Abingdonian 2018

100 The Abingdonian Previously he had been a freelance singer and a singing teacher following his membership of Magdalen College Choir, where he had been an undergraduate student of Theology, and of Christ Church Choir, where he had been a professional Lay Clerk. As the director of the Chapel Choir, John has done sterling work and the choir has gone from strength to strength. John also formed the Joint Chamber Choir with St Helen’s School and they have performed with distinction at a number of concerts both at Abingdon and St Helen’s. He also took over the close harmony ensemble, The Abingdon Academicals, which has also been highly successful. Singing has been the area that John has made his own here. John has had a knack of finding ways of encouraging singers. Greg Davies was one such pupil whom John picked up as a young chorister and encouraged to enjoy his singing through all his seven years at the school. John has also been active as the musical director of a number of theatrical performances, most notably, the production of Les Misérables. John gave up a lot of his free time to make this production work, with the result that it was hugely successful and a highpoint of many boys’ careers at the school. John has been a popular member of the music staff and many boys and colleagues will miss his bubbly and often mischievous sense of humour. He’s been an effective teacher of GCSE and A Level music - and he has also excelled in his class singing lessons with the first and second years. He has chosen repertoire carefully and has made things fun for the pupils as well as expecting high standards of both behaviour and singing. John has always had a very clear idea of how things should and shouldn’t be done and he was never afraid to share his thoughts about this with people. John enjoyed his role as a Dayboy Housemaster and was highly regarded by parents, pupils and colleagues. We thank him for all he has done for Abingdon music and much else - and we wish him well for his forthcoming move to the south coast. Michael Stinton James Hallinan Writing James Hallinan’s valete makes me feel quite old as he was in fact my first appointment as Head of Department. His appointment was a bit of a gamble as his interview lesson was only the second one he had taught. This was apparent as in preparing his lesson he certainly had some bold ambitions for our second years. His final powerpoint slide alone would have normally kept an undergraduate busy for a week. He also went the most incredible shade of scarlet during the lesson. One of the students in fact commented on his glowing head. Despite the madness of the lesson I felt we could detect star quality and Mark Turner (Headmaster at the time) was happy to support my decision so James started at the school as a very fresh-faced youngster in September 2009. Luckily, I wasn’t just relying on intuition when I appointed James as I also had the good fortune of being the recipient of James’s Radley School reference. James had attended the school for some years. This reference contained a number of inexplicable attributes and achievements that James had garnered in his time at school but the most arresting and intriguing, and the most important as far as Radley were concerned, was the fact that James had been a ‘pup’ whilst at school. No mention was made of A level grades or musical achievements (of which I had seen on his CV there were many) but instead this solitary but stellar insistence that being a ‘pup’ in some way meant that we could rest easy in Abingdon. James had been a pup - we were safe to employ him. To this day I have never learnt what a pup was and I don’t think anyone outside Radley ever did. But James is a master at mastering the indecipherable. This was a man who had learnt Syriac, specialised in the Byzantine empire (which as we know is not called Byzantine for nothing) for his MSt and started teaching Arabic to our sixth formers very soon after arrival. Once employed at Abingdon James soon established himself as a popular and effective teacher. Whilst his classroom persona would not be described as authoritarian, it was effective and the James Hallinan