Staff Leavers

The end of the school year is always bittersweet as we see staff members leave for pastures new. Dr Jenny Stevens joined Godolphin in 1986 and has inspired hundreds of Godolphin girls with a life-long love of literature and was an outstanding and influential Head of Sixth Form in the 1990s, followed by a period as Head of English. Her teaching - more recently on a parttime basis - has been both scholarly and warm, and her reputation as an educator, lecturer and author stands high well beyond Godolphin. She now ‘retires’ but it seems like a wildly inappropriate verb to use anywhere near Jenny! Mrs Uschi Fenton who joined in 1988 has promoted German language and culture to successive generations of Delfine. She has taken numerous trips to Germany, undertook a fascinating study of schools in Namibia during a sabbatical term, and has been a tireless organiser of our long-standing exchange with the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg. This has fostered many friendships between our pupils and German students of their own age to their enormous mutual benefit. Like Jenny and Uschi, Mrs Chris Lee who joined in 1993 has also served the school in varied and imaginative ways. Employed originally as a Geography teacher, she branched out to teach both PSHE and mindfulness, and to assist with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme and the work of the Individual Learning Needs department. Chris made it her mission to help through their more difficult moments all those around her, young or old, and her kindness and compassion will be long remembered by us all. We are also saying farewell with sadness to Mrs Susi Sutherland, Miss Tara Dean, Dr Ben Snook, Dr Mary Hill, Mrs Manuella Kanter-Webber and Ms Kate Frayling, all of whom have long and committed associations with the school. Susi joined Godolphin in 2007 and has been a passionate Geography teacher, well known for her enjoyment of field work and her highly interactive teaching style. In recent years, she has taken on the role of Deputy Head of Sixth Form and has been a wonderfully sympathetic presence for many of our older students. Tara joined in 2010 and as Head of Biology has overseen one of our most successful departments with great dedication and humanity and now moves closer to home to run the department at Sir William Perkins’s School in Chertsey. Ben is also off to run a department elsewhere (in his case at Dulwich College) having served here to great acclaim as joint Head of History and Politics. Ben took and taught a seriously academic approach to his subjects, but always with great humour and warmth, qualities which were also apparent in his work as a popular sixth form tutor. Mary will be remembered by many students as having seen them over what she sometimes refers to as the ‘speed-bumps’ along their way. As one of our school counsellors, she has calmly stood alongside pupils in all kinds of different situations and has offered unparalleled support and discerning guidance. Manuella arrived here in 2015, as a trainee teacher straight from Oxford. She is a very fine mathematician, and a gifted teacher who can challenge the most able while managing also to encourage the faint-hearted. She and her family are moving to the south coast, and we wish her well for her new position at Ardingly College. Kate meanwhile travels further afield with a family relocation to Germany, and she will be taking up a teaching post at St George’s International School in Munich. An Old Dolphin herself, she has been an energetic member of our Physics department for the past seven years. She has thrown herself into a multitude of school activities, especially in her role as House Leader for Bassi. Although they have been with us for a shorter time, Miss Chloe Reid, Mr Laurence Higgins, Ms Beth Lane and Mrs Mandy Hope have all made their mark in distinctive and memorable ways. Chloe arrived in 2017 as Assistant Director of Music and has been an outstanding teacher, devoted to encouraging music-making in all its forms. She has been behind many musical productions and concerts ensuring that the music is truly remarkable. Laurence meanwhile has led the Philosophy and Religion department with similar dynamism for the past four years, managing simultaneously to act as Oxbridge Co-ordinator, to lead debating, and to run the Staffroom Committee; he leaves us to take up a senior position as Director of Sixth Form at St Mary’s School, Ascot. Beth first came to Godolphin as a Coding Champion and over time has taken on a more mainstream teaching role while continuing to study for her PhD. With her studies now ending she is leaving teaching to launch a career in artificial intelligence. Mandy’s time with us has coincided almost exactly with the impact of the pandemic. She arrived in March 2020 and got to know her classes remotely before having the opportunity to meet them in person. She has been a superb Drama teacher and has contributed very generously to the extracurricular programme, perhaps most notably as Director in Residence of our wonderful production of Belles of the Ball. We also say farewell with thanks to those who have been with us for a briefer period, covering other colleagues’ maternity leave or undergoing teacher training. All have proved supportive and committed teachers over the past year or two. These are Miss Sarah Berwick (Geography), Mrs Anna Golding (Classics) and Mr Philip Liebman (Biology). Our very best wishes go with all of them for happy and successful futures. Our thanks and good wishes too to Mr Ant Hurren, our photographer and video producer whose wonderful work features in this School Magazine; we wish him well in his new life with his family on the south coast.