Abingdonian 2020

93 www.abingdon.org.uk Staff Farewells optimistic and humorous in her approach, both qualities that are very useful as one navigates a long career in teaching. We wish her very well as she now moves into retirement and focuses on the many interests that teaching has not allowed her to pursue fully until now. Graeme May Olly Deasy There was never a quiet moment during Olly’s time as a member of the PE Department at Abingdon. Whether leading the Hockey Club, teaching year group games, trying his hand in the OA Office or more recently putting his Master’s in Business to use, he did everything with energy and a smile and was always great company. Passionate and driven, not just for sport and education, but for bettering the lives of people, he regularly went out of his way to help and support others. Many a business venture was investigated, and even he couldn’t have imagined his Abingdon onesie would have been such a promotional hit with the ‘boss’! The PE office will no doubt be a safer place next year, but his camaraderie, enthusiasm and supply of chocolate will be missed. Olly had worked at the school for a number of years before making the courageous decision to break out from his PE comfort zone to also start teaching A Level Business in 2017. It would obviously have been easier for Olly not to do this but it really typifies his character that his desire to continually improve as a teacher meant that he put himself forward for this role despite all of the hard work it would require for him to start teaching a different subject (it certainly increased his marking burden!). Olly proved an instant hit as a Business teacher. His boundless energy and enthusiasm meant that boys really engaged with the subject like never before and the results that Olly achieved were exceptional. His own entrepreneurial spirit and use of relevant examples really made the subject come alive. Those taught by Olly were genuinely lucky and privileged to have had someone so talented and committed as their teacher. Nicky King, Olly’s first Business Head of the path of the department in recent years and provided an unprecedented level of help and support to all of her colleagues. Victoria has always given a huge amount to the school on top of teaching her physics lessons. She helps out on DofE expeditions, bakes for and visits the elderly, assists with Young Enterprise and runs the Blott Matthew’s Engineering competition. Victoria leaves Abingdon to enjoy retirement and I am sure that she will make the most of it with a diary full of committee meetings, riding for the disabled events, and, most importantly, her bustling social calendar. Emily O’Doherty Deb Bennison Deb joined Abingdon in September 2011, looking for a new challenge after a lengthy period of time at Didcot Girls’. That challenge was in the form of starting up a new subject for Abingdon’s curriculum, namely psychology, the demand for which had come about from the boys themselves during the previous year. Deb certainly brought a huge amount of experience with her and the subject was quickly up and running. Deb quickly showed that, despite her experience at another school, she was willing to rethink her approach for Abingdon boys, even moving from a specification she knew very well to a new one because she thought it would be more of a match for boys’ interests. Alongside building the A Level, Deb sought to promote her subject with lower year groups through her Other Half psychology clubs (aka ‘Brain Awareness’ in the third year). She also contributed to teaching in the Physics Department and was one of the first teachers to be part of the new computing course that we put into the third year following the national move towards getting more coding into schools. On top of this, she was a valued sixth form tutor (latterly in Border’s) and, a keen runner herself, she helped out with athletics in the Summer Term. In short, then, she got stuck in and was keen to contribute as fully as possible where the school’s need matched her talents and experience. I always enjoyed my meetings with Deb, largely because I could always rely on her to get directly to the point and to express her opinion with a refreshing tinge of ‘northern bluntness’ (she hails from the north east). She was also unfailingly