Our People

Your name? 

(and a photo if you want to share)

Steph LeMoigne 

What grade is your child in? 

1PY

What do you do for work? 

Commercial Risk Analyst

How have you set yourself up to work from home?

I work from the kitchen table, Flynn has his workstation next to mine! 

How are you looking after your wellbeing while working from home? 

Regular walks, 1 Pilates session a week with my physio and short mindfulness sessions (when I remember it!)

What is one thing you are grateful for over the last week? 

My support network (my friends, family - couldn’t do it without them!)

What are some of the things you’re most passionate about and most enjoy? 

Cooking and eating! 

Favourite food or dish? 

Bœuf Bourguignon. 

Favourite song, band or movie?

I haven’t seen it in a long time but Dirty Dancing would have to be up there! My sister and I used to watch it on repeat when we were younger! 

What is the funniest thing that has happened during home learning? 

Not the funniest but our dog Charlie has been sitting by Flynn’s side for every single live lessons and he seems to be thoroughly enjoying Miss Pantano’s teaching! 

Your name? 

Anna Barden

What grade is your child in? 

Grades 2 and 4

What do you do for work? 

Qualitative market research

How have you set yourself up to work from home?  

I have set up a desk in our bedroom where I can occasionally close the door for meetings. Luckily many of the clients I work with also have children, so are understanding of occasional interruptions! I am also lucky to work for a company where working offsite or from home was reasonably normal before Covid-19 hit, so the adjustment hasn’t been too bad. 

How are you looking after your wellbeing while working from home? 

I am good friends with the colleagues I work with the most, and we chat online every day. We can also reach out to each other if we are not having a good day – and every one of us has had a few of those over recent months.  We are starting a workplace step challenge to encourage people to get away from their computers for a bit every day, which we can also rope the children into. 

My sister and I have a weekly cooking challenge where we cook a dish with the same theme on a weekend and share pictures and details as we go. This weekend’s challenge is a retro dish of our choice from the 1960s/70s or 80s. When lockdown ends, we hope to have a big family dinner with all these dishes.

Generally, I find that accepting some days will be rubbish, and giving yourself a break on those days to pick up again the next really helps me. 

What is one thing you are grateful for over the last week? 

My husband Scott, who is doing much of his work in the evenings so he can help our boys with home learning during the day. 

What are some of the things you’re most passionate about and most enjoy? 

Knitting and crochet! I have always enjoyed these but having some non-tech time has been really nice when we are managing so much of our lives online. I have made the next two friendship tree covers while in lock down and can’t wait to have all the children back at school so I can put the next one up.

I also love books, and while our two boys have always liked reading, they have been reading so much more over the last months and that enthusiasm has been an unexpected but happy side effect of all this time at home. 

Favourite food or dish? 

Cheese. Or anything made with cheese.

Favourite song, band or movie? 

Oh, that’s tough! For movie I might say a childhood favourite – The Princess Bride, which I watched with our boys again recently (or perhaps more accurately that I made them watch). I’ve also been listening to the Hamilton musical sound track a lot over the last month.

What is the funniest thing that has happened during home learning? 

Let’s just say that we have come to understand the importance of camera angles and communication when video calls are happening, as no one wants to get caught in the background of a video call unaware. Also, at least twice in the last week, our children have corrected us when we have misunderstood the instructions for a home learning activity. It seems that they might actually be better at following instructions than we are.