Chronicle April 2016

13 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Katherine Cole What do you do atTeddies and how long have you been at the School? I arrived in September to be Head of German and AHM in Jubilee. Where were you before? I studied German and Linguistics then started teaching at Hurstpierpoint College in West Sussex, where I was AHM and taught in the senior and prep schools. Then I moved to Ardingly College to be Head of German and AHM in the mixed Upper Sixth house. What do you most enjoy about your role? Teaching the German language is a lot of fun: I enjoy the sound of the language, the mechanics of the grammar, long compound nouns, teaching literature to our native speaker students and coming across comical German words with our beginners (this year’s favourites were ‘Auspuff = exhaust pipe’ and ‘Bürgermeister = mayor’) but I equally love living in a boarding house. What has been your favouriteTeddies moment so far? Jubilations was a brilliant evening – the girls are so talented. A close second was the impromptu Jubilee Christmas dance-off on the last night of the first term which Miss Ramadharsingh, Mrs Gowen and I didn’t come close to winning. Our Shells being awarded best taste prize for their German Christmas biscuits in a competition they entered was also great. Favourite menu item fromTeddies kitchen? Chocolate chip shortbread. Favourite place in Oxford? Having the University’s Modern Languages Library on the doorstep is handy. I also like Port Meadow for running. What was the naughtiest thing you did at school? I think I had a pretty unblemished record; my style was to put the idea in someone else’s head and watch it happen. Is that worse? I sabotaged a fair few Physics experiments (sorry, Physics) and am ashamed to say I was a serial chatter. What would be your Desert Island book? A novel by my favourite German crime writer Charlotte Link. Best advice you’ve ever been given? Making mistakes is all part of learning. In German ‘Aus Fehlern wird man klug‘.