Salvete

Miss Lauren Crawley

Miss Crawley is the newest Foreign Languages teacher at St Peter’s. Having grown up in Hull (‘I wish it was Barbados but I would like to mention it is actually the future City of Culture 2017!’) and attended South Holderness Technology College, Miss Crawley studied Modern Languages at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

In between the terms at university during the summer, she had the somewhat strange job of working in a pea factory before spending time working in a hotel in rural Spain doing ‘pretty much everything’.

When she isn’t teaching, Miss Crawley says she can likely be found in the gym, but she thoroughly enjoys travelling and especially dreams of visiting India. So far Miss Crawley has found St Peter’s to be very busy but focused and happy, stating she felt it was a ‘perfect fit’ for her when she came for her interview. We wholeheartedly wish her all the best and hope that she continues to enjoy her time here.

Polly Moss, LVI

Miss Rebecca Jones

Miss Jones is our newest member of the Classics department and has already made a name for herself with her enthusiasm for acting out epic poetry and Roman rituals. Having been educated at the King Henry VIII School in Coventry, Miss Jones studied Classics at Newnham College, Cambridge, under the infamous Mary Beard.

Prior to turning to teaching, Miss Jones had a job in advertising, working with everyone from international footballers to nappy companies. She now lives in York with her son Felix, named after a Roman dictator who ‘whilst a bit evil’, she has a lot of respect for! Miss Jones’ interests extend far beyond the classroom, however: she has a diploma in wine-tasting, is a qualified tennis coach, and has also studied operatic singing. She was attracted to the school because of its location and its thriving Classics department, where all pupils have some relationship with the Classical world during their time at the school. So far she is impressed with the genuine enthusiasm and sense of fun shown by the pupils. We hope she continues to enjoy life at Peter’s and we wish her all the best.

Polly Moss, LVI

Mr Howard Bowden

Mr Bowden was born in Sheffield but moved to Roundhay in north Leeds at the age of two. Describing himself as a proud Yorkshireman, he was one of last to take the eleven-plus exam in Leeds and attended Roundhay Grammar School, of which he has fond memories; he says, ‘I recommend keeping in touch with school buddies in later life.’ He then went to Trinity College, Cambridge to read Geography, but also found time to represent his college at tiddlywinks (he reports: ‘the sport has a rich lexicon, for example, scrunge – a shot in which a wink lands in the pot, but bounces out again’), rowed bow in an eight (very badly) and founded a cheesecake appreciation society (lemon is his favourite).

Before becoming a teacher, Mr Bowden had jobs as varied as being a male model for publications including What Camera Weekly, and spent a particularly testing summer working as a server in a takeaway in a now-defunct holiday camp in Filey. Taking up the post in the Geography department at St Peter’s coincided with a plan to move to York, so all fell into place very neatly. His initial impression of the school is very positive: ‘the staff room in general and the Geography department

in particular are warmly welcoming and continue to be very supportive. The pupils are hardworking and respectful, and I really like the way that they look after each other.’

Away from school, Mr Bowden has a wife and three grown-up children; he is looking forward shortly to becoming a grandfather. The household is completed by their black labrador, Ollie. Having been brought up in Leeds, it comes as no surprise to hear that he is a long-suffering Leeds United fan. He is also an enthusiast for punk rock music, and keeps up with Pilates in an effort to remain young in body. His ‘party trick’ is to touch his nose with his tongue!

We wish him all the best in his career here at St Peter’s.

Editor

Mr Hugo Battersby

Mr Battersby joined St Peter’s in September 2015 and has already become a valued member of the school. Not only is he the most recent addition to the Economics and Business Studies department, but he also takes part in coaching second-team cricket.

Having grown up near Pitlochry, Mr Battersby attended The Edinburgh Academy, then took a gap year to play rugby in New Zealand, before studying Economics at the University of York, because it is ‘practical’, ‘constantly changing’ and ‘exciting’. He was already well-known amongst the teachers before coming to St Peter’s since he spent two years after leaving university living in Linton and working under Mr Johnston. He loved the boarding community so much that he decided to continue living there whilst commuting to Hull every day for his teacher training course. However, having returned this year, he prefers to live off campus with his wife, Mrs Battersby and his two children, Theo and Magnus.

Before coming to St Peter’s, amongst his former jobs he worked for a marquee company, which involved spending 20-hour days putting up marquees, and also spent three years as the head of sixth form at Dulwich College in Beijing, China.

