Celebrating Our Teachers
While we are saying goodbye to one school year, we are also busy preparing for the upcoming school year.
We would like to take this opportunity to recognize a few of the amazing teachers at The Oxford School.
ANNE FORGIE
Music
Anne has taught with distinction at the Trinity/Oxford School for an impressive 25 years.
To say that Anne is an excellent music teacher would be an understatement of the highest degree, since she is so much more.
She can fairly be said to be the heart and soul of the school, and embodies our core values of kindness, collegiality and good cheer. As music teacher she has a relationship with every single student in the school, and her rapport is beyond peer: the children adore her, grasp her high standards, and simply put don’t want to let her down; this applies equally to class lessons and students she teaches privately.
Anne also is our “impresario” of our Friday Afternoon Teas, which gather some one hundred and fifty students and twenty teachers for a formal tea service that includes her students performing, both individually and in ensembles.
This speaks to Anne’s versatility as a musician: she is competent to teach (again, understatement) on every instrument in the orchestra, voice and guitar. She has built up programming a great deal over the years and especially the string program over the past three years. She is a high tempo teacher and exudes great energy and enthusiasm in all that she does. It is a pleasure to have her return for her 26th season.
DARLENE EGGLETON
French
Madame Eggleton’s classroom standards, deportment, and expectations are exceeded by no one’s; simply put, it is unlikely that a student of French will ever have such a gifted teacher again in their career, certainly not in Ontario.
A teacher of several years, it is difficult to imagine that Darlene faced her first class at age 18, a time in the province when teachers began in the profession straight out of high school plus one year of teachers’ college. Her career has been expansive and eclectic, with assignments as a homeroom teacher for Grades 7 and 8 in Port Colborne, opening a dance studio in St. Catharine’s and then finding a home as a French teacher between Grades 4-8 in the Waterloo Board. Madame has completed every provincial requirement that a teacher of French may possess, and even switched her major from English to French to do so.
Darlene has been the picture of grace and good cheer these past since joining the Trinity/Oxford School Family. She has shown leadership, determination, and family values within our community. This fall will mark an impressive 16th year within that community.
VICTORIA DAVIDSON
Office Administrator
Victoria has worked at the Oxford School since January 2022, most significantly as our School Administrator, where she is responsible for the smooth running and execution of so many details.
In a word, Victoria keeps the trains running on time, and does so in an entirely unflappable, gracious, and charming manner. As a former business owner she brings a judgment and maturity which make her able to deal with the several professional contracts and contacts–trades, our water service, couriers–with an eye to making sure that the school is getting what it needs.
Victoria also has a winsome way with children, truly enjoys their company and this rapport extends to the teachers and our parents. She has shown considerable interest in the academic part of the school. A graduate in psychology from Western and Child and Youth Care diploma holder, Victoria is also a gifted and experienced teacher of music this speaks volumes as to her versatility.
The Office Administrator position is one where the influence and importance extends far beyond the job title; everyone knows that the person, has an ear to the ground and so listening carefully, sharing sparingly, is of paramount importance.
There could be no better holder of such responsibility than Victoria.
LEAH PELLAR
Reggio Emelia & Early Years
Leah joined the Oxford School three years ago to become our Pre-School teacher and Reggio Emilia Coordinator; to say that she has distinguished herself in both roles is an understatement.
A B.Sc. graduate of the University of Guelph’s Child Youth and Family program, Leah was well prepared when she arrived at our school and has shown exceptional growth in her role. She is extremely intuitive about the needs of young children, and has an extraordinary sense of goodness; while it would be impossible to imagine Leah saying an unkind word about anyone (and anyone saying such about her), she certainly commands the respect and affection of children in her care. To listen to her in the hall, she has the sort of expectations of her pre-schoolers that would we expect to find of students in Senior Kindergarten, if not Grade One.
As our Reggio coordinator Leah has excelled and really took it upon herself to study the literature and practice of the program and lead her colleagues in a challenging program.
KIM BARLOW
Junior Kindergarden
Kim Barlow is one in a long line of exemplary kindergarten teachers–Liz Miller and Kim Dorken to name two, and after a few days, maybe a week at most, it was clear that Mrs. Barlow brought her own style, her own priorities, her own values to her classroom and the rest is history.
The force of Kim Barlow’s personality, the conviction she brings to her craft, and her determination that every student in her care succeed is palpable, and her students and families embrace this enthusiasm.
As a teenager Kim was a nationally ranked synchronized swimmer, and this discipline carried over into everything else she pursued/ including her degrees at York University and her masters’ degree in elementary education at D’Youville College. Kim also gained her ECE from Seneca College.
Kim has become a school-wide fixture on two fronts: one, her engaging end of day check ins with her parents out front, and two, her school-wide recognition of her colleagues and other students in the form of Kindness Bears, notes, and spontaneous smiles, everywhere, always.
LIZ MILLER
Senior Kindergarten
Liz has completed six years at first Trinity, and now the Oxford School, spanning her maternity leave, and she is a gifted, passionate, and thoroughly professional educator who is entering the prime of her career.
To begin with Liz is versatile: she has taught students as old as Grade 6 and as young as her present Senior Kindergarten group, and she is equally effective with both age groups; Liz is also serious about her own learning, and when she saw that our youngest students were not reading as they should be, Liz took it upon herself to research reading programmes world-wide and led a teacher team who eventually chose the UK based ‘Sounds Write’ curriculum. Similarly, she has taught the challenging National Mathematics Curriculum of Singapore, and she compliments her strong knowledge of Ontario Ministry offerings with other resources.
Liz runs point on the Terry Fox Run at our school, as well as Earth Day, where there was a remarkable array of chalk drawings on the theme of the day.
Liz is married to Jay and mother to Austin, who just celebrated his second birthday. She is passionate about the outdoors, and this figures largely in her own life and her classroom practice.