Valete

came to St Peter's for the easy location and its reputation. She has discovered in her time so far that the school has met those expectations and she is 'really enjoying' herself. When asked to describe the school in 3 words, Miss Ulstein gave us 'friendly, caring, high-achieving and hectic'. (Four words). So we have unintentionally discovered that maybe her maths is not as strong as her geography!

Miss Ullstein is an avid fan of flying. She lists one of the best views as being Disneyland, Florida at night and the natural landscape features of America. Her love of geography has led her to travel widely. Just to name a small number of the places she's visited: Africa (she has climbed Kilimanjaro), Morocco, Tanzania, South Africa, most of Europe, North America and her favourite place, Canada. And she still has aspirations to visit South Asia, the Far East and South America.

Despite her love for foreign shores Miss Ullstein has a special love for Cornwall.

In conversation, we discovered that Miss Ullstein has a few foibles - she only eats her meat after she has eaten her veg, and she hates kidneys and tinned spaghetti. Plus, like many of us, eats chocolate bars by eating all the chocolate around the outside first then eating the middle.

When asked about her aspirations for the future Miss Ullstein said that she 'would like more people to study geography and to she hopes to arrange foreign trips to places such as Argentina, Iceland, Canada and Africa.

So if colouring the sea blue doesn't tempt you to do geography, we're sure this will!

We wish her well in her time at St. Peter's.

Lipmunn Tang LVI

James Taylor

Mr. Taylor joined us this year as a new member of the PE department. He first became interested in hockey when an astro turf was built at his parents' school as it encouraged him to play more. From that moment his passion for hockey continued to grow and his greatest achievement in life was playing hockey in the national semi-finals and scoring! Besides hockey Mr.Taylor also enjoys many other sports and socialising with his friends in his free time, especially when eating his favourite food, an Indian takeaway.

Mr. Taylor grew up in Nottingham and, before arriving here at St Peter's, he taught ?? years in a school in Telford, Shropshire.

When we asked Mr. Taylor what his first impressions were of our school he said that it was very "friendly, welcoming and lively". He said that the toughest part of his job is the "long walk in" from the White House every day. Furthermore, when questioned on which three words he would use to sum himself up, after a lot of deliberation, he responded "boisterous, outgoing and sociable". Finally Mr. Taylor said that his ambitions for the future included getting a full time job and coaching hockey to as high a level as possible. We wish Mr.Taylor an enjoyable stay here at St Peter's.

Edwina Denison and Ellie Binks LVI

Catherine Hempsall

Mrs Hempsall, a former Cambridge Blue, joined St. Peter's in September 2009 as a teacher of history, rowing coach and Deputy Housemistress of Queen's. As well as rowing, Mrs Hempsall enjoys many other outdoor pursuits including mountain biking, skiing and climbing. The proximity of York to places where Mrs. Hempsall could pursue her interests as well as the academic reputation of the school were factors which attracted her to St Peter's.

Mrs Hempsall trained to be a teacher at UEA despite being warned not to teach by her parents who were both in the profession. She now believes that she is lucky to be in teaching which combines her academic and sporting interests and, of course, the holidays.

Mrs. Hempsall describes her time in Queen's so far as "busy and entertaining". It is no wonder that Mrs Hempsall is adamant that Queen's is the best sporting house in the school. Her competitive streak surfaces frequently and is evident even in her choice of House Singing as her favourite experience at St Peter's so far. Mrs. Hempsall has been an invaluable and dedicated member of The Boat Club and when often discussing rowing she uses the phrase "mother of all rows!"

Mrs Hempsall is looking forward to completing her first year at St Peter's so that she will understand how everything fits together. We wish her a successful and happy time at the school.

By Ellie Binks LVI and Emily Freeman V

Christian Wienke

Born in Soest, a German city in the county of North RhineWestphalia, Christian enjoyed sports, English and Latin at school. He attended both the 'Deutsche Sporthochschule Koln' and 'Universitat zu Koln' and studied Sports Science and English. He wants to become an English teacher and is here to learn more about the culture and language. His favourite part of being in Britain is the different dialects and accents found throughout the country. He has spent much of his time here travelling throughout the UK and immersing himself in the culture, including British music- he is a particular fan of Mumford and Sons!

loves music of varying types including Nirvana, Billy Idol, Johnny Cash and the German rap group Die Fantastischen Vier and plays guitar (but not as much as he would like!). When asked about the school Christian says he likes the traditional side to the school as well as the amount of sport we get to do. The most embarrassing language slip up Christian made was after visiting friends and thanking his hosts for their "hostility" not hospitality. Unfortunately, Christian will be leaving us at the end of this year to return to Germany and pursue his career as an English and PE teacher. We wish him all the best for the future.

Lydia Hawthorn UVI

Graham Dentith

Mr Dentith joined the school in September after working for a while in Leeds where he managed a major development at Clarence Dock. He was born in Newton-Le-Willows near Warrington, Cheshire and spent his school years studying English Literature, Religious Studies and Business Studies whilst also playing for his school football and cricket teams. After he left school Mr Denteith spent some time as a journalist for the Warrington Guardian before entering into business training at a number of different institutions, including, as General Manager, Multiplex Cinemas, his favourite job (before he came here of course!) and also as the General Manager of the internationally renowned Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal and The Buxton Opera House.

