Spotlight On Mr Linfitt

Staff in the Spotlight

This Summer the Girls’ Division bade a fond farewell to Mr Linfitt who hung up his teacher’s gown after 23 years at Bolton School.

Phil Linfitt

How long have you worked at Bolton School? I started work at Bolton School in 1999, just before the new millennium. At the time, many people had a real anxiety that computer systems around the world would collapse due to this looming change in the year’s numbering. Nothing happened! Those 23 years have flown by and it seems incredible to me that I have now worked at the School since long before any of the current pupils were born. Teaching at Bolton School was my second career but, undoubtedly, it has been my most satisfying and rewarding. After completing a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the University of Manchester, I spent many happy years working as a design engineer in the electricity industry. Privatisation of that sector nudged me towards a new start and a new way of life. During my PGCE year, I happened to do a placement at the Boys’ Division. This included a visit to Patterdale; great fun and lots of new ideas to explore and to inspire me. Had you worked in other Schools prior to working at Bolton School? My first teaching job was at Lancaster Royal Grammar School – all boys, including a young Mr Owen, for whom my Year 7 Physics lessons inspired a lifelong love of History. When a vacancy showed up at BSGD (in a real newspaper, of course!), I applied immediately. I still remember the warmth and enthusiasm of the staff and pupils I met during my first visit. After being interviewed by the then Headmistress, Miss Jane Panton, I was delighted to start in a newly-created Head of Department role. My first impressions from that day were happily confirmed. The outstanding professionalism of the Technology colleagues has endured – I could not have been luckier. How has School life changed over the years? Soon after I started, the Technology Department began exploring new ways of delivering the curriculum. We changed the physical layout too, impossibly creating four classrooms where only three had stood. The space was designed by us and made real by Bolton School’s own in-house Estates team. This time of change, and the autonomy to make important decisions, was a really exciting start for someone relatively new to teaching. The School’s staff room, then and now, was a supportive and encouraging environment and I happily took on new responsibilities such as Year Tutor, and later helping Dr Cath Brown with the management of the School’s operational systems. I’d like to say I’d crafted a master plan of career development, but that is very much not the case. As time moved on, I became part of the Senior Leadership Team and, as a result, got involved in aspects of School life that were new, challenging and fascinating to learn. In a very rewarding way it also meant working with an even wider range of talented colleagues across the Foundation.

My early education and work in engineering fuelled my love of problem-solving. It has been a great privilege to see the creative work of so many young people, and to share with them an enthusiasm for imaginative and practical solutions. Probably the most ambitious project was a cross-curricular Science-Maths-Technology challenge to design and built a full-size working trebuchet … risk assessments were much smaller documents back then. Do you have any standout memories from your time here? Of a very long list of enjoyable things I never planned or expected to do, School trips rank high. Through rain and shine, and occasionally snow, I’ve enjoyed excursions with almost every teaching department, including Duke of Edinburgh. My top favourite was being co-opted into the History Department visits to New York, Washington and Boston. The Headmistress at the time, Mrs Gill Richards, brought her boundless energy to these trips, but a full account of this would fill another article on its own. I am indebted to all the colleagues who created so much fun on those trips, especially Mrs Sandra Heap, then Head of History. What is your favourite Bolton School tradition? Colleagues and pupils, quite rightly, list the fabulous music, sport and drama that perpetuate our enjoyable traditions. My favourite time is the first day of term. It silently celebrates the gargantuan administrative task from previous months in preparing for another year, and is a day full of optimism for the possibilities ahead, for staff and pupils. What have you enjoyed about working at Bolton School? I look back with real affection and enormous thanks, and recognise the very good fortune I’ve had to work alongside so many hard-working, entertaining and intelligent colleagues and pupils. This has impacted my whole family, since both our daughters came through the School (yet another great serendipity) and both had a fabulous education. It also meant wonderful fun for me, every day. I very much hope others, whom I have worked with and taught, have a similar feeling.