Hail & Farewell - The King's School in Macclesfield

... and Farewelland our best wishes for the future to:Mike AiersMike Aiers arrived at King’s in 1971:it was to be his one and only teachingpost. Over the years he has taughtScience to Years 7 and 8 and Physicsup to Sixth Form level as well as GeneralStudies. He has been a dedicatedteacher who has been able to explainin clear and simple terms complexconcepts to students over the wholeability range. He rose to the positionof second in the department. As a tutorhe skilfully guided many studentsthrough the Sixth Form and as a SeniorAdviser he helped students to makecrucial decisions about university entryfor Physics, Engineering and Archaeology.Mike is a keen amateur Geologistand member of the Manchester GeologicalAssociation and Peter Cotterelland Harry Lock were grateful for hisassistance with a number of field trips.He has also enjoyed holidaying in Icelandwhere in his words ‘you can seesome real geology’. In recent years, heorganised a number of successful SixthForm teams in the annual PaperclipPhysics competition, organised by theInstitute of Physics of which he is alocal committee member. Away fromthings scientific, Mike has become aScholar of New Testament Greek andhe, together with other members of astudy group, translates texts into English.All at King's wish him a long andhappy retirement.Florence CordierFlorence was appointed as the FrenchAssistant at King’s during the academicyear 2001-2. Whilst providing excellentoral preparation for public examinations,she was also a much-valuedmember of the department and thecommon room. She has returned toFrance to continue her university studiesand we wish her every success.Agnes DouganAgnes joined King’s in 1981. Duringher twenty-one years in the FoundationOffice she has seen many changes- both in the school and in the generalrunning of an efficient office. In herearly days, typewriters were the onlymachines available, but she took thearrival of computers in her stride andhas relished the challenges they bringever since. At all times she has remaineddetermined to develop her ownconsiderable skills and to assist othersin improving theirs. Many staff, teachingand administrative, have reason tothank her for her ability to produceaccurate and stylish work - often completedwell after the end of the officialworking day or at home.Agnes has always been willing toassist in areas not directly related tothe Foundation Office and her helpwith setting up databases and systems,most recently for the Former Pupils’Association and for events relating tothe Quincentenary celebrations, hasbeen invaluable. We wish her a longand happy retirement.Olwen HobsonOlwen joined King’s in 1976 as a parttimeadministrative assistant. Her rolegradually changed until she becamefully involved in Reprographics. In thecourse of her twenty-six years she hasworked happily with three Headmastersand a whole host of teaching andadministrative staff and is rememberedwith great affection and respect. Manyvisiting past members of staff have beenseen dropping in to the Print Room tosay a special hello.Olwen’s sense of humour and determinationhas seen her through manychanges in her working environmentand also through her recent serioushealth problems. Her skill with machineryand eye for detail has beenappreciated by all staff, as has herwillingness to respond to an urgentneed for photocopying or a cry forhelp from members of staff faced witha jammed machine!Despite a battle with ill health whichresulted in an absence of over a year, Olwenwas determined to return to workto complete her twenty-sixyears’ service and to retirein the normal way. Thisshe did, working full-timewith new, digital machinesthat are a far cry from theold ink and fluid duplicatorsthat were in constantuse in her early days.We are delighted thatOlwen is now restored tofull health and we wishher a long and happy retirement.Sarah HorrocksSarah joined us in January1999 as a LaboratoryAssistant. When ChristineHadden retired, Sarah waspromoted to the post ofGeneral Science Technician.She proved herselfvery willing to learn andsupported the General Sciencestaff for just over a yearHail & Farewellbefore leaving through ill health. Wewish Sarah well in the future.Richard KitzingerRichard joined King’s in September1999 as a member of the French Departmentand later on taught some Latin.He left in July 2002 to further his careerat Wells Cathedral School. During histime at King’s, Richard was involved inmany activities ranging from rugby andcricket to fashion shows and Pop Idolcompetitions. Within the department,he was a sound classroom practitionerand assisted in various French trips.We wish him every success in hisfuture career.Ariane LawsonAriane Lawson joined the French Departmenton a part-time basis in January2000 and subsequently became afull-time teacher. During her time atKing’s, she provided much needed nativeexpertise in preparing students forpublic examinations and was also anenthusiastic participant in French trips.She left in January 2002 to continue hercareer at North Manchester CollegiateSchool. We wish her every success.Peter MathewsPeter Mathews retired from King’sin July 2002 after thirty-four years ofteaching, having completed over onehundred terms. During his very distinguishedcareer, he made contributionsto a wide range of curricular areas inthe school. These included pastoral careas a year group head and as a formteacher. He was a teacher of PE and5

