From the Acting Head

“No one said life got to be exactly as you wanted all the time.” 

This innocuous quote, mid-article, in a mainstream newspaper, stopped me in my reading tracks last weekend. I found its simple truth disarming, and I suddenly felt like a petulant child for longing for a life without COVID-19. The quote is from singer, songwriter and comedian, Tim Minchin, who says he is “just trying to get on with it.”

We all take inspiration from others at one time or another, and for the past week, I have channelled Tim Minchin, because why not? He is smart, informed, funny and has more talent than seems fair. His reminder that we don’t always get to choose the path our lives will take has given me the pep I have needed this week and a more fatalistic and calm view of the immediate future. 

I can highly recommend riding on someone else’s coattails for a while if it helps you to ride the bumps. 

When we look for role models in life, it can be easy to overlook the people who are right under our noses. Last week, I announced some significant staff retirements and when I look at the list of people who will retire from our School at the end of this year, I would happily ride on any of their coattails. 

Five staff members will start new chapters in their lives, having served Girton Grammar School for fifteen years at the lowest end of the scale and thirty-seven years at the upper end.

Dennis Garoni is our much-loved founding Head of Junior School, retiring after twenty-eight years of unwavering loyalty, and having been handed a paintbrush on his first day of work to patch up classrooms in the Junior School. There is virtually no part of Girton that Dennis has not positively influenced, and his hard work and high morals are cemented into the fabric of the School. 

Jane Reaburn, our Head of Science, has been a role model to generations of Girtonians, especially our female science students and after thirty-seven years of service to the School, we can barely imagine the Naunton Family Building or a STEM trip without her. 

For more than twenty-eight years, Ralph Algreen-Ussing has patiently taught young people Mathematics, and at times, led the Mathematics Department in the School. Hardly more needs be said. What an exercise in noble, understated commitment to a worthy cause. 

Annette Reid’s quiet and calm presence has been welcomed in so many areas of the School over the past seventeen years, and countless families are eternally grateful for the support she has provided to students challenged by the mainstream curriculum. 

And finally, our Head of Business Management and Head of Millward House, Kerrie Stewart, leaves us after fifteen years of industrious and loyal contribution to Girton. Kerrie has that wonderful combination of professionalism and care that allow her to be effective both in the classroom, in leadership and in her responsibilities for student wellbeing. 

While life continues to serve up the unexpected, look to those around you for inspiration, and at the very least, you will find a temporary way forward. 

Dr Emma O’Rielly

Acting Head