No . 136 The Trusty Servant
Of Liz ’ s many talents , foremost among them is her razor-sharp mind . Having grown up in her father ’ s boarding house at Rugby and been one of the only girls at that school , it should come as little surprise that Liz arrived at Winchester well armed and armoured to deal with the idiocy of teenage boys , and many of her male colleagues . She declined to apply to Oxbridge , electing instead to attend Durham where she received a stellar 1st in Economics – one of only two in the university . After Durham , she began training as an actuary , but chose to put job satisfaction before money and to go into teaching – a decision that she says that she now regrets . Liz began her classroom career at Epsom College and after posts at most boarding schools across southern England , quickly became the first ever female Head of Department at Radley .
We have been most fortunate to have had her in that capacity here . Under her watch , Economics has grown from a VIBk backwater into a raging torrent , with numbers having now breached 100 for the first time . Known affectionately by her department as “ Aunty Liz ” and adopted by her younger colleagues as their ” work mum ”, her mentoring of dons in her department has been outstanding . In the academically demanding days of Pre-U , two of her pupils , George Baxendale and Cosmo Summerfield , achieved the highest marks in Economics in the country . It was a fitting tribute then that Liz was nominated by one of her pupils to receive , and was duly awarded the accolade of “ best educator ” by Chicago University . Not to be outdone , the headmaster awarded Liz the Tim Hands gold medal for achieving the best Pre-U grades in the School that year .
It is an unfortunate truth of the College that unless you are on the soccer , cricket or Winchester Football pitches , your contribution to sport may go unnoticed . This is certainly the case with Liz who ran the College badminton club for years with barely a mention , despite having captained Durham ’ s badminton team in which she earned her palatinate , and also represented her university at squash .
For my own part , I do not believe that Liz really regrets her decision to take job satisfaction over cold , hard cash – although I don ’ t want to argue with her about it ! I don ’ t believe her because she is a giver , not a taker . She has given everything to her pupils , her department , her colleagues and to the School . She is someone who has the courage to say what she thinks , and she is a fierce , fierce friend . People like Liz do not come along often in a lifetime . We wish her every happiness outside the College and know that we will all be poorer without her .
Alex Clayton ( Co Ro , 15-23 )
Dan Pounds ( Ho Do G , 19- ; Co Ro , 03- ) writes :
Drone , sediment , crevasse . Before he arrived at Winchester these were the words you would most associate with Alex Clayton . Recently back from Iceland attempting , and after a good deal of stress , succeeding in applying physics to modified subglacial substrate , he partially succeeded in answering a question no one had asked – in other words , he received a doctorate . At interview he was the stand-out candidate , at one point convincingly interweaving a scene from a Bond movie into one of his answers . It was on glaciation – of course .
Highly intelligent and forensic in his approach , it was clear from the outset that Alex should be in charge of things , and one of his first roles was to take over the running of Boat Club . This involved his switching sports from track cycling , where he was so successful that he was named British Universities coach of the year for his work at Southampton .
He took these coaching skills to Boat Club . As with all his enterprises his time there was extremely successful . He increased substantially the numbers rowing and built a strong team of coaches , and he left a replicable and reliable system for others to follow – the scientist applying his approach to his work ! There are not many clubs anywhere which can boast GB athletes as their coaches and , for a while , an Olympic Champion too .
In his time as Head of Department ( since 2020 ) Alex has led us well , patiently nudging us all in his chosen direction , while making us feel it was our idea all along . He has increased our uptake at GCSE and we have more pupils at A-level than at any time in the last 20 years . The department has never been in better shape , something I ’ m happy to admit as a former head of department myself . He certainly has never lacked confidence or conviction but is prepared to accept when an idea isn ’ t working and consider alternatives which , in truth , isn ’ t often . He is , in short , a great boss .
I asked the pupils to sum up Alex in a word . ‘ Tall ’ came out on top . However , amongst the others were modest , witty , organised , encouraging and caring . They are an astute bunch .
Alex has fitted a ridiculous amount into his eight years at the school . In recent years he has become increasingly vocal and passionate about the environment , promoting climate change and rewilding as staples of the JP syllabus enthusing a whole generation of Wykehamists in the process . They now have the tools to interrogate these issues against the
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