the Financial Times’ ‘How To Spend It’ supplement). We have been lucky to have him (and his natty knitwear) on this first stage of what will no doubt be a career to watch. ◉
to Tuscan vineyards toured and Cuban cigars savoured; from Lisbon drag queens applauded and Neapolitan bars left negroniless to Berlin nightclubs that – well, there’s no need to labour the point for the sake of rhetorical symme- try. Ollie’s field of vision is wide and his sense of humanity correspondingly deep. It’s that sensibility that made him more than a compelling classroom teacher. It saw him contribute dynamically to the wider life of the College – as a much-loved form tutor; as an enthusiastic hockey coach (never seen on Saturday mornings without his trademark dark sunglasses); as Master-in-Charge of Croquet (the option seems to have been cancelled but the Economics Department has ac- quired a handsome set of ornamental mallets, which feels like a very Gardner-y outcome); and, of course, as Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion. To the latter post he brought a new sense of energy and purpose, as well as a range of exciting projects and speakers that enlivened our celebrations of (for example) Black History Month and DC Pride. Ollie’s clarity of thought and expression in leading this complex brief was clear in SMT presentations, staff workshops, and whole-school assemblies. The authen- ticity with which he spoke to pupils – the intelligence, the humour, the willingness to be vulnerable – ensured they never felt ‘preached at’: only inspired to be better ver- sions of themselves. Many of us would wish to have had a teacher – a role-model – like him. Ollie leaves the Venetian Gothic of SE21 for the concrete brutalism of the Barbican. The move is not entirely in poor taste: he goes to a richly deserved promotion as Head of Economics at City of London Girls (where he will perhaps have more pupils who share his embarrassing addiction to
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