The Wykehamist
College, Oxford, he first visited the College in 2023, and, impressed by one of the largest Classics departments in the country, decided to make his return after obtaining an MA in Assyriology at Leiden University.
His academic interests, as he enthusiastically tells us, are not limited to Plato or Catullus, but also the wider ancient world, having“ blitzed the Akkadian language” in six weeks. Moreover, he has much experience working in museums, in particular helping with cataloguing collections, including in the British Museum.
Outside the classroom, Mr Chan is also a talented musician, having been a choral scholar at Oxford, as well as playing the drums and the piano. He promises to join Choral Society once his busy schedule gives way, putting his cathedral singing prowess to good use.
Winston Chan( Coll:, 2022-) SALVE KBC
Mrs Cole joined us this term as a German don and Freddie’ s house tutor. She will become the Housemistress of St Cross next year.
After spending a year abroad in the Black Forest in Germany, Mrs Cole read German and Linguistics at Jesus College, Oxford as well as German Literature at the University of Trier. She has lots of experience working in boarding houses and was most recently a sixth-form Housemistress at Sherborne Girls.
Mrs Cole is excited to be part of the College at this exciting time in the school’ s history with the arrival of the first cohort of boarding girls, and hopes her previous experience will make the transition smooth. She spends her free time knitting, running, trying to master baking a black forest gâteau and occasionally tagging onto Mr Rattray’ s walking Div hours.
She is impressed by the wide range of interests and talents among the pupils and dons here, and is thrilled that access to this rich learning environment will soon be widened even further to sixth-form girl boarders.
Nicholas Barclay( K, 2022-)
SALVE DJC
This September, we welcomed Mr Canham as Head of Geography and house tutor in
Beloe’ s.
His calling to Geography was sparked by a trip to Cambodia at age sixteen, where he worked on wildlife conservation projects and built an orphanage. He went on to read Geography at the University of Reading, and later joined graduate schemes with Thames Water before deciding that teaching— inspired in part by his mother’ s work in supporting children with special needs— was the profession that best combined a love for his subject with a love of helping others.
Outside of the classroom, Mr Canham speaks passionately of his fascination with the world: travelling is his way of“ living and breathing the subject”, as he believes every teacher should. Having previously taught in rural Berkshire and Dulwich College, Mr Canham delights in getting to know brilliant and polite pupils here at Winchester, and brings with him a long-standing passion for rugby, which he has played since childhood, as well as a love for creative writing and developing his books.
Kirin Ranpura( K, 2022-) SALVE SFS
T
his term, we were joined by Ms Smith as an English don and house tutor in Cook’ s. She read English at Queen’ s, Oxford, and has also helped organise the Oxford Festival of the Arts.
Citing choral singing as one of her major passions, she was a choral scholar during her time at Oxford, and went on to a freelance career before settling into teaching. She wrote her dissertation on W. B. Yeats’ relationship to music, and taught music alongside with English at her last school— Tiffin School in Kingston.
Ms Smith’ s love of teaching began when she was still at school and would help younger pupils with maths and music theory. Now, coming to the College from a grammar school in London, she loves how interested her pupils are here, not just in English but also in whatever else it may be, and adores
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