Abingdonian 2018

97 www.abingdon.org.uk Staff Farewells sixth form and has guided her classes through the pure maths syllabus. Mary had a first year tutor group and went to PGL at Easter as well as having an all-1L final in the first year inter-tutor group public speaking competition. She has fully supported her tutees as they started Lower School and throughout their first year, always finding time to talk to them about their experiences. She also took part in the tutors’ race at Lower School sports day! Mary has run Lower School debating in the Summer Term and has taken boys sailing throughout the year. Mary leaves us to take up a teaching post at Wychwood School and we wish her luck with this new role. Samantha Coull Amy Downer Amy Downer came to us from Millfield where she had had specific responsibility for GCSE art and joined at a very exciting time for art at Abingdon as plans for Beech Court were nearing their final version. She threw herself into that planning and the splendid facility we now have was clearly influenced by the artistic flair and sense of style that she was able to bring to the project, even in its late stages. Alongside this came a good deal of planning for the move and the need to keep fully on top of the detail. We could sense her excitement as the Art Department began to see the possibilities for development that were to come with the move and it was therefore much to her regret (and ours) that family circumstances led to her leaving us much earlier than planned. I can’t say that things haven’t worked out for her though, as a chance meeting during the summer led very quickly and unexpectedly to her appointment as House Parent in a school in Switzerland, from where she has occasionally sent me very happy emails. I wish her and her family well. Graeme May Charlotte McCutcheon Charlotte really has made a valuable contribution to the school in the three years that she has been with us as a teacher of biology. She joined us from Latymer Upper School and quickly settled into life in the Biology Department establishing herself as a competent and popular teacher. Organised and thorough in her preparation and marking, she was popular with all her classes from Lower School to the Upper Sixth. Charlotte also got involved with other activities in the department: revision sessions, field trips, Operation Wallacea and the departmental road relay B-team. Kahoot has now been introduced to the department and has even wormed its way into the Middle School scheme of work - that’s real progress. Of course, to really judge Charlotte’s contribution to the School I thought I’d go for “student voice”. Here are some comments from her current tutor group: “Miss McCutcheon, as my tutor, has been extremely helpful and I think I can speak for all her tutees, by saying that she has really helped us warm to life in fourth year. She always looks for the best in people and is honest to you when it is clear you need to change.” “Miss McCutcheon is probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. She is always worried about the wellbeing of her students and tutees and is always very open and helpful. She is very kind and polite. She teaches in a very relaxed, yet concentrated way, with a “ready-to-get- down-to-business” atmosphere.” “Miss McCutcheon is patient, considerate, affable and kind.” Charlotte will be greatly missed at Abingdon. I wish her every success with her move to Highgate School. Simon Bliss Nicky King Nicky joined Abingdon as a teacher of economics and geography in 2015. She immediately impressed Abingdonians with her subject knowledge and wide array of online resources, which supplemented her expert classroom teaching. In addition, she took on the role of UCAS assistant, which requires dedication and attention to detail. Nicky was always keen to innovate and to arm students with the most up to date data and guidance on graduate careers and alternative pathways to undergraduate degrees, as well as university entrance in general. Quickly, Nicky took over as Head of Economics, and oversaw the introduction of co-educational lessons at Abingdon. Typically, Nicky managed the increased workload, including teaching additional lessons at lunchtimes and after school, because she knew that young people’s education would be compromised if she Charlotte McCutche Amy Downer Mary Lord Charlotte McCutcheon