Sue Worthington, Teacher, 1973 to 1979

When Sue Worthington, a farmer’s daughter from Somerset, arrived at St Mary’s in September 1973 she was one of only a handful of women in the staff room. In fact, Sue, Biology teacher Patsy Sinicki and Music teacher Norma Wilkinson were the only female teachers who spent any real length of time at the school, during its Grammar school era. Sue told me: “Looking back, I would say that both Patsy and I were business-like and were not treated differently to our male colleagues. I was quite young and had only been married a few months. I used to drive from Plumstead Common in my scarlet Triumph Herald.”

 Sue taught French to A-Level and English to O-Level and told me: “Teaching languages had been evolving when I arrived,” she explained. “I tried to use French as much as possible in the classroom, and the audiovisual method went down fairly well. You had to be totally prepared though. God help you if you hadn’t got the tape in the right place when the lesson started!”

 Sue left St Mary’s in 1979 and moved to Oundle in Northamptonshire, after her husband was assigned to the private boarding school in the town.

The couple had two sons Tim and Jonathan and a daughter Ellie who died tragically of meningitis when she was just 16.

 Sue says: “My husband and I divorced and I went on to run a French department of 18 teachers at Oundle School. As it’s a very big boarding school, it’s no surprise that I got very involved in pastoral care and also extracurricular activities such as producing plays, umpiring hockey, and lots of exchanges and study trips. My children were educated at the school. Tim is now a housemaster at Blundell’s School and Jonathan works in IT.

“Since retirement I have done two stints as a volunteer in Johannesburg at the African Leadership Academy where I taught and mentored students and teachers.

“Now I live in Nîmes in the south of France with my partner Chris, although when epidemics permit, I do come to the UK to see family and friends. I am pretty active and enjoy painting, sculpting, walking, bridge, swimming, reading and gardening.

“I have fond memories of St Mary’s where I met a lot of remarkable people!”

 Sue is pictured walking in the south of France.