Georgina Longley arrived at Marlborough five years ago from Oxford High School, with impressive academic credentials - a First in Classical Mods and Greats, an MA with Distinction and a DPhil.

She honed her teaching skills here across the full range of classical subjects and students and impressed everyone with her indefatigable energy, her razor sharp mind, the range and depth of her knowledge and her love of words. Though her puns were formally banned from classics department meetings, she got her revenge by trouncing Julian Lloyd (CR 1991 - ) at Scrabble on the Greek Trip. Do not attempt to challenge Georgina to Scrabble in any language!
 
She has coordinated the Extended Essays for IB, mentored Upper School scholars, as well as mentoring Oxbridge candidates and supervising some EPQs. She has taken a major role in Debating and has helped take Classics into local primary schools through her highly successful outreach programme. All of this activity has been fuelled by cups of intensely strong coffee brewed in the Languages Resources room. She has been a fantastic role model during these five years for those pupils who love to explore ideas on an exciting journey of intellectual discovery.
 
In Elmhurst, she is one of those tutors who goes the extra mile – always attends House events, arrives on duty with an excellent array of cakes, helps all comers with personal statements and is happy to turn her hand to anything.  I know Harriet and the Elmhurst girls will miss her enormously.

Georgina heads off to pastures new at King’s Canterbury. 

Neil Moore (CR 1996 - )

Andy Pembleton joined us from Wnganui in New Zealand bringing with him some excellent skills in rugby coaching.

Being the sportsman he is, he was also a very effective hockey coach and Head of tennis.  Head of PE was another important role taken on by Andy and I know that his large department greatly appreciated the caring approach he always showed. 

Andy loves his sport and takes his inspiration from Vince Lombardi the former American football coach who said:  ‘perfection is not attainable but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence’.

He is off to Millfield to be Assistant Director of Sport and is to co-coach the Yearling’s first rugby team with John Mallet (CR 1995-6) a former Marlborough Beak.  We wish you well in your move to Somerset.

Neil Moore (CR 1996 - )

Duncan has worked in the Outdoor Activities department for seven years; firstly with Rupert Rosedale (CR 1999-2009) and then Russ Tong (CR 2001 -). 

He is an excellent practitioner of a whole range of OA activities with climbing being his particular interest.  He has also been a major influence in the increasing popularity of the Devizes to Westminster (DW) canoe race each year: indeed his dedication to kayaking even extended to him heading up the Kennet to Waitrose to pick up his shopping on occasions.  In every OA activity Duncan is involved in, he manages to be an excellent motivator of the young: he certainly has an excellent pastoral instinct. Many pupils over the years have benefitted greatly from the interest Duncan has shown in them as individuals.  Duncan has certainly learnt a lot since coming to Marlborough and some of this has been through trial and error. When learning the art of trailer towing he watched the DW trailer loaded with kayaks overtake the minibus he was driving and nearly collide with a row of parked cars. An experience which impressed upon him the importance of hitching the trailer to the minibus before starting to tow.

As well as providing a huge contribution to OA, Duncan has been a valued tutor on Wednesday evenings in Cotton and a great supporter of all Common Room events.  He leaves us to become Head of the OA department at Bryanston next year and we wish him all the best.

Neil Moore (CR 1996 - )

Robin joined the Modern Languages Department 17 years ago, leaving the City to move into teaching German and French.

For all but one year, when he moved across to Sevenoaks before being almost immediately drawn back to succeed David Whiting as Head of Modern Languages, we have enjoyed his genial, sparkling and mischievous good humour in the department and in the wider Common Room.

Robin is a phenomenal Germanist. He loves the language and speaks it beautifully. He has wide cultural knowledge and particularly loves German film and twentieth century literature. Like many linguists he appreciates the humour inherent in language with its pitfalls and traps, and often he has stumbled with a chuckle across cartoons, online clips, articles and the like which show up the comic side to language use and misuse. As Head of Modern Languages for nine years, Robin led some bold initiatives, introducing Chinese and Italian as major languages, bringing French onto equal terms with the other five as an optional language in its own right, and embracing the inherent IB spirit of “languages for all” in a Marlborough context which survives in the wide range of Upper School non-specialist language options. With the UK now looking to redefine itself on the world stage, the opportunities for Marlburians to leave as skilled speakers of any of eight languages are directly due to Robin’s visionary leadership of the department.

Robin loves exchanges and foreign visits, and he relishes these opportunities, not only for individuals to perfect their language skills and to appreciate a foreign way of life, but also for schools to be open minded and work together for long lasting educational benefit. In the classroom, Robin’s sets have appreciated his patient, well-structured teaching, his calm good humour, and his thorough and rigorous demands of precision and accuracy in the learning process. On the cricket field, the 4th XI has benefited hugely from his coaching and sense of fun, and this year he has introduced them to the world of village cricket, another example of Robin’s outreach instinct. Singing has long been a favoured hobby of his too: inspired by his love of choral singing, he has instigated some memorable collaborations between the Modern Languages and Music departments, including the annual Liederabend and the multi-lingual Advent Celebration.

For the past two years Robin has had wider responsibilities as Director of Cultural and Global Awareness, while remaining Head of German. The experience he has gained in this wider role will serve him well as he now moves to Hockerill Anglo-European College, Bishops Stortford, as Assistant Head of Sixth Form. An internationally inspired school specialising in Modern Languages and Music, as Hockerill is, is surely tailor made for Robin. We congratulate him and thank him for all he has done at Marlborough over the past 17 years.

Andrew Brown (CR 1981 - )