Upon being asked what he enjoys most here, Mr Battersby describes the ‘unforgettable’ tea that is served at 4 pm in the staff room, the lasting friendships he has already made with the staff from his time here, and the lovely surroundings.

Despite the majority of his free time being taken up by looking after his two small boys (riding bikes is the next conquest), before adventuring to China, he managed to rescue and look after two exracing greyhounds, who could run 100m in eight seconds! Although claiming there is nothing unusual about himself, his father starred in Doctor Who.

We wish Mr Battersby the very best in his career at St Peter’s, and hope he continues to have a truly enjoyable time here.

Jess Webster, LVI

Mr Nikki Rohlfing

Mr Rohlfing grew up in Otley, West Yorkshire, where he attended Prince Henry’s Grammar School and later in Neckargemünd, Germany, where he attended Gymnasium Neckargemünd. After having studied for a BSc in Mathematics and Philosophy at Warwick University, he was self-employed for a number of years. His jobs were varied – from touring with bands and helping out at glittering events such as the Brit Awards, to the decidedly less glamorous task of cataloguing paraphernalia for the William Morris Gallery, to helping his father (who happens to be the owner of John Broadwood & Sons) restore grand pianos, it seems that Mr Rohlfing has had a colourful and interesting working life.

He tells me he was attracted to St Peter’s as a result of its rich tapestry of history, as well as the opportunity to continue teaching sixth form, as many jobs did not offer this. He also wished to share his love of tennis, one of his main interests, with pupils, and as any Peterite knows, sport is very important at the school. His interests, besides mathematics and tennis, include playing the guitar.

He is apparently also a distant relative of Hieronymus Carl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen, who is perhaps better known as his fictional counterpart Baron Munchausen, created by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe in his 1785 book Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia.

Concetta Scrimshaw, UVI

Mr Paul Cooper

Mr Cooper grew up in Ipswich, and lived there until the age of 18. He then moved to Norwich and started work in technical sales for building management systems. After three years he decided to pursue a slightly different path and become a teacher.

He gained a degree in Design and Technology at Sheffield University and started teaching straightaway in a small school in the Peak District. Soon after, his love for travel took him to Thailand, where he stayed for a year teaching in an international school in Bangkok. Having returned to Sheffield, for the following three years he worked at Buxton Community School. He then taught at West Island School in Hong Kong for five years before arriving at St Peter’s.

Mr Cooper says his experiences in the two foreign cities were quite different. Thailand at the time was much less westernised than it is now and one really had to learn Thai to live there, as opposed to Hong Kong, where ‘if you try to speak Cantonese to locals’, he recalls, ‘many just talk back in English, since they are too busy.’ He enjoyed both nonetheless, highlighting that Bangkok was culturally very different to the UK, and that Hong Kong, whilst remaining a lively city, has many green areas and national parks.

In his youth, Mr Cooper joined the Territorial Army, and was soon commissioned at Sandhurst. When he became a teacher, the two became too difficult to fit together, and he confesses he didn’t think he would put the uniform on again. At present, however, he enjoys being part of the CCF once more, here at St Peter’s. Outside school time he loves to travel to new destinations and is keen on surfing and diving.

Daniel Kondratiev, LVI

Mrs Amy Wong

Mrs Wong grew up in many places during her childhood, but her favourite was by far a quaint little farmhouse in rural North Lincolnshire. She attended a number of schools in that area, from small village institutions to monolithic comprehensives. After having gained a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Hull, she completed a Graduate Certificate in Information Studies through Distance Learning with the Robert Gordon University, as well as an MSc in Library and Information Studies from the comfort of her own home! Before entering the profession of librarianship, Mrs Wong worked at Waterstone’s, and she says that any job that involves being surrounded by books is interesting to her.

She tells me she was attracted to St Peter’s because she sensed that the library was incredibly valuable to the school, which was indicative of its attitude as a whole: a fondness for and appreciation of literature are values that really resonate with Mrs Wong and mean a lot to her.

Her hobbies and interests include (not surprisingly) reading. She says that she tries to set herself ‘challenges’ to ensure that she doesn’t get too ‘settled’, but she always get distracted when a favourite author releases something new. She also enjoys using technology and planning exciting adventures to far-flung locations.

