Ms. Crawford
Written by Eppie Howard, Study, June 26th 2009
No speech I have ever done means more to me than this one. As many of you may know I get nervous very, very rarely but for a number of reasons, today I am. I think I know why this might be, and to limit potential moments of spontaneity and therefore crashing and burning I have decided on the good old-fashioned and systematic list technique.
Reasons for my nervousness?
Number 1: Here marks the end of Ms Crawford’s thirty eight years with us at Wychwood. I could not imagine such a commitment. I struggle to commit to my weekly jog! It is amazing all the changes she must have seen throughout her years here, such as the construction of the centenary building and the new Hall... Hut. She has been the continuing factor, almost like the seam. That is an incredible thing. Throughout my time here if I have met someone I know who went here, and even some of my mum’s friends, they always ask if Ms Crawford is still here and how she’s doing. That tells me that she has had a monumental impact on many girls’ lives, and many whom we cannot even call girls anymore. That is thirty eight using-adjectives-to-describe-sweets-while-eating-said-sweets lessons and thirty eight very happy years of Removes!
Number 2: Here also marks the end of Ms Crawford’s time as Deputy Head. I feel like I have been very personally involved in this role, as my mischievous classmates and I spent many an evening in Mrs Digby’s office with Ms Crawford in Deputy Head mode. Believe it or not she can actually be quite frightening when she puts on her finely tuned, gravely sober, serious face. What is very clear when put into these situations is just how well Ms Crawford knows the school. She knows every rule, every privilege and every perk through and through, as if she had written them herself. Actually when you consider her immense influence within the school, she probably did. Her sense of what is right and what is wrong firmly anchors how the school runs, and her knowledge of what “girlies” need is undisputable. This ties into her third role in the school- Head of Boarding and my third reason.
Number 3: When I think of my life in Inters and Lower Transits I instantly remember all the silly things we did. I remember also how amusing Ms Crawford found it all and her attempts to cover it up! She would giggle and say “Oh you are silly!” but then put her serious face back on and say “No but you really should apologise…” Another aspect of this role was to give us advice, and I am someone who really benefited from this. Her ability to read people is very impressive and she is almost always right. I remember being a rebellious Upper Transit and her telling me that I would be a great Councillor in the Study. Then, I shrugged it off, but now, I am a Councillor and I strive to be as great as she predicted. Ms Crawford always had so much faith in me and I have never known a teacher to understand me as well as she does. I am not alone in this feeling and it is important she knows how privileged we all feel to have been taught by her.
Number 4: here also marks the end of her career as an English teacher. Whilst it all seems like a very long time ago for me, I am reminded by the beaming Remove leaving your classroom as I wait for my lessons. Ms Crawford is brimming with the ability to enthuse a class and get them excited about English. It is inspiring and her passion for the subject is infectious. It is difficult to be taught John Donne by her and not to love it with her. In the Study she has taught me some poems that have genuinely made my heart beat faster, and it is her impeccable understanding of tone and syntax in a poem even on a first reading that is really admirable and can only have come with experience. Every member of study taking English looks forward to your lessons. The conversations between one English student and another in the Common Room at break often begin:
“What have you got next?”
“Ms Crawford”
“Oh yeah, good!”
Sheena and I consider the days we have her as definitely good days, i.e. Wednesday and Friday. Oh, and of course, the magical, wonderful and precious sweetie tin. How I will miss it!
What I am trying to say is that Wychwood without Ms Crawford is like Hogwarts without Dumbledor, it’s like being in Study without North P, it’s like the Elm without Ms Sherlock, and it’s like Inters without the video of Romeo and Juliet with the incredibly good-looking Romeo… you gave us that fulfilling experience Ms Crawford, so we wanted to give you something in return.
I now present you with what we like to call Project Owl, the incredibly inconspicuous code name I gave it. Tori and Jess carried your books and bags often while you were in a wheelchair so now they are carrying one last thing for you. This is a book designed, paid for and created by all of us girls with an individual and personal message from everyone. The extent of the sentiments expressed is quite overwhelming, even to me. Ms Crawford, you set the atmosphere and the ethos of the school and it will never be the same again. So on behalf of everyone in the school and associated with the school:
Goodbye Ms Crawford, you will be sadly missed, but very happily remembered.
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