Glenwood Prep teacher retires after 42 years

AFTER more than 40 years of dedicated service to Glenwood Preparatory School, teacher, Jenny Robertson, recently retired.

Jenny said she will miss her job at the school, which has become her second home over the past 42 years.

The passionate educator said when she was in high school she thought she might like to be a nurse when she finished her education, however she changed her mind and for a year after school, worked for the corporation at 320 West Street.

“I saw out the year and realised office work wasn’t my thing. I decided I wanted to teach, so I started my studies at Edgewood College,” she said. Jenny studied at Edgewood for four years, and met her husband Stuart during this time. “I qualified to teach up to Grade 9 but chose to teach senior primary after doing a few prac classes in my first year in the junior primary phase. I started teaching at Glenwood Prep at the beginning of the year in 1978, and was married in the March,” she said.

Jenny taught Grade 6 for one year, Grade 4 for 10 years, Grade 5 for 10 years, Grade 4 for another 10 years, and Grade 5 for the remaining years at the school.

“I loved teaching Grade 4. My favourite subjects to teach were maths, English, history and geography. Glenwood Prep has been a second home for me. I have served under a lot of headmasters who have each had a different way of running the school. The changes at the school have also been huge over the years. We were only a school from Standard 2 to 5, now it is Grade 1 to 7. From new classrooms, houses for the junior primary, a huge field, which used to be houses, a swimming pool, before we walked to Glenwood High and to St Martin’s, the extension to the library and staff room, which I have been privileged to have named after me. The school was a very poor school and it is now a very sought after school with many applications,” she said.

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Jenny said she was very sad to leave the school, as she was hoping to see out the year before retiring.

“It was heart wrenching but after a lot of soul searching I felt I needed to leave as I am diabetic, and must be careful due to the pandemic. I still wake up early but now force myself to stay in bed and keep warm,” she said.

She said she plans on traveling when she is able to, and hopes to visit friends in the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

“For now I have to wait, and have been keeping busy tidying up the house, doing things I was going to do later. I have also tried to see friends I haven’t seen in a while. I will carry on doing what I enjoy, reading, listening to music and watching TV, and although I am not a gardener, I am going to attempt to plant a small vegetable garden. I have also started getting into painting, which is something I look forward to exploring more, and I will enjoy socialising with people when I can,” she said.

The school treated Jenny to a small farewell lunch in July to say goodbye.

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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.

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