When asked whether she can impart any extraordinary facts about herself, she regrettably tells me that she is ‘rather dull’. She has travelled the length of Vietnam on the Reunification Express, eating many unusual and exotic dishes, as well as almost being charged by a lone bull on a tiny island (doesn’t sound very dull to me), but Mrs Wong insists that she is typically best at home on her sofa reading about the extraordinary lives of fictional characters.

Concetta Scrimshaw, UVI

Mrs Frances Simon

In Mrs Simon’s birthplace – Mill Hill, North West London – a lot of the streets were named after Shakespeare, as she remarks. She already had a passion for drama at a young age and won a place on a prestigious training course with the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, where Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Daniel Day-Lewis and Jude Law began their training. Following this she went on to train for three years at the Webber Douglas Academy in London, where she received a classical training in acting.

Her first job after leaving drama school was working on a two-part drama with Tamsin Outhwaite and Simon Pegg for the BBC. She recalls that even though it was a very small role as a receptionist, she did receive first-class treatment: a chauffeur came to pick her up from her home and drove her to the BBC studios, and she even had her very own Winnebago. As a jobbing actor, she also attended the Arts Educational School and gained a BA at the City University. She worked on the radio as well as TV, but her bread and butter was

theatre and a 10-month National Theatre tour finally brought her to York.

After arriving in York, Mrs Simon settled with Carey, her husband of 15 years. Her daughter Naomi is now nine years old and is kept busy as a Minster chorister: she is very musical and takes after her grandfather who was a composer of church music in Ghana. Eleven years ago in York Mrs Simon gave up her London agent and began coaching the LAMDA courses. Some of her students are keen to obtain professional work in the industry and so she also runs a boutique talent agency alongside coaching.

For Mrs Simon, one of the highlights of working at St Peter’s has been the zeal for fitness. She ran her first 10k this year and claims it is largely down to the fact of being around such a sporty community. Whilst saying that as a performer she was much fitter than she is now, she admits that it has been great to awaken that part of her life once again.

Daniel Kondratiev, LVI

Mrs Hazel Battersby

This year we are thrilled to welcome Mrs Battersby to St Peter’s, as the newest member of the Art department. Having grown up just outside Glasgow, in the west of Scotland, she went to school at Bearsden Academy. Remaining in Scotland, she studied Jewellery at the Glasgow School of Arts.

Before coming to St Peter’s in September 2015, joining the staff at the same time as her husband, Mrs Battersby worked at Fettes College in Scotland (where she met Mr Battersby). She also travelled to China with her two sons, who are now four and five years old. Whilst being the Head of Art at Dulwich College in Beijing, China, for three years, she thoroughly enjoyed the different dynamics of the culture and even learned Mandarin (although she modestly claims ‘just enough to get by’).

Mrs Battersby had visited York many times whilst living in Edinburgh and loved the city. Aside from spending the majority of her time entertaining her two young sons, Theo and Magnus, Mrs Battersby takes pleasure in continuing her own work as an artist at home. Although originally her degree was in jewellery, her speciality now is mixed-media painting, in the makeshift studio which she has created in her conservatory.

So far, Mrs Battersby believes the school to have a ‘beautiful campus’ and a ‘friendly atmosphere’, not to forget the lovely location. We wish her all the best in her role here at St Peter’s, and hope that she continues to love her time here.

Jess Webster, LVI

Mrs Lynn Anderson

Mrs Anderson grew up in Glasgow, Cambridge and Berkshire, where she attended the Holt School in Wokingham. She then returned to Scotland, gaining an MA in Religious Studies with Music from Edinburgh University.

Prior to her arrival at St Peter’s, Mrs Anderson had a number of interesting and varied jobs, from teaching English in Romania and Japan to being a support worker in children’s homes in Edinburgh and The Philippines, and working as a music therapist in Bosnia for the charity War Child. Perhaps the most unusual work she has done was for a shopping mall in Australia, where she was paid to take children to the cinema. As she says, ‘marvellous job, but no one needs to see Finding Nemo 22 times.’

Mrs Anderson is married to Kevin, and has three children – Lily, Florence and Barney – and a recent addition, Dylan the cavapoo. She has lived in York for fifteen years, and so knew of the school’s excellent reputation, history and tradition. Her impression of the school is that it does the job of ‘nourishing’ the pupils very well (as she points out, the Latin root of the word ‘education’ means ‘to nourish’) – and she is not only talking about the food!

Away from the school, Mrs Anderson enjoys playing the violin, both in orchestras and other ensembles, and is currently part of a York-based ceilidh band. She adores travelling and loves a good body pump class at the gym!