Hail & FarewellScience and taught both Biology andGeneral Science in the Boys’ Division.He made an enormous contributionto the sporting life of the school andwas a highly respected 1st XI rugbycoach. He played a major role in theoutdoor activity programme of theschool including the ornithology club,rock climbing activities and worldwideexpeditions. Just prior to retirement, hewas keen to take on new challengesand introduced PSE to the school aswell as masterminding major charityevents.Peter will be remembered for hisfirm but fair discipline in the classroom,organisational skill, passion andcommitment to education, sport andthe outdoors. He will be missed andwe wish him every success in his newventure.John MellorJohn started work at King’s in 1971and completed over ninety terms inMacclesfield. He joined as a metalworkteacher and was promoted within threeyears to Head of the Craft Department.As a result, he had to cope with themany varied changes to his subject.Eventually, he delivered his teachingwith computers and drawing boards aswell as with the more traditional latheand drilling machine. He saw the designconcept come to the fore in his areaof expertise and coped exceptionallywell with the change. He then hadcoursework to deal with, as did manysubjects, and found himself running adepartment involving the name designand technology.John was also a Sixth Form Tutorand gave generously of his time to hisstudents. He delivered pastoral advicein his own unique style. John has hadsome ill health and all at King’s wishhim a long and happy retirement.Nick RileyNick Riley came to King’s in September1993 to teach Mathematics at CumberlandStreet. Nick was always full ofenthusiasm and was popular with manypupils. He had a sharp mind and lovedteasing his classes with puzzles relatedto the work in hand, and especiallyenjoyed the Mathematics Challengepapers. Nick taught on both sites andenjoyed a good deal of academic success.He routinely ran off one and ahalf hour A Level module exam papersin twenty minutes, which was alwaysa hit with the pupils. Nick was keento develop the use of ICT both in classand as an administrative tool and thisdevelopment was much appreciatedby his Head of Department.Nick had a good eye for the balland was an accomplished cricketplayer gaining several local honours.While at King’s, Nick developed skillsin hockey and eventually qualified as acoach; he made considerable contributionsto school hockey and helped toorganise several tours to destinationsincluding South Africa and Canada.Nick’s organisational skills were testedby the complexity of the examinations,a task that he repeatedly pulled off withaplomb.Nick has moved to BromsgroveSchool where he has taken up the postof second in department and we wishhim the very best in his new role.Peter SutcliffePeter Sutcliffe was appointed as SchoolPorter in April 1979, having previouslybeen employed in a similar position inhis home town of Liverpool, and tookup residence in the School Lodge bythe Main Entrance gates with his family.He remained in residence until hisretirement in February 2002. Duringhis many years in the school, Peterbecame well known to all the staff atCumberland Street, not least for hiskeen ornithological interests and hobbiesto which he and his wife devotedmuch of their time.Peter became increasingly concernedwith health problems but on last meetinghim he felt and looked very well.All at King's wish him a long, happyand healthy retirement.Audra TaylorAudra joined King’s in 1993 and spenteight years with the school as AdmissionsSecretary and Secretary to theDeputy Headmaster. She was, to manyparents, the ‘face of King’s’, since shewas the first point of call to all prospectivefamilies applying for the SeniorDivision. The Taylor family have hada long association with the school andseveral generations in the family areformer pupils. Audra had hoped tocontinue the tradition with her sons,but a relocation has broken the chain.However, she continues to work inan educational environment and is aschool secretary in Derbyshire.Philippa ThornhillPhilippa joined us at Easter in 2002 ona temporary contract to cover for PaulDavies. She worked very hard indeedand got to know her classes remarkablyquickly. She devoted a great dealof time at lunchtime to providing extrahelp for students. She contributed ideasand resources to the department andall enjoyed working with her. It wasdifficult to find a replacement for PaulDavies at short notice and King's wasextremely fortunate to find someoneas conscientious and committed asPhilippa.Charlotte WalsterCharlotte arrived to teach Classics atKing’s in September 2001 to covermaternity leave for Mrs Adams. Shearrived fresh from college with manynew ideas and with great enthusiasmto apply them in the classroom. Shesoon proved to be a very popular andeffective teacher with boys and girls.She was keen to participate in all aspectsof school life and took part in theCharity Fashion Show. Although onlyat King’s for a short time, she will bemissed by staff and pupils alike andall wish her well in her new permanentpost at Stockport Grammar School.Helen WilcoxHelen’s relationship with the schoolstarted in 1990 when she was an AreaSupervisor with Sutcliffe Catering, theschool’s caterers. King’s was one ofseveral units for which she was responsible.Her friendly, helpful advice tothe Catering Manager and her staff andconstructive termly meetings with theBursar to discuss budgets and mattersof mutual concern cemented a goodworking relationship between theschool and the company.She then moved into unit managementat the Head Office of the BritanniaBuilding Society in Leek followedby a period as Sutcliffe’s PurchasingManager for the North.In September 1993, she was delightedto accept the post of CateringManager at King’s, a post which sheheld until her retirement in the SpringTerm 2002. She suffered the trials andtribulations of running a school cateringoperation with efficiency, tact and,above all, an enduring sense of humour.She has served the school with totalcommitment and will be rememberedwith great affection by staff and pupilsalike.All wish her a long and happy retirement.Farewell and best wishes also to SusieGaskell, Alexandros Syrmoglou,Gill Burt, Marie Lingard, RachelleCohen and Barbara Livesley.6