b'THE ELLESMERIAN The Common Room Departures17Sarah ShakibiSarah joined us in 2016 and immediately set about putting Ellesmere on the Computing at School (CAS) network map. Being part of CAS was a useful resource to help the College develop our Computer Science curriculum. Sarah demonstrated a passion for her subject and enthused pupils to pursue it at GCSE, A level and onto university.She was determined to move pupils away from merely using apps to understanding them and provided opportunities to be creative.During her time at Ellesmere Sarah was in St. Patricks as tutor to the pre-6th international pupils who followed the one year programme in year 11 before continuing onto Sixth Form, she was an active contributor to the Lower School John Muir programme and, as a talented mathematician, she could be counted on to provide additional support to our aspiring A level Further Maths and Computer Science students in preparation for their Oxbridge applications. Kim CollinsKim joined Ellesmere in September 2005 to teach biology.Clearly, given Kims background in activities and games from her previous school and her personally being an international triathlete, she was never going to settle for just being a teacher. She quickly immersed herself in all things Ellesmere and became involved in many different areas. She was part of the RAF section of the CCF as soon as she joined, eventually taking over as the RAF section commander.Her enthusiasm for adventure was contagious and she involved many pupils and staff in these areas. Kim introduced windsurfing to the College, took part in the gruelling Snowdon run, helped staff the Winter mountaineering trip to Scotland, as well as promoting triathlon.When something appealed, Kim gave it her all.One day she decided that completing an Ironman was a good idea, so that is what she did, and did not settle just for one, but completed many over a number of years. In her time here she worked as an assistant housemistress in one of the boarding Houses, as well as being a tutor in all different areas of the school.She was a competitive Housemistress of Meynell, which allowed her to express her competitive nature as well as to encourage pupils to go that bit further. Whilst she was at Ellesmere she met and married Chris, with whom she shared many of her sporting activities.Kim was not just involved in activities but having already gained her PhD in biology before coming to Ellesmere she was a real academic with genuine enthusiasm for her subject. As such, she became head of theBiology department and remained in post until she left at the end of 2022.She was involved in running many of the Biology themed competitions, from the Biology Olympiad at the national level, to making Biology themed cakes, at the College level.Over the last few years Kim moved away from triathlon as a whole and concentrated more on swimming which is originally where she started as a youngster. As with everything that Kim did she gave it her all and was rewarded by taking part at the top level in Masters Championships throughout the UK and the world.It is this area that she continues to perform well in and decided to leave Ellesmere to concentrate on her swimming and other new areas. After 17 years at Ellesmere she will be missed by both colleagues and students, in and out of the classroom. We wish her well in her future and hope that she will find a time to pop in and see us sometime.'