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helps out with the senior girls’ hockey teams and even has time to be an assistant in Wentworth Boarding House.

Miss Matts grew up in Northamptonshire, coming from a farming family, and was educated at Rugby School, Warwickshire. She originally wanted to become a mounted police officer and it wasn’t until studying History of Art at Edinburgh University that she realised her love of it.

After experimenting in a wide range of interesting jobs during her student years, including telesales (which to her dismay did not include being on the television and actually only involved selling cavity wall insulation), legal secretary and matron of a sixth-form boys’ house, she was drawn to St Peter’s because she loved the whole rounded approach which was similar in nature to her own school, and found the city of York to be extremely inviting. So far it has lived up to her expectations with what she believes to be the ‘friendliest staff room’ that she has yet been part of.

In her spare time, Miss Matts’ three great loves in life are art, her dog (Talisker, a Scottish husky), and ‘being outdoors’. She leads an active life, being in the process of swimming the entire length of the River Thames (on sunny days of course) and has recently joined the school staff squash team. Known for her good whistling and accent talents, perhaps she will even take part in the dramatic aspects!

With an ‘optimistic outlook’, it is clear that Miss Matts has rapidly become entwined in the school life here and we wish her all the very best in her career at St Peter’s.

Jessica Webster, V

Mr Camron Miller

This year we were thrilled to welcome Mr Miller to the school, teaching in the English and Classics departments as well as being involved with the Drama department (notably directing one of the middle school plays, Lord of the Flies, which was as superbly unsettling as one could have wished). Mr Miller grew up in St Bees on the Cumbrian coast and at 17 he joined an exchange run by the English-Speaking Union to Lawrenceville in the USA. He studied for a degree in English Literature and Classics (with the former sparking a passion for reading and a ‘never-ending quest’ to read his way through the canon of English literature, from Chaucer to the present). From there, Mr Miller went on to train as a teacher at Oxford, followed by a variety of jobs including working in London for a management consultancy, teaching English as a foreign language and even a role at a nuclear engineering firm (which he claims was ‘boring and scary in equal measure’). Mr Miller also likes to travel: when forced to pick his ‘funkiest’ destination, he chose Tijuana in Mexico, describing it as an ‘insane, lawless, party town’ which was an interesting experience! Drawn to the school by an admiration of its ethos and the value placed on friendship, Mr Miller has found his first year to be ‘very good’ and comments that ‘the location is perfect, the food is delicious and the children are acceptable!’ Whether he is inspiring us in the classroom or cracking us up with his American accent in play rehearsals, on behalf of the pupils I’d say that Mr Miller is an amazing addition to the teaching staff: we are lucky to have him, and we hope that he has a truly enjoyable time here at St Peter’s.

Peter Gray, LVI

Mrs Emma Greenhalgh

Mrs Greenhalgh is the newest member of the Chemistry department as well as the school’s newest rugby coach. Having grown up in Boston Spa and attending school there, she attended St John Fisher’s and St Aidan’s Associated Sixth Form (‘a rather long winded name!’) where she discovered a passion for science. She then went on to study Biochemistry at the University at Nottingham.

Despite her scientific background, Mrs Greenhalgh lived for some time in Japan and worked as an English Language teacher.

Following a brief stint as a model for Hello Kitty’s clothing line there (only the one time however), she returned to England. Another addition to her varied talents is her love for rugby.

Mrs Greenhalgh was drawn to the school because of its sense of pride in its tradition – as well as the age group! So far she is enjoying her time here and it is living up to her expectations. We wish her all the best in her role, and hope that she continues to flourish at the school.

Polly Moss, V

Dr Iain Harrison

Dr Harrison is the most recent addition to the large Music department here at St Peter’s. Having originally started at the school in September 2013, as a teacher of the saxophone, he now works full-time as a music teacher. Dr Harrison grew up in Cumbria, and after achieving the status of head boy at Dowdales School, he attended not one, but two universities to achieve three degrees. Starting at Hull with Music and Drama, he moved on to Huddersfield in order to specialise in contemporary music.

Dr Harrison’s wife (also a contemporary musician – a pianist) was born and bred in York so as soon as his PhD was completed, they decided to settle here with their two children, Beatrice (2 years old) and Miles (5 months). The first teaching role he undertook was part of his PhD where he taught the saxophone to children in the Kirklees area. Although he stumbled into teaching, he thoroughly enjoys his time here at St Peter’s and the logical teaching process we have!

