Old_Cliftonian_Mag_2011

and staff would have had no inkling of this.
Eventually, the time came when it was right
for John to step back from the demands
of full-time teaching. He left Clifton in
June 2009, and now contributes from his
personal experience and wisdom to the
MS Society Help Line. Now he has more
time to pursue some of his own interests
which have had to take a back seat during
an extremely busy teaching career. Who
knows, maybe one day he might even be
able to watch his beloved Luton Town FC
play again in the Premier League?!*!
Will Hodges
Will arrived in September 2010 and
armed with his First from Oxford
in Italian and Portuguese, his role
started with teaching those languages to
small groups. He soon proved so capable
that his involvement has grown and grown
and he has found himself teaching French,
Spanish and German as well.
He also quickly made his mark on the sports
field and has been heavily involved with
athletics and hockey, and in particular proved
a popular coach to the 2nd XI football team
who had one of their best ever seasons,
reaching the final of the Mercian League.
Will clearly has a bright future ahead of
him as a teacher, and in September he
starts a PGCE at Bristol University.
Llewelin Siddons
Solange
Montgomery
A Personal Tribute
I
first
The Rev’d Kim Taplin
met Solange in September
2001 when I arrived at the
induction day for new teachers
joining Clifton.
Initially, during our first year, Solange
and I worked alongside each other in
The Percival Centre, where Solange
worked as an EFL teacher on the top
floor teaching EFL classes to exam level
and individual lessons.
A year later we moved; the EFL and
Learning Support department were
relocated and now Solange and I were
Robert Morris
Rob arrived at Clifton in September
2004 with me and we were
teaching in adjoining English
classrooms in the Tribe building, with
the ever famous Alan Brown next door.
Rob was also teaching Theatre Studies
at the time and when Simon Miller left
for Asia, Rob was appointed as the new
Director of Drama. He took this job
on with enthusiasm and directed the
School and Junior Plays with empathy.
A favourite of mine was Oliver, in
which he brought out the wickedness
of London in Dickens’ time with the
effective staging and clever lighting.
Rob came with plenty of experience in the
acting profession; after graduating from
the Oxford School of Drama on a postgraduate
course he worked professionally
as an actor in repertory theatre including
seasons at the local Bristol Old Vic and
The Young Vic. He worked for GWR
radio and BBC and was involved in the
international Alan Ayckbourn tour.
Having moved from theatre to lecturing on
Performing Arts, he worked for Salford/
Lancaster University and then turned to
teaching at Manchester High School for
Girls, where he taught English.
His work on the House Play Festival will
always be a special memory for him as it
will for those who looked forward to his
summing up in poetry form each year.
part of a bigger team because Learning
Support had expanded. The downstairs
front classroom in 7 Northcote Road
became Solange’s classroom for the next
seven years. It became a place of learning
and laughter. She was an inspirational
teacher who was conscientious, adored
her students and was adored by them.
Many of her lessons were tailor-made for
the individuals in her classes. Solange
spent hours devising entertaining and
educating lessons to amuse and teach her
students.
Solange unbeknown to many suffered
from multiple and complex health
problems often requiring treatment that
took place in the holidays. She hid these
problems as much as she could and many
students and indeed staff were unaware
of the slow deterioration in her health and
energy levels. The journey from Northcote
Rob, of course, met Michaela one day
in the Grubber and from then on it was
inevitable that they would get married.
Perhaps what was not so inevitable
was that they would move to China to
take on a new department in a British
School, an amazing adventure on the
other side of the world. We all wish them
luck and look forward to hearing about
their adventures.
Karen Pickles
David Oyns
After a lifetime – or what must have
seemed like a lifetime – teaching
D&T at a nearby comprehensive
school David Oyns came to the somewhat
calmer waters of Clifton eight years ago
as technician to our D&T department.
From that day to this we have benefited
from his experience, technical expertise
and his constant and loyal support. His
consistently good natured yet professional
schoolmasterly manner made him popular
with the Clifton pupils and his ever-ready
willingness to help anyone with staffing
shortages or practical problems, from
broken boats and bicycles to damaged
cupboards and commodes, meant that
many members of the wider Clifton staff
far beyond the D&T department have
cause to be grateful to David also. David’s
interest in and support of the CCF RAF
section increased over his time at Clifton
until he was actually head of that section
Road to
the Senior
Common
Room was
often a painful
one for her
and when
she taught
in the Tribe
building it was
a tremendous
struggle for her
to get there.
Those members of staff who worked
at Northcote Road with Solange were
painfully aware of the supreme efforts
she made over the last year or two just
to keep on going. Her leukaemia was
progressing and she began to need more
and more blood transfusions to the point
where it was too difficult for her to continue
34 the CLIFTON MAGAZINE 2011