning for Life programme which, now in its infancy, will grow and grow – a fitting legacy for a gifted educator and communicator whose starting point
for every decision was how it would benefit the pupils in her care.
The final words go to Clare
Westran, who captures all that makes Marianne such an exceptional individual and, with Sheridan, will undoubtedly remain a valued friend to pupils and staff alike: “Marianne epitomises the characteristics of the bulldog that is the much-loved sigil of New House. She is fierce and loyal, she is dogged and direct. She has the happy knack with both pupils and staff of looking them in the eye without saying a word and yet provoking in them a desperate desire to be the best they can be, to prove her faith in them. Through the recent year her strength and wonderful joie de vivre here have been an inspiration. She has fought a very hard battle with dignity and tenacity, and she deserves now in retirement to do everything that she has always planned to. She will never truly leave Oundle, because she is forever in our hearts and always at the end of a telephone to dispense her sage advice. Not for her any peace and quiet, unless she changes her number!”
Juliette Coles, Director of Professional Development
To be an art teacher is to be endlessly patient; one has to encourage, nudge, cajole and sometimes force creativity from pupils. The ability to listen, to demonstrate the same thing over and over again, to encourage pupils to think and to express themselves in ways which are often new to them are qualities that not many possess. Genny possesses all of them in bucketloads. She is exceptionally wise, with a very dry sense of humour, and is an excellent teacher -
Art teacher
one who thinks about the art of teaching alongside the psychology of pupils. She stretches, nurtures, supports and enables pupils to get to their best, and all with a smile and a wry joke.
Arriving in 2007, having completed an MA in Book Arts at Camberwell College of Art and a PGCE from Goldsmiths, she brought to the Art department an eye for contemporary art and digital skills that moved the department nearer to the 21st century. For nearly 11 years
she was a valued and inspirational teacher of Art and more recently History of Art. She built up good relationships with her pupils and would go far beyond the call of duty in putting in the time with them. Fearless in her approach, with an ability instinctively to know what each individual student needs to inspire and draw them out of themselves, Genny was known for being able to engage with those who were lost or floundering. Under her tutelage, masterpieces were
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2017 –2018
STAFF FAREWELLS
Genny King