No . 130 The Trusty Servant
Wiccamica
Do Co Ro : Ave atque Vale In addition to those mentioned in May ’ s edition , Tim Meldrum ( Economics , 19-20 ) departed . We thank him for his time with us and wish him well .
We offer a warm welcome to this half ’ s new dons : Robert Berardi ( Classics ); Kevin Fondain ( MFL ); Edmund Lewis ( HoD , Classics ); James Livingstone ( MFL ); Joseph Lord ( Classics ); Ross Maidment ( Chaplain ); ShenZhen Newman ( Maths ); Benjamin Pennington ( Geography ); Daniel Reeve ( Maths ); Vishnu Satkunabalan ( Economics ); Jonathan Taylor ( Mathematics ); and Daniel Wright ( Duncan Louis Stewart Fellow ). Crises are an excellent time for recruitment ( your Editor writes conceitedly having been appointed in the wake of the 2008 Financial Crisis ), so we are confident in expecting great things of this cohort .
Win Coll Soc : Ave We have a new Director of Winchester College Society . Christopher Normand ( F , 76 -81 ) returned to Winchester at the beginning of Short Half to succeed Alex Roe . Christopher has a strong Wykehamical bond . His father was Aulae Prae in 1946 , his father-inlaw was a Beloeite in the 1950s and most recently his son , Oliver ( F , 13-18 ), was Sen Co Prae . Prior to taking up his role in Win Coll Soc , Christopher ’ s career took him from The Royal Green Jackets , via the City and insurance , to owning and managing a manufacturing business in Oxfordshire .
Life under COVID-19
Readers will have gleaned many details from the Headmaster ’ s excellent leading article , but let me give some more . I start by confirming , as a brand-new housemaster , that morale really did start and stay very high . The New Men especially were a tight-knit band of brothers after doing everything together for the first two weeks .
There were some grumbles when the protocols were announced at the end of the summer holiday . The creation of house bubbles required two weeks of remote learning up to house , and its protection required no trips to town , no takeaways and no exeat . Why was Winchester being more cautious than other schools which were rushing straight back to business as usual ? In fact the issue was more about capability than caution : the preservation of house dining meant that we were able to create and maintain house bubbles which were simply not possible at other schools . And we were delighted to reach Leave-out with not a single positive case .
Such a case would have been identified on our SAMBA II machines , acquired through Dr Cullerne ’ s epidemiological links . I did feel a twinge of guilty privilege when a pyretic toddler meant I needed to be tested and the government service directed me to Enfield for the closest test ; I would still have been on the M25 by the time Med Centre had given me the verdict . The boys are now very used to staying in their bedsits for an evening while one their year-group with a temperature or cough is tested .
Maquina de Ipanema
As I write , the school is in the midst of a mass-testing programme to ensure a safe return from Leave-out . It was masterminded by Dr Cullerne and Mr Hart , whose logistical skills were honed in Afghanistan . The matrons and housemasters piloted the process , and the boys are returning a yeargroup at a time over the first week
Any pupils unable to be at school are joining their lessons remotely . In practice this means that dons have a camera pointed at them while teaching . It works well , with only occasionally a plaintive voice asking , ‘ Please , sir , could you show me the screen too ?’
Open Wide !
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