Although it is fair to say that his hobbies revolve around music, surprisingly, the first pay cheque of Dr Harrison’s career was for his role as an actor for the Stephen Joseph Thetre Company in Scarborough at 18 years old, and he took part in a UK tour as part of this. This was not the only tour he has taken part in since he is a member of multiple contemporary music groups that have toured around Europe. Even though he claims he is ‘boring’, he is also one of the founding members of a Prince tribute band (as the saxophonist of course) that are actually quite popular! His latest ‘gig’ was just opposite Regent’s Park in London.

We wish Dr Harrison a continuing enjoyable time at St Peter’s and give him our gratitude at the dedication he has shown so far.

Jessica Webster, V

Mr John Malia

In January 2015 Mr Malia joined the school as Head Chef, and he has since rolled out a new menu across St Peter’s, St Olave’s and Clifton Prep. He prefers to think of his role as ‘catering for an academic hotel’ rather than just making school food, because of the boarders here. In this new menu, Mr Malia has aimed to make the food look fresher and taste more aromatic as well as mixing up the sandwiches and salads for more variety and interest. These changes have gone down very well for everyone passing through the dining hall (and I am particularly pleased with the introduction of cheesecake!) Mr Malia grew up Newcastle, completing a City and Guilds catering course before going to work in private hotels and restaurants in places all over the world (including the French Alps, Australia and Italy). He has been a chef for 26 years, saying that it is ‘not the easiest job in the world, but the most enjoyable’ and has appeared on Countryfile and various other television programmes during his career. Mr Malia is loving his time at St Peter’s so far, and particularly appreciates the worklife balance, allowing him to spend more time with his four-yearold boy as well as enjoying the new experience of working in a school. We are so fortunate to have such an accomplished chef at St Peter’s and we wish him all the best for his time here!

Peter Gray LVI

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Mr Richard Myhill

We saw the arrival of Mr Myhill into Business Studies this year, as well as his exit from St Peter’s after a year reaping the benefi t of his expertise. Growing up in Yorkshire but moving around the country, he settled in Stoke-on-Trent to obtain a degree in Business Studies. He came to St Peter’s after years of experience working at Halifax Building Society (HBOS), being attracted to the school because of its reputation and wellrounded ethos.

His involvement in singing – most notably in the Huddersfi eld Choral Society and his church choir – has spread into the school choirs, as he has taken an active part in concerts alongside pupils. He has toured all over the world with his choir, from Japan to the Albert Hall, which he describes as ‘the Wembley of music’. On behalf of St Peter’s I would like to thank Richard for his support and expertise throughout his time, and wish him good luck in the next stages of his career.

Bethan Bradley, LVI

Richard joined the department at the start of the academic year and very quickly settled into the St Peter’s routine. His approach to the Business Studies classroom was organised and meticulous and brought a welcome change from the organised chaos that usually exists on my desk. The pupils have benefi tted hugely from his support and care and have been inspired by Richard’s passion at linking theoretical concepts to real-world examples. Indeed the ‘when I worked at Halifax’ line has become legendary in his classes. The upper sixth were particularly quick to recall quotes from Richard’s lessons, including one of his favourites: ‘is it cake day today?’ (yes that’s Richard asking, not the pupils), to (an exasperated) ‘no you can’t leave early’, ‘do you understand Eddy?’ and ‘yes, you can use the mini-whiteboards, Eddy’. Joking aside the upper sixth are deeply grateful for Richard’s care and the attention that he gives to the development of each pupil. Trips to Rolls Royce and York University, and conferences in Manchester, have been highlights of their year.

His commitment to school life beyond the Business Studies classroom is well valued by pupils and colleagues alike. Whether it be supervising off-games , involvement in choir, running cross-country, taking trips, helping cover in Clifton, taking Horizons lessons, or supervising the library – the list goes on and on – Richard has always been quick to volunteer his expertise and support the smooth running of the school and I know a lot of colleagues are extremely grateful for that. He has also sung with the Chapel Choir, School Choir and Choral Society where he became affectionately known as the ‘House Tenor’ of St Peter’s!

Following the completion of his PGCE in 2013, Richard made no secret of his desire to gain a full-time role and was delighted to secure the post of full-time teacher of Business Studies at Tadcaster Grammar School from September 2015.

We thank him for brightening this place up with his infectious enthusiasm and energy and we wish him every happiness in his new role.

Mr Ben White

Mr Lennart Boneder

Mr Boneder came to St Peter’s in September 2014 as our German Assistant, but has proved himself an active member in many other areas of school life, making him an invaluable part of the community. Along with rugby, he has taken up squash and cycling, and continues to play sport alongside pupils and teachers alike.

