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ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE
Katherine Cole
What do you do atTeddies and how long
have you been at the School?
I arrived in September to be Head of German
and AHM in Jubilee.
Where were you before?
I studied German and Linguistics then started
teaching at Hurstpierpoint College in West
Sussex, where I was AHM and taught in the
senior and prep schools. Then I moved to
Ardingly College to be Head of German and
AHM in the mixed Upper Sixth house.
What do you most enjoy about your role?
Teaching the German language is a lot of fun: I
enjoy the sound of the language, the mechanics
of the grammar, long compound nouns, teaching
literature to our native speaker students and
coming across comical German words with our
beginners (this year’s favourites were ‘Auspuff =
exhaust pipe’ and ‘Bürgermeister = mayor’) but
I equally love living in a boarding house.
What has been your favouriteTeddies
moment so far?
Jubilations was a brilliant evening – the girls are
so talented. A close second was the impromptu
Jubilee Christmas dance-off on the last night of
the first term which Miss Ramadharsingh, Mrs
Gowen and I didn’t come close to winning. Our
Shells being awarded best taste prize for their
German Christmas biscuits in a competition
they entered was also great.
Favourite menu item fromTeddies
kitchen?
Chocolate chip shortbread.
Favourite place in Oxford?
Having the University’s Modern Languages
Library on the doorstep is handy. I also like
Port Meadow for running.
What was the naughtiest thing you did
at school?
I think I had a pretty unblemished record; my
style was to put the idea in someone else’s head
and watch it happen. Is that worse? I sabotaged
a fair few Physics experiments (sorry, Physics)
and am ashamed to say I was a serial chatter.
What would be your Desert Island book?
A novel by my favourite German crime writer
Charlotte Link.
Best advice you’ve ever been given?
Making mistakes is all part of learning. In
German ‘Aus Fehlern wird man klug‘.