b'Long memory Mr P Jones When did you join the school andHow have you managed what are your earliest memoriestoretain your energy of coming to teach at HGS? and enjoymentI attended Nottingham University for my PGCE after of teaching? graduating in Physics from Birmingham. To be honest, IdOh, I must be a better actor have accepted a job in a Nottingham school as my experiencethan I thought! No, the of living there was very positive. However, only two jobs weresecret of being enthusiastic, available for newly qualified physics teachers in Nottinghamenergetic and content in your at the time I was applying, so I found myself coming for ancareer is simplechoose the right one for you. interview at HGS in 1986. If I was a house-hunter on BBCsSome people are driven by money or status but if, upon the Escape to the Country Id demand a property that wasattainment of these, those guys are not enjoying what they do historical, traditional and characterful but with modernisedfor the majority of their working lives, you must question such internal features, and I suppose that it was this ethos thatmotivating factors. If they are content, then great. I find it sad made me feel at home at HGS as soon as I arrived. During myif, when a parent enthuses about what their son or daughter tour of the school I bumped into one of my former teacherswants to be in the future, the child says nothing but has the from Bishop Veseys, and what he had to say about thedefeated demeanour of one who disagrees. In a few cases, school only cemented further my desire to be appointed. Mytheir opinion doesnt seem to matter.old school, of course, had been similar in many respects andFortunately, at HGS we have a student body which, for the this was probably an influencing factor too in what I thoughtmost part, is motivated, conscientious and genuinely wanting education should look like and what I wanted to be part of. to learn, and their parents are highly supportive too. TheseWhat was the school like when you joined andfactors all help to provide job satisfaction. what have been the biggest changes during I have always enjoyed the benefits of academic holidays andyour career here?am fortunate to have been able to travel quite widely to rest, Our cohorts of students havent changed a lot over therecuperate and recharge the batteries during them. Thus, I years, and neither have my colleagues (both those that haveinvariably feel refreshed and excited about the start of a new come and gone, and lifers like me). The biggest changeterm. Persistent negativity can rub off onto those who are not has been the impact of technology, not only upon whatin a position to distance themselves from it and it isnt part of goes on directly in the classroom and school administration,an effective teachers arsenal. Teachers have a bad press at but also upon students expectations and, arguably, theirtimes, and maybe those who continually highlight problems ability to concentrate for long periods of time. When I startedwithout proposing or accepting solutions should feel partly teaching, science was one of only a very small number ofresponsible.subjects that offered students the use of equipment and the What have been your fondest memories of actual freedom to walk around during practicals and group school trips, and what is the trip that is most work! Now, engaging experiences are quite rightly expected memorable for you? across all subject areas, and HGS is in the fortunate position of having some excellent classroom practitioners who useI have been fortunate to have led, or be invited to assist in technology effectively to enhance (rather than dominate) theleading, many visits to places including Canada, France, learning experiences they provide. The downside of personalGermany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic technology when youre working, watching a film or readingas well as ones closer to home in England, Wales and a book is the distraction of your phone or computer pingingScotland. I could recount at least one highlight from what and you thinking Id better look at it I suppose, it may bewould be a couple of hundred residentials, but a few that important. It seldom is! Its one thing knowing that you shouldcome immediately to mind include, in no particular order, the distance yourself from technology at times and anotherformer Head of DT, Mr Keane, screaming at a very inoffensive actually managing to do that. student in Paris, If you dont shut up, youll be coming down the Eiffel Tower quicker than anyone else tomorrow! and theYou must have taught thousands student who, whilst we were sitting next to each other on aof pupils. Are there any who flight and both gazing at the tranquillity of the clouds below,stand out in your memory?said, Sir, have we stopped? It was the mother of the same As a trainee teacher in Nottingham, at the start of teaching mystudent who wrote, in the Dietary Requirements section of first ever lesson, I lined up the students outside the laboratoryhis consent form: He likes warm milk on his cornflakes in and firmly instructed them to Go into the laboratory andthe morning. Students genuine joy and relief at successfully stand behind your benches. In they marched, and filled upconquering the notorious Death Leap on a mountain called the places accordingly. To one girl on the front row who hadStac Polly in Sutherland, Scotland, was rewarding, seemingly sat down I shouted, You! I told you to go in andas were the similar feelings stand up, so stand! I am standing, she replied. From thatof achievement evident after starting point, the quality of my teacher-student interaction hasstudents had crossed the Crib kept going downhill! Goch Ridge on Snowdon, and also Striding Edge which is on the There are indeed many HGS students that remain etchedway to the summit of Helvellyn in in my memory, the vast majority for positive reasons. I havethe Lake District. I remember being spent time in school during the recent lockdown having amolested and covered in kisses clear-out, shredding old class lists, trip lists and photographs.by a group of German women on Looking at each of them has caused memories to flood back.a Rhine cruiser when one cheeky However, if I was to mention the half a dozen or so individualstudent had asked them Knnen students, or their actions, that the time and space constraintssie unseren lehrer kssen? I could of this interview permits (note the physics aside), the remaininggo on for hours.7,924 students could quite rightly feel peeved.47'