Mr Dentith lives in Selby and says that although he does not enjoy the commute the friendly staff and polite students make the distance worth while. His favourite aspect of the Deputy Bursar's job is the variety of challenges to face and says he "has no time to be bored". In three words he describes St. Peter's as "innovative, spiritual and inspiring".

Outside school life Mr Dentith enjoys football and cricket and is an ardent Manchester City supporter. His proudest achievement are his sons Craig and Christopher, Graham also likes to live by humanitarian principles and takes great interest in helping those in need.

We wish him all the best and hope that he will be happy in his time at St Peter's.

Bradley Smith V and Lydia Hawthorn UVI

Andrew Wright

Andrew was appointed in 1986 by a Headmaster who thought he was very musical (the Headmaster, not Andrew, as that goes without saying). Although Andrew knew full well the difficulties confronting him, a School that was developing its "culture" through co-education and an upsurge in I.Q. due to the embracing of the Assisted Places Scheme, Andrew was parachuted in to oversee a developing department, with the previous Head of Music, still on the staff. That both Andrew and Keith worked so well together is testament to both of them, professional, caring teachers and excellent musicians.

But if Keith had looked after the previous 20 years or so, Andrew was to see music blossom into one of the most accomplished Music Departments of any independent school.

Running a department of 30 or so staff is no mean feat and producing excellent individual and group performances, through academic music exam results, Associated Board grades, music festivals and competitions, concerts and important Minster services all takes a great deal of time and effort and help from such a dedicated team of music staff. Andrew leads by example—suffice it to say that the Leavers' party could only be held on one day as it was the only time slot available for Andrew, in the whole of the last three weeks of his teaching career - so much for "winding down" gradually!!

You have only to attend any one of those concerts, festivals or services to hear just how polished and accomplished is the music that is produced.

Who would have thought that when you turn up to such an event a choir of some 160 pupils, out of a school of just over 500, would be involved? How does he manage to get so many truculent adolescents to turn in to little, cherubs? Enthusiasm and hard work, not settling for "just all righjt" and that he is an inspiration to all who comes in contact with his utterly committed dedication

to his work.

And if that was not enough, the wider School community of St Peter's gets involved in enormous choral adventures with the Choral Society of some 500 choir and orchestra playing to a packed Minster audience of over 2,300 people, raising over £10,000 for School charities when they performed Verdi's Requiem, to name but one of the many Choral Society Concerts, produced annually from the start of his time here, way back in 1987.

Then, of course, taking between 75-100 pupils on grand Music Tours each Summer holidays since then, including Choir, Band and Orchestra on 19 different Tours - the USA, twice, the Czech Republic, Austria, Venice, St Malo, Tuscany, Budapest, San Remo the list goes on and on.

I cannot do justice to this man's achievements, for me he has been an inspiration, the hardest working, most committed and caring Teacher I have had the good fortune to know.

He will be very sadly missed, he has been one of the most important "movers and shakers" that have shaped this School and turned it into not a bad place to be a part of, due mainly to his commitment, kindness and simple gentlemanly humanity. A stickler for standards, but his understanding nature has made him such an important influence over generations of Peterites who remember him with deep affection and a debt of gratitude they owe him, as do we all.

J.A. Owen-Barnett

Ian Lancaster

When Ian came to St Peters some 29 years ago PC referred to a police constable and not the suffocating PC of today. Ian is not keen on the modern version.

In his first few years as Assistant Master in the Manor he was well known for his large cigars, larger whiskeys and very loud music! However this time was most significant as it gave Ian the feeling of community that stayed with him and has coloured his outlook on St Peters ever since. In his first year he was given the task of introducing football to St Peters. The then Head of Sport, John Hutt, was somewhat taken aback when Ian asked him how many players there were in a team, so off to Newitts he went to buy a set of rules and a ball!

Given our current obsession with Health and Safety I can only imagine the look on our management's face if Ian had come to them suggesting he would like to take a groups of 4th years on a long boat around the Cheshire ring, opening locks, steering the boat and doing all their own cooking! Some great times were had and all survived the trips. Cooking is another theme in lan's life and it has been a characteristic of his commitment to our community that whenever help with a function has been required he has been there, from Manor dinners to Cricket Festivals; the latter gaining Ian a favourable mention in the 1st XI cricket report for helping with the food at the "Skip" BBQ at the festival that year. It amazed the other staff that Ian was there cooking despite his complete disinterest in sport, this commitment to our community will be missed. On the subject of dinners Ian was always a great help at the Manor Christmas meal. On one occasion leaving Manna's restaurant in York with about twenty Manorites and a fire extinguisher (ours) he was stopped by a local PC who seemed most put out that Ian was in possession of the said fire extinguisher and seemed settled on arresting him. lan's quiet authority and good humour left the young policeman lost for words as he continued back to house unscathed.