Growing up near Munich and going to University there also, he is fl uent in three languages and as a consequence has spent a year in Madrid as well as his time in England. He was attracted to St Peter’s by the outstanding sporting opportunities it offers, as well as the good reputation it has gained from previous German Assistants. We wish him well with his future pursuits and thank him for all his help throughout the year.

Bethan Bradley, LVI

Mr Michael Carter

Mr Carter was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. As his childhood went on, his main hobby was playing various sports – principally rugby up to the age of 16. At that point his new passion became hockey: he played for the local club’s fi rst team and also represented the county of Buckinghamshire from the under-13s all the way up to adult level, and alongside that he very soon started coaching, too. At school Mr Carter never knew exactly what kind of career he would like to follow: he wanted to see

what the exam grades showed first. Having done so, he decided to take his hobby a step further by completing a degree in Sports Coaching and Physical Education at York St John University, and then took the opportunity to work at St Peter’s.

Mr Carter speaks passionately about coaching hockey, highlighting the most pleasing aspect in his view: being able to see how someone who struggles to begin with can make progress very quickly. He explains that it is very rewarding to watch as people improve both as individuals and as team players.

Outside St Peter’s Mr Carter enjoys several other activities: whenever he has some spare time, he likes playing golf and walking, or even simply relaxing whilst reading a book – all those sports indeed require much time and effort! He continues his hockey training too, playing for the City of York’s first team and spending his holidays and days off doing that.

The reason behind his love for this activity, he remarks, is that he was basically brought up on it: both his parents played hockey and wanted him at least to give it a try, and their enthusiasm has rubbed off on him. In the near future Mr Carter is planning to undertake formal training to become a qualified PE teacher, taking students from third form up to GCSE level and beyond.

Daniel Kondratiev, V

Mrs Pat Chandler

When thinking about Pat whilst composing these paragraphs, I was reminded of some words heard recently in Chapel. We had a visiting speaker who talked of ‘little acts of human kindness’ – from Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey, exploring the idea of the influences on ‘a good man’s life … his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness.’ It is Pat’s unrelenting, unceasing acts of kindness that we should celebrate. Some examples:

Take the frisson of excitement over the holiday reads which appeared in the staff room at the end of the summer term. Not only had Pat characteristically hopped onto the zeitgeist of the end of term, but from the coos of delight and the aggressively acquisitive way in which these books were snapped up, Pat nailed it every year by anticipating what we might like to start the holidays with. We have the newspapers we want; the magazines we want; the books we want – and even some we didn’t even know we wanted – but with Pat’s gentle steering found we couldn’t do without. The staff book group, nurtured by Pat – and largely fed and watered by her also – has been treated to an evening each half term which is an utter delight; Pat’s jaunty follow-up e-mails confirming the enthusiasm for reading and book talk that she generated and sustained.

Pat, as – I believe – our most skilled head of department, worked with everyone and no-one. Everyone includes: all of us, all the pupils, all the Old Peterites who ever wanted to know any kind of minutiae about school, the Foundation, St Olave’s and Clifton, and of course the visiting authors and speakers. Pat undertook some of our most important outreach work with other schools: who can forget the vision of Pat in the corridor one cold Monday evening, clutching Andrew Motion’s fedora and velvet coat in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other; even great poets need little acts of kindness!

And what of the pupils? … the Christmas Literary Quiz is notable and increasingly popular for its festive attitude to catering and its completely inclusive approach. The Library Committee, managed by Pat – quite an eclectic group of pupils – became an autonomous and strident body, buying stock for the library, producing a superb newsletter, and having their own badges which apparently go for an eye-watering amount on Ebay. And the work Pat did with our classes: she was a constant and tenacious presence in RLR lessons but managed to occupy the liminal space of ‘non-intrusive expert’ – a rare thing. With project work, our very youngest pupils benefitted from this expertise; Pat even managed to steer the third- former who wished to use the exploits of Kim Kardashian as her starting point towards credible sources and databases: that’s how good she was! From the very able, most academic of our pupils to the nervous, under-confident emergent teenager, the words ‘it’s ok – I’ve seen Ms Chandler’ meant that things really were OK.

Pat was with us for ten years – squeezed into odd, Dickensian spaces from which she emerged, bright-eyed and smiling, clutching her glasses and waving her list. Her move to Dulwich College, Singapore, is incredibly exciting and it seems to have come upon us so quickly.

Back to Wordsworth:

Pat feeds us with lofty thoughts That neither evil tongues Rash judgements, nor the sneers of selfish men Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life Shall e’er prevail against us, or disturb Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold (in a library of her making) is full of blessings.

