Yvonne Pitcher – doing a great service to the House I n February 1995, Yvonne Pitcher was invited to apply for a House staff role in Jacobs House. “It was all so simple, such an easy “Each House has its own culture, and each has high expectations,” she explains. “In this role, you get to know the older boys quite well, environment as “fantastic – like Hogwarts” and says the
inclusiveness of the school has changed noticeably in the past few years. “People are more empathetic, thoughtful, and, I would say, compassionate,” she says. “Over the aftermath of the earthquakes, the school was very supportive, offering counselling and so on, and the same occurred after the mosque attacks and also with Covid-19.” Yvonne’s retirement will allow her to spend more time at the family bach amid the South Rakaia huts, take trips in a caravan, learn to paint with watercolours, and enjoy “a lot more time with my grandchildren”.
even though there can be just fleeting interactions. The boys, one-on-one, are nice. Boys in a group are generally boys. I think the boys have been very respectful over the years. They do offer to help, perhaps if you’re carrying something heavy, which is nice.” Yvonne says she has also worked with some lovely people over the years who have become lifelong friends. “That makes all the difference – working with people you can have a laugh with and have some fun with,” she says. Yvonne describes the College
process compared with what happens today,” she recalls. “I made a phone call to the matron, and I started the next day.” Twenty-eight years later, Yvonne
has folded her last towel, straightened her last bed,
scrubbed the last cricket whites, and topped up the bread, milk, butter, and jam supplies for the final time. She worked in Jacobs House for 22 years, before it became a dayboy House six years ago. Since then, Richards House has been her place of work, with all the staff working as a team.
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