"Chemistry can be fun", he used to say and in his early years he was infamous for his desire to blow things up and to make explosives, once meeting our local constabulary at the end of one summer term bearing the book "How To Make Bombs". I suspect their surprise then would have led to Guantanamo Bay now! Ian has had a constant battle with one member of the Biology dept over my insistence that ATP has a high energy bond, which he, as a Biochemist, keeps telling me does not exist; I am still sticking to my version of the bond.

lan's great strength throughout his time with us has been his ability to identify with and help the underdog.This was never more so than with a young man who came to us having been told that he was not up to the academic standard required at St Peter's. Ian empathised with him and helped him in many ways. He has just started his PhD. This sort of pastoral care, in its widest sense, will also be missed.

Recently, Ian gave up the very demanding job of Examinations Officer and you only need to compare his smiling face with that of Neil Matkin, his successor, to realise the pressures of that post!

On a personal level Ian has been a great support to Liz, myself and our family over the years, especially when we were in the Manor, and his dinners on the penultimate Friday of each 1/z term may not have helped my teaching on Sat morning but certainly helped our sanity. He is not just a friend to us he is a part of our family.

P.Stephen

Paul Taylor

Paul rejoined the school in 1999 as Head of Politics and in a very different role than that of Monitor and Head of House he had left five years earlier. Returning to the school was a homecoming in many ways and the proximity of his parents' home, a familiar city and Yorkshire bitter were most welcome. Under his care, the Politics department has thrived; numbers have grown and results have markedly improved. Paul is a first-class teacher with a genuine passion for innovation particularly in ways to improve the pupils' experience in the classroom and, more generally, in their learning. He was always keen to share ideas with colleagues in both formal and informal ways. Politics has also enjoyed a more prominent profile within the school, something made most obvious by the 'mock elections' which Paul has facilitated in the run up to the nation's polling days. Following hustings and election speeches prepared and given by pupils along with a Question Time session, the turn out in 2010 dwarfed that of the national electorate and exceeded 80%. Perhaps it is the discursive nature of Politics, but more likely Paul's needle-sharp perception, which allowed him to see a need within our curriculum to widen our leavers' understanding of the ways in their community responsibility manifests itself and the ways in which different people around the world live their lives. Ever the innovator, Paul devised and then drove the introduction of Global Perspectives, a course delivered to UVIth pupils allowing them to discuss the arts, the environment and religion among many other topical matters.

Paul has also contributed widely and with unswerving determination outside the classroom. Many will remember him not only as their teacher, but also as their Housemaster (after stints at the helm of Clifton and then Manor houses). Paul is a caring pastoral leader who performs far more than an administrative role on behalf of his charges; he cares deeply about the details of pupils' lives and has been perhaps uniquely good at helping pupils and colleagues to keep things in perspective. Paul took great pleasure in leading Clifton and, while living in the Manor has been rewarding, it has been very arduous and all-consuming of his energies and waking hours.

Field sports are a genuine passion for Paul and he has been a highly valued and dependable member of the Games Department in his time here. Rugby, hockey and cricket sides have all enjoyed his pitch-side wisdom and wit and those in his teams have always been taught the joint values of success and gentlemanly conduct. Despite his enthusiasm for Burnley Football Club, it is the 'beautiful game' which is number one for him and he was instrumental in the introduction of team football for senior boys, fulfilling the wishes of many boys if not all of those in the PE department! Despite the ludicrous carry-on which professional football can be, Paul was never prepared to compromise on the high standards of on-pitch appearance and conduct and despite the limitations of many in the teams, he was always to teach them to play in skillful style.

York will always be a special place for Paul not least because it has been here that he and Kirstie were married and where, on results day in 2008, they were blessed with the arrival of the beautiful Megan Rose. Between them, Kirstie and Megan have provided Paul with measureless happiness and it is for them that the School perhaps should reserve its greatest thanks. They have kept him sane and, in tolerating him at his grumpiest, have allowed us only to enjoy him at his best.

Paul leaves us for a promoted post at Fulwood Academy in Preston. As Head of their new Sixth Form, he has twelve hectic months ahead of him in which he will plan the structure and delivery of all of the school's post-16 courses, a challenge to which he will be sure to bring all of his experience and invention.

In the summer of 1990, after one year as a pupil at the St Peter's and in recognizing his obvious courteousness and dependability, his prophetic Housemaster wrote in a school report that 'Paul has a bright future with us'. Perhaps he was unaware that this future would still be unfolding nineteen years later, but who could doubt the comment's accuracy? And who's to say this future may not yet be complete? He's ambitious, very capable and may be back yet!

M. Lawrence

Melanie Ku

After three desperately short years at St Peter's Mel is leaving us for a new life overseas. During her time in York she has become a friend to everybody, admired and respected by pupils and colleagues alike. There is seemingly nothing Mel hasn't done since she joined the school: assistant housemistress in Queen's, resident tutor in Dronfield, games aficionado on the fields, community action wonder woman, an outstanding classroom teacher and a fabulous friend and colleague. Mel has also been great company on classics trips, ranging from day trips in London to overseas trips in Greece. She has been a superb member of the department with original ideas and resources and will be much missed.

We wish Mel all the very best for her future in Germany and look forward to regular reports about her new life abroad.