Experienced teachers retire
2008-11-27
Marguerite Lombard
HUGUENOT HIGH in Wellington will lose more than 70 years’ teaching experience when three teachers - Louise Grobler (Afrikaans), Linda Bruyns (Home Economics) and Blanche Langner (English) - retire at the end of the year. Vice-principal Louise Grobler has taught Afrikaans for 27 years, and is a past pupil and head girl of Huguenot High. Her father Frikkie Marais also taught at the school. She says there have been many highlights in her teaching career at the school, but the one that stands out is her debating team’s farewell function for her earlier this month. “It was such a wonderful surprise to see members of all the school’s debating teams since 1985. Many went to so much trouble to be there. Some are living overseas and timed their visits home to coincide with the farewell.” Teaching can be a demanding career, but the three teachers agree that while they are sad to leave, they are looking forward to their retirement. “Yes, I am definitely ready for a little slow living,” says home economics teacher Linda Bruyns. Linda has taught the best part of 26 years at the school. Her pupils have excelled at national cook-offs, and excelled at competitions such as the Rooi Rose Tienerkok and the Home Economics Olympiad. This year her pupils took second and third places in the Moirs Baking Competition. Next year there will be no more test papers to set, or homework to mark: instead, a peaceful holiday at the coast, or a long awaited trip to Ireland. One of the school’s other stalwarts, Blanche Langner, will also be retiring after 20 years’ teaching English at the school: “It is never easy to leave, and it is even more difficult to decide when to leave. “Most of us take on a class from Grade 8, and there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing them through to Grade 12. It is not easy to goodbye.”
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