Retiring teacher not ready to walk away (From thisisoxfordshire)

Retiring teacher not ready to walk away

4:26pm Friday 10th July 2009 in

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Economics teacher Tony Drake may be retiring at the end of this term after 33 years at Oxford School, but pupils have not seen the back of him just yet.

Mr Drake, who is also the author of seven novels and several textbooks, is planning to return to the school where he has spent most of his career in September to teach A-Level students eight hours a week.

The 60-year-old joined the school when it was still a boys’ school, having previously worked at Cheney School in Headington and spent two years as a PE teacher at East Oxford Middle School.

During his stint at the school, it admitted girls for the first time, changed names to Oxford Community School and then back again.

As well as teaching economics to hundreds of GCSE and A-Level pupils, Mr Drake has taken various responsibilities throughout the years, ranging from head of house, head of year, deputy headteacher and — for one term in 1998 — acting headteacher.

He also coached cricket and football teams to district and county level.

He said: “Every time I have thought of going, I have had a different challenge and a different job to do that kept me here.”

But Mr Drake, who lives in St Mary’s Road, East Oxford, with his partner and fellow Oxford School teacher Christine Atkinson, said the biggest challenge remained the same – changing people’s perceptions of the school.

He said: “In spite of its chequered reputation among the general public, it is a fantastic school to work at because the staff are so wonderfully supportive of each other and the students are amazingly diverse and represent different ethnic backgrounds.

“The biggest challenge has been ensuring its survival because it has had a number of threats to its existence and the problem has been convincing the people of East Oxford they have a very good school on their doorstep.

“Our students deserve the best and hopefully I have been helping to give them some of that.”

Mr Drake said he asked the school if they could still use him after his retirement.

He added: “Were I to stop teaching altogether I would be leaving an A-Level class halfway through, which would not be fair – and I enjoy it too much to think about packing in.”