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Thursday, 01 July 2010
After a lifetime of teaching and 10 years as Head of Beech
House, the Infant Department of Bolton School, Mrs Hilary
Crawforth, will retire this summer.
At a special evening at the School, Beech House teachers, past
and present, ex-pupils and colleagues from the Senior School
gathered for a celebration of her life and career.
Mrs Gill Richards, Headmistress of Bolton School Girls' Division
described her as: "a very wise lady with a great sense of humour"
and said that the Senior Leadership Team will miss her good counsel
and sound advice. Mrs Crawforth's work in orchestrating last
year's smooth move from the old Beech House to the newly-built
state-of-the-art Infant School was commended and it was seen as a
fitting tribute to the retiring Head that Beech House recorded an
unprecedented set of "outstanding" ratings in a recent inspection
of the School's Early Years provision. "In fact" says Mrs
Richards, "they could not make any recommendations at all to
improve Beech House - something that must be almost unheard
of. I hope she will return often to visit us as we shall miss
her terribly."
In her farewell speech Mrs Crawforth said that this was more
than a place of work and it was very difficult to leave. She
reflected on how being an Infant Teacher is hard work but very
rewarding and that it is like having a huge extended family - she
felt one of the advantages of Bolton School was being able to watch
the children grow up and see them develop their talents through
into the Sixth Form.
Mrs Crawforth had been a pupil at Beech House herself in the
1950s and in an essay that she wrote when she was nine years old
she said she hoped that "the children would be the main part of my
life" - how prophetic she was! Mrs Crawforth reminded the
audience that no other workplace offers so much laughter - it is
said children laugh 300 times a day compared to humans who only
laugh 15 times a day. Besides, in what other job, asked
Mrs Crawforth, would you be told several times a day that "I love
you"?
Mrs Crawforth was educated at Homerton College, Cambridge
(1969-1973) where she read French. In 1973 she began her
teaching career as a French teacher at Markland Hill Primary School
before moving to Beech House in 1976. She left from Easter
1981-1986 to bring up two children. She then returned to
Beech House and in 2000, after the death of Mrs Trueman, she became
Head of the Infant Department.
In her retirement Mrs Crawforth is looking forward to spending
time with her family and more time in her garden at her cottage in
Anglesey. She also feels that before long she will miss the
interaction with small children and could see herself taking up
some part-time position which involves working with
infants.
The School wishes her the best of luck!
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