N o .125
M ay 2018
Stinks and strats, but never stuffy:
random jottings of three dozen years
Andrew Wolters (Co Ro, 81-16) recalls:
‘You won’t like it there, you know. The
Common Room’s awfully stuffy.’
So said the Headmaster of Brentwood
School in February 1981 when I told
him I had got the Winchester job I had
applied for a month earlier. I had enjoyed
teaching at Brentwood for seven years
but something about the refreshingly
no frills ad in the TES, ‘Winchester
College requires Chemistry teacher for
September’, beguiled me into applying.
The interview was to change my life.
Well, an interview with the great
Peter Cattermole (PEC) would change
anyone’s life. He probed my knowledge
of Chemistry and ways of teaching more
deeply than any adult before or since.
We clicked.
The letter offering me the post included
1
the line ‘You may wish to contribute in
other areas of school life insofar as they
do not conflict with your main duty of
teaching Chemistry.’ I wonder if such a
proviso is included today.
There was then, of course, no ‘induction
programme’. I recall a drinks party
the day before term and that was the
induction. James Sabben-Clare, at
that time both Master in College and
Second Master, called at my house,