b'THE ELLESMERIAN The Common Room Presidents Report14The year was a challenging one for the members of the CommonThere is only one birth to report this year: Elliot and Jennifer Richards Room, as they returned to more normal ways of working after theare the proud new parents of their second child, Sadie. We wish the prolonged restrictions of Covid, and logging onto Teams was no longerRichards family all the very best, and we send our best wishes to our the first task on arrival.departing colleagues, as they take on new challenges and opportunities, both in their new places of work and in their well-deserved As there had been no departures at the end of the previous academicretirements. year, the only new members of staff to join us in September 2021 were Neil Armstrong, who teaches Media Studies, and Clare Pearce, whoDr Ian Tompkins teaches the younger children in Lower School. At the end of the year,Common Room President however, we had sadly to say goodbye to a number of members of staff:Margaret Hutchings, our Head of Media Studies; Harry Orr, our teacher of Sociology; and Vanessa Hart, Learning Support, all retired.The year end also saw the departure of Dr Kim Collins, the Head of Biology; Valentina Frulloni, Maths department, Dr Sarah Shakibi, the Head of Computer Science, Tina Cox, Head of netball coach; and Tom Webb, the Arts Centre manager. Ian Roberts, teacher of PE and former Head of Meynell and of St Cuthberts, left for a post in a school in north Wales, while Ian Williams, our long-standing Director of Sport, also moved on, but in this instance, much further afield, to a school in Hong Kong.'