Simon Williams
Headmaster’s Foreword
There is a honeymoon period at the start of every academic ayear when there is an abundance of energy and excitement; a frisson of delight as friends of old meet up after a long summer break and new acquaintances are made. After 18 months of restriction, isolation and deprivation this start of year has been particularly special as we appreciate what we have that much more, because we now know what it is like when we haven’t got it. That is just as true of people as it is of activities and opportunities.
years, Al Saralis (Art) 24 years, Linda Blackman (Curriculum Support) nearly 19 years, Jane Smith (another of the ‘pink ladies’) 17 years, Gemma Heath 12 years and David five years (both Art), Charlotte Lilley (English) 12 years, Paul Shipley (Economics) nine years, Rob West (Physics) eight years, Jo Trench (Maths) six years, Peter Beard (PE) five years, Jackie Dredge (Art Technician) five years, Linda Tebb (Accounts) four years. A hugely impressive total of 244 years of contribution to Churcher’s; there is more of them and their well-deserved valedictions later on in this magazine.
I am sure conversations about ‘long Covid’ will go on for many moons, but for some staff who have been here for extraordinary lengths of time, tenures of a quarter of a century plus, the pandemic has been a catalyst for retirement and already we are missing their perennial presence. The roll of honour of such souls is legendary: Jean Millard (Biology) 34 years, Teresa Robins (one of the ‘pink ladies’) 28 years, David Robbins (Bursar) 25 years and Linda (Librarian) a mere 22 years, David Cave (English) 24
Many amongst the number are hanging up their chalk dusters and gowns and are so deserving of a long and happy retirement, but just as we have found with Covid, life can be very, very unfair. On the very first day of this academic year, almost the very first day of his retirement, the most tragic news of David Cave’s death shocked everyone.
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The Churcherian 2021
David was an English scholar and a man with extraordinary penmanship, and I sorely need his talents at this
moment to do him, and the sense of loss we all feel, true justice. David was a rare combination of exceptional academic, brilliant teacher, delightful person and the most modest of souls. His passion for his subject is legendary, but his dedication to sharing that passion with those he taught unsurpassed. It may be of no surprise to hear that he was a novelist, an author, but equally it will not be unexpected that he kept that side of his life rather private. No one could ever accuse David of being a ‘trumpet blower’. David was stoic, he just got on with it with undimmed energy and intensity whatever ‘it’ might be and that reflects so much of what went on at Churcher’s during the pandemic years. With so many reasons to say “no, it is not possible”, everyone, child and adult alike, found a way to make it happen. Orchestras may have been separated into year group bubbles or even performed as a technical embroidery of solo artists stuck in their bedrooms; expeditioners and canoeists may have not been allowed on Dartmoor or the Thames, but
