In July, Princethorpe College said farewell to much loved teacher, Mrs Rachel Taylor. She has been both a remarkable teacher and Head of Department, going about her work with passion and enthusiasm for so many years.

Rachel, then Miss Roberts, started working for St Joseph’s (now Crackley Hall) as the Latin Mistress under the headship of Sister Mary Patrick back in May 1974. Rachel describes her as fearsome but fair with strict rules for uniform even for staff. She started her teaching career with a blackboard and chalk but adapted over the years to overhead projectors, whiteboards and eventually, with thanks to the IT team, even computers.

She joined the College in September 2001 as a teacher of Latin and German when St Joseph’s merged with Princethorpe College. At that time, Latin was not taught at Princethorpe, so Rachel’s skills and experience were a great asset to the school. All her pupils have thrived under her encouragement. She embraced the Foundation’s ethos, always teaching with kindness and encouragement and thanks to her dedication, Latin continues to be successfully taught today.

Diligent to the end, a delighted Rachel, who had hoped to scuttle away with little fuss, was surprised with gifts on our final INSET day.

Foundation Principal, Ed Hester said, “We would like to thank Rachel for all her hard work and dedication to first St Joseph’s and then later Princethorpe’s pupils. She has served the Foundation for an amazing 50 years. She was creative in her approach to teaching and has been instrumental in the success of Latin here at the College, with subject results always amongst the best. We will all miss her and we wish Rachel a happy, healthy and well-deserved retirement, although we are glad to know we will still see her as she has promised to help invigilate an exam or two.”

Rachel is pictured here on her last day. In the last edition of the Old Princethorpian newsletter we also shared some photos from the archives from her early years at St Joseph's Convent School.