Abingdonian 2018

96 The Abingdonian Dorsaphe Ben Hassine Dorsaphe joined the Modern Languages Department from the University of Reims as a French assistant. She had successfully completed a degree in English language, literature and civilisation and was keen to make the most of the opportunity to spend a year in this country. Dorsaphe was most efficient in her preparation and planning of lessons and soon built up a good working relationship with her students. She has been very enthusiastic and her work has been much appreciated by boys and staff alike. Dorsaphe has very much enjoyed her time at Abingdon. She is going back to France to start a Master’s degree in education and is even considering coming back to the UK to teach French. We wish her all the very best for the future. Maud Cottrell Marisa Dröse Marisa, a trained teacher of History and English, joined the German Department in September and did an excellent job from the start. She was always keen to support the students as best she could in their preparation for exams, which may also have included sweets along the way. She showed patience with confusion over slots and rooms and the never-ending rescheduling of lessons. When the opportunity arose to help out with the teaching of a second and third year class, she threw herself into this new venture. As a competent teacher, she led these groups through a term of teaching before also taking on a third year tutor group. She enjoyed her time at Abingdon and was glad to have had the opportunities given to her. We are certainly very sorry to see her go but wish her the best of luck in her teaching career in Berlin. Alexandra Widdern Belén Sánchez Alonso Belén is a philologist and a qualified Spanish teacher. Her passion for Spanish and English language and literature led her to read languages at the University of Salamanca, where she had the opportunity to learn Catalan, Galician and Basque. She holds a degree in both Spanish Philology and English Studies as well as a PGCE in Spanish. She is also currently collaborating with the Royal Academy of Spanish (RAE) on their latest corpus. In 2016, after several years living between the UK and Spain, she finally decided to move to England, which she considers to be not only her host country but also her new home. She previously worked at St. Edward’s School in Oxford and joined Abingdon as Spanish assistant last September. Belén has thoroughly enjoyed her time at Abingdon and had excellent relationships with staff and pupils alike. During her time as the Spanish assistant she has worked preparing the fourth year, fifth year and Pre-U boys for their oral exams, ensuring they could get the best possible grades. She has been a great help not only for the students, but also for the Spanish Department and her support has been invaluable. She worked exceptionally well as part of a team and forged strong friendships, especially with the other assistants. As an avid reader interested in a wide range of topics, Belén keeps herself up to date on different contemporary issues and she very much enjoys writing articles, to the extent that she became an editor in the Bulletin of Advanced Spanish during her free time. She also thoroughly enjoys socialising with other members of staff, particularly in Zumba lessons, and travelling. Belén has proved to be a hard-working and energetic teacher and, although it is sad to say goodbye to her, we are really pleased she is going to be working just 60 miles away at Rugby School. We wish her all the best for the future. Victoria Pradas Nétha Samarasinghe Nétha joined the Modern Languages Department in September 2016 from the University of Reims as a French assistant after having successfully completed a degree in English language, literature and civilisation. It took very little time for Nétha to settle into the department and she planned and delivered lessons effectively, building a good rapport with the pupils and the MFL members of staff. Having enjoyed her year at Abingdon School, Nétha decided to stay for a second year. Nétha played a great part in helping the sixth form pupils prepare for various debating competitions; they always performed with eloquence and panache. Nétha also continued her studies, and completed a very successful year studying French literature. We wish her all the very best for the future, whatever she decides to do next. Maud Cottrell Mary Lord Mary joined us as a new teacher this year, having completed her PGCE at Oxford last year. She has taught Mathematics across the school passing on her enthusiasm for the subject and her historical insights and links beyond the curriculum. She has enjoyed encouraging her students to think through problems and has often used geogebra to demonstrate visually the mathematical concepts she is teaching. She has fully embraced the new curriculum in the Staff Farewells