PETERHOUSE NOSTALGIA

... MEMORIES ...

Andy Griggs

I was born in UK and was educated the government school system, where I completed A level studies in Biology and Chemistry, and learned to play the Clarinet, a skill which I still enjoy to this day. I was never much of a sportsman, and the few sports sessions that I had to attend were mainly confined to having a good social with the other full back and goalkeeper on the junior soccer field, when fog made it difficult to see what was going on at the other end of the field.

I was a little uncertain of my direction from school, so I chose a degree at Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) where the end result was one of several options which I could select as I went through. At the end of the day I ended up with a combined honours degree in Zoology and Geography. Being a little undecided on my career, I took the easy way out by staying in education for a further year, learning to be a teacher, as the course was paid for by my local education authority. I spent a very pleasant year at Bath University. After attending 6 weeks of lectures on all sorts of things, I went on my first teaching practice, and discovered that I learned more in the first day there about how to teach than I had over the previous six weeks! On leaving University, I took up a teaching post at a state school in Stevenage, where I had a fulfilling 4 year stint, before answering a Zimbabwe Ministry of Education advert for teachers.

I joined Peterhouse in January 1989, after spending the previous 8 years at Ellis Robins and Plumtree High Schools. I was in the process of making the decision to return to England, as I felt that I had reached a bit of a dead end here. By chance I met up with Guy Cary (G66), who later became Housemaster of Tinokura, who told me that there was a need for science teachers at Peterhouse. I tentatively chatted to Allan Megahey, and before I knew it there was a contract in the post!

I began by teaching Biology, and was Assistant Housemaster in Paget, but was soon shunted across to the Geography Department under Peter Ginn. Soon after my arrival, I was invited to the Rector's Lodge for a dinner with visiting musicians. I was a little diffident about being in such exalted company as Allan and Elizabeth, but was soon put at ease by Elizabeth, and the icing on the cake was when Guy Cary squelched in having just fallen into the newly dug septic tank on the lawn outside in the dark! Any suggestion of the dinner being a formal serious affair after that disappeared very quickly.

I took over the Geography Department in 1992, a position I held until the end of 1997. By this time I had also taken over as Housemaster of Snell, following David Shaw. I spent the first couple of years clearing out the department, finding such gems as the Rhodesian Agricultural policy of 1960 (200 copies), and the galley proofs of Peter Ginn's bird books in the Bundu series.

The social life in the early 1990s was very good, and I made countless trips along Old Settlement road to Ruzawi to party the night away in the Staff Pub there. The return journey was always more frought with dangers as the car would not seem to keep in a straight line!

In 1998 I married Louise, and had a ready made family, with her and her son Daniel. Quite a shock to the system! My cat and I sat cowering in a corner looking at all the strange furniture, and listening to the two dogs barking outside, and the cockatiel in the cage on the veranda. We both soon got used to it however!

In 2002 I was asked to oversee the Cultural side of the school, and to assist David Shaw with the academic organization. The job grew over time, and by 2003 I decided that 8 years in Snell was time to call it quits, so I left the House at the end of the year. We now live on the top road, next to Pug, which brought back memories of how I and other young staff would have fairly liquid lunches in a house just across the road from Phil, and then turn out the lights and keep quiet when it got near 6.00pm chapel time, so that he wouldn't notice us when he went down for the service! We are still enjoying our lives, and are looking forward to many more years association with the School.