Andrew Stark By Robert Baylis
Will Dugdale By Robert Baylis
Andrew’s contribution to the wider life of the College and to free learning has been strong. He organised and accompanied many overseas trips, shrewdly planning and delivering with expertise one of the most complex Modern Languages trips in recent years, to China. This trip involved a high level of planning, given that it involved the visiting of multiple cities. It involved travel by overnight trains and catered for pupils with varying needs. Closer to home, Andrew has organised excellent study days, has had successes at the HSBC Chinese speaking com- petition, and has organised visits to Chinatown, among other venues. Away from the academic life of the school, Andrew’s tutees have benefited from his calm, kind and patient pastoral guidance, and his Community Action contribution has been second to none. Andrew is an excellent teacher, and the Modern Languag- es Department loses a great colleague and linguist. His wry sense of humour and a lively yet carefully pitched wit. As one colleague said: ‘His take on school life can always jolly you along on a Monday morning!’ We will miss him as he, Anthea and Amelie move to Beijing, and we wish them all the best as they embark this exciting new adventure. ◎
Will joined Dulwich College in September 2011 from the Latymer School, Edmonton. He was fortu- nate to take over a very well-run and popular German Depart- ment, and set about building on the strong foundations set by his predecessor. His commitment to strong classroom practice and his positive and cooperative attitude towards his team and the wider
to establish a teaching resource website. Will’s drive and commitment to the placing of teaching at the heart of his department through this resource was an excellent example of his ability to think of innovative approaches, and it foresaw the importance of online materials well in advance of remote learning. His interest in digital learning led him to set up and run online Oxbridge courses for the Southwark Schools’ Learning Partnership and for Dulwich College International pupils. Last year, over 120 pupils registered for the scheme in ten subjects. In addition to this College-focused practice, he estab- lished a partnership programme to support local state schools, offering free after-school German GCSE classes for pupils who had previously attended the Judith Kerr School but whose secondary schools did not teach Ger- man. Will made an impact on the wider learning of Modern Languages, not only in German, but also in other languag- es. He was the founding Master-in-charge of the highly successful Modern Languages and Cultures Society, which started with talks and presentations ranging from a German silent film screening accompanied by piano to a discussion of ‘El Clasico’, as well as welcoming visiting speakers on Berlin, poetry and linguistics. He also over- saw a poetry recital competition which featured 30 boys in the final, the heats having taken place in class. Away from the classroom, Will has made a very posi- tive contribution to the co-curricular life of the College through his work as a form tutor and as a golf coach. Many Alleynians have benefited from his high-level golfing skills over the years. Will has been a committed and de- voted Head of German and he will be missed. He leaves behind him not only many friends, but also a lasting leg- acy for Dulwich German. His promotion to Head of Mod- ern Languages at RGS Guildford is very well deserved, and we wish him all the best as he takes up this new role. I am sure that modern languages learning will flourish there under his leadership. ◎
Andrew joined the Modern Lan- guages Department in April 2012. The qualities we saw at interview quickly came to the fore on his arrival in post, and his popularity in the classroom was mirrored in his excellent relationships within the Modern Languages team and the wider Common Room. His
calm, focused, kind and organised approach was very welcome, and proved to be an asset in taking Chinese to the next level at Dulwich. Andrew is modest, and it is essential to highlight that he leaves a strong and lasting legacy. At a College level, Chi- nese is very popular among the ranger of learners, from pupils in the Junior School to those Upper School pupils who are successful in gaining places to study the subject at university. The department has enjoyed excellent public examination results, has made many successful Confu- cius Scholarship applications, and has developed into a department of three full-time teachers and an assistant. Andrew’s work with AQA as a question-writer and, most recently, with an A-level steering group developing a new specification for learners of Chinese beyond GCSE, stand as testament to his commitment to Chinese, both as a language and as an examined subject. Andrew is a very strong classroom teacher, with observa- tions regularly recording his practice, attention to detail and classroom rapport as ‘exemplary’, reporting a ‘calm and purposeful atmosphere’. His diligence, his commit- ment to hard work, and his understanding of the need for solid foundations have given Chinese a profile as an accessible subject for all learners, and his department is often a first port of call for Eton and Trinity Group Heads of Modern Languages who are looking for advice on the teaching of Chinese. He has firmly established Dulwich as one of the UK’s leaders in Chinese teaching and learning.
Modern Languages Department were exemplary, enabling German to thrive under his leadership. During his 12 years as Head of German, Will fostered and nurtured the talents of his colleagues to build a supportive team of passionate German teachers. Under his tenure, German was intro- duced as an option in Year 8, and it is a fantastic testa- ment to his hard work and enthusiasm that there will be 75 pupils studying German in Year 9 in September 2023. Will’s desire to make German accessible, interesting and, above all, fun for all pupils may be seen in his emphasis on trips and exchanges. He maintained and developed our annual exchange with the Keplergymnasium in Tübin- gen, which now attracts over 20 pupils every year, and he established new trips for younger year groups to Aachen and Cologne. These trips were designed specifically to enthuse beginner learners by introducing them to German culture, and to give them practical skills, allowing them to communicate with confidence in a variety of situations. The Year 8 Christmas markets trip to Aachen, at the end of the long Michaelmas term, is fondly remembered by many Year 13 Germanists as the trip that opened their eyes to the delights of German study. The Tübingen exchange is one of the jewels in the crown of the Modern Languages overseas provision, and under Will’s stewardship of the exchange, the College was awarded a UK-German Connection grant to run a joint ‘Journalism without Borders’ project. Closer to home, under Will’s guidance, Dulwich also became a Goethe Institut Digital Hub School and won a Goethe Institut grant
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