PETERHOUSE
NOSTALGIA
PETERHOUSE
NOSTALGIA
Martha
Querl (Staff 1988 - 01)I first met Martha at Rhodes University being the chivalrous sorts we are, Mr. Querl and I were given the responsibility of holding the rope around the drum majorettes as they marched on Rag Day. Mr. Querl picked his spot beside the most glamorous drum majorette and still holds on to that rope around Martha!
Martha was bom in Manchester and brought up in East London in South Africa. She excelled at athletics and High Jump, Synchronized Swimming and played goalkeeper for the Border Women's Hockey team. She sang in the choir and sang solo at Eisteddfods and weddings. She came to Zimbabwe in 1981 and taught at Nagle House from 1981 -1989 - part time from 1985. She coached at Marondera High where Mr. Querl taught. The Querls moved to Peterhouse in August 1986 - Mrs. Queri taught part-time at Springvale House, Nagle House and Peterhouse Girls'. She is a founder member of staff. She has put PHG on the map in terms of sporting performance. She teaches at Peterhouse and helps her husband there in his role as Sports Administrator.
I am naturally sad to see Mrs. Querl leave, but she leaves for the best of reasons - certainly Falcon's gain will be Peterhouse's loss -1 will now ask Mrs. Querl to present our prizes and then say a few words.
The area in which I have been involved with the Girls' School, has been in the field of Sport, teaching, coaching, administering and striving to keep the Girls' School on the Zimbabwe Schools Sporting map. This has certainly been the driving force for me that we should be competitive with the bigger established girls' schools in the country.
I will continue to watch your progress - girls - with much interest and pride. PH Girls are something special to me.
It thus follows that I should say a few words on the topic that has been my life at PHG for the past 15 years.
An all-round education is one which offers a well-balanced and diverse range of activities - academic, cultural and sporting. The experiences one has in a school environment can definitely prepare one for life after school. I am going to focus on the "Sporting" aspect of this all-round education.
Sporting experiences can help turn "ordinary" people into winners - both on and off the field. The learning of skills such as teamwork, commitment, self-control, focus, handling of success and disappointment can be achieved through these experiences.
To excel in anything - be it sport, a relationship or business - you must have a strong basic commitment to what you are trying to achieve. In the book "In Pursuit of Excellence" Terry Orlick says:
"A commitment to do the work is a prerequisite for excellence."
Everyone has a basic desire to achieve excellence and through sport this can sometimes be achieved in less time than in other life situations.It is also a basic human instinct that people wish to be sociable and be in groups with people of similar interests. Sport, through team events allows for this and can lead to strong social bonds and life-long friendships.
Another idea that relates to Sport in this present day is the high profile exposure that it gets through the media. It attracts the biggest crowds and is one of the largest money earners in the business world. These facts cannot be ignored and point strongly to the value that sport has in our world.
Away from the Philosophies of Sport -1 was always very fortunate to have great support from Mike Hammond initially and subsequently, Jon Calderwood - for which I thank them most sincerely.
One memory that I have from the early days is the way in which we operated the afternoon programme. There were 28 Form 1's and 3 Form Vs.
- When we had swimming they all swam
- When we had cross country -
they all ran. Likewise when we played tennis and hockey, when we travelled for matches we fielded 2 junior teams with the remaining girls coming along as spectators.' All our matches were midweek and the transport was usually the old bus called the Oxo Cube. It certainly had its fair share of breakdowns on our trips. We have certainly come a long way since those early beginnings.
I can look back over the years with many memories - most of them happy but some disappointments and sadness as girls moved on. There have been many highlights - Golden Girls Semi-finals; Tours to Kenya and South Africa, Zimbabwe Representatives in a variety of sports, winning the League this year and the progress and individual performances in the swimming pool and on the Athletics Track. They are too numerous to mention. The experiences we have had together and the bonding and camaraderie that takes place within the teams and between staff is something unique. I would like to pay tribute to all the staff that I have worked with over the years.
I will continue to watch your progress - girls - with much interest and pride. PH Girls is something special to me.
In conclusion -1 would like to leave you with the final line from an anonymous poem:
"Winners are people like you and they make this a better place to be."
M QUERL
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