Katie Gent BY VICTORIA GOLDSACK
from (speaking from personal experience). Throughout, it has been her love of teaching that has really shone through and it is no surprise to anyone that she got a Merit in her Learning and Teaching Masters from Oxford, all while maintaining a full teaching timetable and, towards the end of the course, adding the role of acting Head of Department to her plate. No valete for Katie would be complete, however, without talking about her extensive contribution to the DC Rugby scene, both as a coach and a referee. When Katie joined Dulwich, she brought with her a wealth of rugby knowl- edge from her time playing for Harlequins, and since then she has only added to it, playing for Beckenham Ladies, managing and coaching the Kent Women’s team as well as coaching various DC teams over the years – shoutout to last year’s mighty undefeated U13Ds! Indeed, it is no coincidence that she was awarded this year’s DC Rug- by Coach of the Year 2024, the first time this has been presented to a woman. Over the last few years though, her rugby focus has shifted more from playing to that of refereeing, earning herself a place on the National Female Match Official Development Group, sights firmly set on the international refereeing stage at some point in the fu- ture. Given that she has already been on the officials team for a couple of games at Twickenham, both running the touchline and refereeing, I’m sure it won’t be long before this becomes a reality; that and taking into account Katie’s natural drive and determination. Katie leaves us to take up a position as Head of Depart- ment at St Dunstan’s College and our loss is very much their gain. She will be very much missed and we wish her all the very best. ◉
Katie is not your average physicist, and certainly ‘aver- age’ is never a word that I would attribute to her – kind, caring, supportive, intelligent, awesome, and fun she is, but never ‘average’. In preparing to write this I trawled back through all that she has been involved with
at the College over the last six years, and to say that her long list of accomplishments and involvement in DC life is varied would be an understatement. For example, many will have forgotten that she was in charge of the DC Sub Aqua Soc for a time, helping many students achieve their PADI certificates before the society was stopped due to Covid restrictions, or that she was also a Resident House Tutor of Orchard and Old Blew. I will never forget cooking a roast dinner with her for the handful of boarders in Or- chard and Old Blew one Sunday during lockdown; Katie acted as head cook, utilising her phenomenal cooking and baking skills to create wonderful dishes, and I ran backwards and forwards between all the ovens trying not to drop something. Needless to say it was a resounding success. Katie joined the Physics Department in September 2018 and since then has gone from strength to strength. She is a brilliant physicist, able to break down the most complicat- ed of concepts and tailor her explanations to her audience with ease, a skill that not just the students have benefited
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VALETE
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