Mrs Jane Dawson

Jane joined St Peter’s (for the first time) in 1981 as Miss Trepte, having read Mathematics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. The Peterite at the time announced that Miss Trepte would be coordinating the girls’ sports programme, and it’s also clear that Jane started sorting everyone out quickly, as apparently ‘At the end of the Summer term it was decided that we should change the name of what has been known as the Masters’ Common Room (MCR) to the Senior Common Room (SCR) to acknowledge the fact that three ladies are now full-time members of the common room.’

Quickly spotted by soon-to-be husband, Mike, Jane then left in 1986 when the first of their two children came along, after building up a wonderful reputation. Much of what her then Head of Department, Guy Shuttleworth, wrote in The Peterite at the time is more than relevant today, testament to a teacher who never considers winding down as retirement approaches: ‘she has great patience with the children, was very capable in and out of the classroom, and achieved very good results’. Absolutely. ‘As a colleague in the Mathematics department she was first-class’. Starred first, I would say. ‘Nothing was too much trouble for her and she was always willing to help out at a moment’s notice.’ How true.

After a short period of teaching at Queen Ethelburga’s, Jane moved to the Sixth-Form College, where I met her once or twice at meetings. She then re-joined St Peter’s in 2005 saying then that she would stay for ten years: she’s certainly accurate with numbers.

Jane has a wicked sense of humour and we are certainly going to miss the fun she brings; just occasionally she is so tickled by something that she almost loses control! In the Maths department we will miss her highly competitive streak when we have our ‘who can open the new calculator wrappers the fastest’ race. Who said that maths isn’t fun?

Not only is Jane often described as my ‘work wife’, but she is really my unofficial second in department. I am exceptionally grateful for all that she has done to help me and the department to thrive, and it is hard to list everything she has done: volunteering to teach extension units, helping with so many organisational matters, and just generally being incredibly proactive and always one step ahead. She has also been a real sounding-board with her intellect, experience and straight-talking manner.

As Chair of the SCR, she has been nothing less than phenomenal. The link that she has skilfully fostered between the Senior Leadership Team and the Common Room has been invaluable. She knows the school and all of the staff incredibly well, and her good and fair judgement along with her straight-talking, considerate and compassionate approach to the role has benefitted us all enormously. Jane is a hugely attentive and kind member of the staffroom, and she enabled us to join in with personal celebrations through announcements of significant birthdays or engagements, as well as dealing with the more serious matters of staff professional concerns and anxieties.

There are so many other contributions Jane has made to the school. We will all remember Jane’s unbelievably moving address in Chapel. Ivan Cheng played the theme tune from Schindler’s List as Jane told a very personal account of her mother’s experience in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. She has been incredibly committed in Temple, as a tutor and as Assistant Housemistress; and then there’s Community Action. I don’t think I could begin to express just how much work was involved in running and developing this for years: an enormous feat, with Silver Surfers, Macmillan Coffee Mornings, Valentine’s Day , grannies’ tea parties, Snappy … the list goes on.

Jane always relished the opportunity to be involved with all parts of school life, and she accompanied countless school trips and tours, including many with the Music department: she was at St Paul’s this year, and also with them in Paris. In the Cabaret Concerts she was singing in the choir and she has played in the Wind Band. On stage there have been Jane’s memorable performances as The Fairy in the staff pantomime, and as Sandy in Summer Lovin’, the staff entry to the House Singing Competition. Jane was also part of the (winning) staff team against the pupils in the St Peter’s Challenge and she happily dressed up as a domino for Comic Relief, and as Doc with the Maths department as the Seven Dwarfs.

Finishing work isn’t really finishing work for Jane: it’s more like a very short sabbatical before we haul her back in to teach Lisa Middleton’s maternity cover. I know that she has many things planned for when she hangs up her gown, and one domestic task that she admits to really enjoying is hanging out the washing because (quote) ‘Mike gets it wrong.’

We often claim that at St Peter’s it is the children who are the first to know, but in fact it’s Jane. With her ear to the ground and years of experience she has always been a source of sage advice. She once said ‘When you don’t succeed, keep going; try again, and if all else fails, eat chocolate.’

We are going to miss Jane so very much. In the classroom, as a colleague and for many, many of us as a friend. There aren’t really words to say how grateful we are for all she has done, and what a hole she will leave in the life of the school.

Mr David Spencer

Mr Will Allan

Will joined us as an unqualified, inexperienced and fresh-faced teacher in September of 2009, and worked hard to change