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Anne Cashmore
Director of Human Resources
Anne retired as Director of Human Resources in August after 14 years of outstanding service. She transformed the approach to HR over that time, ensuring that the School was responsive to the changing regulatory framework, whilst supporting its most valuable asset – its people. There are few people who work at Oundle who were not touched by Anne’s care and attention to their working lives during their time here. She led the introduction of an effective induction, appraisal and management process for staff; established consultative processes, which mean people have a real say in the conduct of the School; and oversaw a fair approach to pay, including equal pay for all undertaking the same role, which has seen the School meet its ethical and moral aims, along with its educational aims. Her work on safeguarding put the pupils and staff at the School in the strongest, safest possible place through her dedication to safer recruitment.
Anne was a hugely effective leader of the HR team and was their champion, mentor and manager. Her service and advice to the leadership team and the governors will be missed by all those she supported. Above all, she approached every challenge with the best interests of the School at heart and with a deep sense
Farewell
of loyalty and commitment to it. Anne retired to give herself the
opportunity to spend more time with her family and friends, to travel and to take on projects she has always wanted to undertake but never had the time to. She retains her very strong links to the School and we look forward to continuing to work with her in the future. We wish her and her husband, David, the very best on her retirement and thank her for her outstanding contribution to the School and its people.
Dominic Toriati
Viv Gascoine
Housemistress, Laxton
Viv was born and bought up in Scotland. There was an Oundle link from an early age, since, as a child, she was taken to meet Sir Peter Scott at Slimbridge, because her father had designed the boat that Sir Peter sailed in World War Two and worked with him subsequently.
She qualified as a teacher of Geography in Sheffield in 1978 and had her first teaching post in Wolverhampton at a school which was in the most deprived area of the West Midlands. It was the time of race riots, when you did not travel on your own in the area for fear of violence. It was also a time which left a lasting impression on her, as she realised the importance of interfaith and intercommunity dialogue, an important thread that has run
through her career. She was working in a school where learning was not part of the culture and she soon came to realise the importance of teachers inspiring children. She learned too that a teacher needs to ensure that children enjoy learning and it was this that led her to become learning co-ordinator in the school.
Viv joined Laxton School in April 1989 and taught Religious Studies. She had a particular interest in the younger years and worked very closely with Mike McConachie in The Berrystead, bringing the First and Second Form together with joint events and trips. She remembers her time in Laxton in those early years as a special time, being part of a very close-knit community, an intimate environment of tutoring and teaching.
Viv was very much identified with the day and younger pupils, so it was a surprise to her when she was called in to see Ralph Townsend before he had even started as the School’s Head and asked to take on the role of Dryden Housemistress. Whilst this may not have been what she was expecting, it was an inspired decision and led to her being able to fulfil her dream of educating children in every sense of the word. For Viv, her House was her community and she led it as such. It was a happy House and there was a real family atmosphere. The House family did not just comprise the pupils and their relatives, but also the Tutors, their families and other staff in the House. She was also conscious of the history of the House and it was under Viv’s guardianship that the House emblem reverted to the original bee of the time when it was a boys’ House. Of course, Viv being Viv, this also heralded the resumption of beekeeping at Oundle after a gap of 40 years.
There was a pleasing symmetry to Viv finishing her Oundle career where she started. She continued to look after pupils and staff, and to nurture
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THE OLD OUNDELIAN 2018 –2019
STAFF DEPARTURES