From Penrhos to Rydal Penrhos, Pat Kerfoot reflects on 42 years of service
For many years Pat Kerfoot was a science teacher, first at Penrhos and then at Rydal Penrhos, but many of our younger alumni will know her better from her time as an invigilator. Pat retired as an invigilator this term, and has recently spoken to her about her path to Rydal Penrhos and her time at the School.
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Pat took her PGCE in 1979 at Chester College, then part of Liverpool University, following her degree in Chemistry at the University of Aberystwyth. Her teaching practice was at a particularly difficult school in Deeside, and her experiences there prompted Pat to send off a speculative application to Penrhos College. She was rewarded with an invitation to interview from the school’s then-Head, Mr Nigel Peacock, who was looking to increase the school’s emphasis on science.
Dressed in her best suit and on her best behaviour, Pat sat nervously outside Nigel’s office. When she was invited inside, she was surprised to find Nigel covered in paint, with his feet up on the windowsill – it was his day off and he was decorating. A while later, Mr Jasper King, Head of Chemistry, joined them, himself dressed for tennis.
After the interview, Pat and Nigel went down to the Dining Hall for the famous "Penrhos College afternoon tea" (we are sure all alumni fondly remember the honey buns), which, the day being Wednesday, included cream cakes. At the time it seemed that the eating of large éclairs didn’t conduce to Pat making a favourable impression on her prospective colleagues, but Pat now thinks it may have helped to break the ice.
During Pat’s second year at Penrhos, the school began the exciting work of building new labs. The Head’s pro-science attitude was, Pat told me, somewhat rare amongst girls’ schools at the time, but the girls loved science, with around half of those entering the Sixth Form taking Chemistry. Pat still remembers the girl’s desire to learn and their enthusiasm in the classroom. Over twenty years, she had to raise her voice only once!
Pat also remembers the school’s spirit of community. Girls would rush up to her at the beginning of the day to wish her good morning, and in the classroom would help each other readily, with the more able in a particular subject aiding their teachers in encouraging and supporting the less able.
In the classroom pupils would help each other readily, with the more able in a particular subject aiding their teachers in encouraging and supporting the less able.
Pat herself had benefitted from excellent science teaching at school, although she had faced sexism from a Physics teacher who insisted that only boys could understand the subject. Happily the class that year had contained six girls, all very competent!
After the amalgamation of Penrhos and Rydal, Pat became a member of the Senior Management Team at Rydal Penrhos. She taught the girls who had moved across to Penrhos, seeking continuity in their teaching. She found teaching the Rydal boys more difficult, especially in the unsettled atmosphere soon after the merger. However, she said that 'as Rydal Penrhos settled down, it became an excellent school, a super school'.
Pat retired officially in 2003, but ended up returning for the rest of that academic year. After that, she marked exam papers for AQA, where in the days before online marking, the papers would arrive wrapped up in brown paper parcels. Additionally, she worked as an invigilator in School and enjoyed the sense of camaraderie it brought.
Since her partial retirement, Pat has found time to join the Soroptimists. A member of the Llandudno branch since 2009, she is currently the Secretary for the Cheshire, North Wales, and Wirral Region. The Llandudno branch is involved locally with food banks and a women’s refuge centre, nationally with modern day slavery and internationally with the organisation Women for Women, which supports women in Nigeria.
Pat also talked about her three children, two boys and a girl. Her daughter Jackie is a doctor in Australia, in the difficult but incredibly rewarding field of palliative care. Pat says that Jackie has honoured her British roots by working in the Liverpool Hospital and marrying a Sam Jones! Pat is a grandmother to six grandchildren and also a proud great grandmother to baby Olivia.
Rydal Penrhos is immensely grateful to Pat for her incredible 42 years at the School.∎
Pat (left) at the Soroptimists' AGM in 2019
