In a ceremony held on the lawn of SciTec this week, staff and family gathered to commemorate the life of recently retired teacher Robin Hammond, who died in the summer.

The Chaplain led the ceremony with a prayer and blessed the cherry tree that was planted in his memory.

Robin was an inspirational teacher, a beloved tutor, a legend on the cricket pitch and a great colleague and friend to all. The Director of Sport, Laxton Housemaster and the Head of Science made heartfelt tributes to Robin’s long career as a coach, tutor and chemistry teacher:

Robin’s pastoral career spanned a total of 34 years and 102 terms of unstinting dedication to the pastoral support of not only every pupil that he tutored, but every pupil he held any level of responsibility for. He was appointed Berrystead resident deputy in 1989, and was tutor there until 2006, when he transferred to Laxton House for the remainder of his career.

Robin was unswervingly supportive to his tutees in all the right ways. Tutorials ran like clockwork and his tutees arrived on time, in the right place and almost always properly dressed. What followed then was meaningful conversation about them. Robin was all about the core of the children who were his tutees, what made them tick, he celebrated their successes with genuine pleasure, he got to the bottom of the real reasons why they got themselves into scrapes. It was no coincidence that Robin worked with more than his fair share of tricky tutees and given enough time, he would rarely fail to draw out the best from them with his winning combination of straight talk, justified praise wherever it was due, and a stout defence of tutees that warranted it

When Robin began his six years as Proctor, a new role at the time and one that many viewed with suspicion, it was difficult to see how anyone could balance the job description of “being in charge of discipline and sanctions in the school” with maintaining one’s perspective and indeed sanity. The answer is simple: just do it like Robin. Robin was clear, consistent, he had a light touch whenever possible, and he commanded the respect of every pupil; those he saw once or twice ever, those he saw once or twice most days. He had a perceptive and empathetic way of dealing with miscreants, and always in a way that achieved the right end result.

Robin told it like it was, but he was always deeply caring and thoughtful in everything he did.

He retired on his last day exactly as he had started on his first – with total dedication to the welfare and well being of his tutees and every pupil at this school. I missed him the moment he left Laxton. We miss him still.

Adam Langsdale
Laxton Housemaster

When former pupils were asked about their most abiding memory of Robin, they all replied that he was the fairest teacher they had ever had. Every pupil was his favourite, and if you were ever lucky enough to be taught by him, you were given the same “RFH treatment”, something that was founded upon a lengthy career of teaching. His classroom was one of professional discipline and rigour. In his lessons, facts would be given, facts would be reinforced and a lengthy prep set. The pupil’s work would be scrutinised carefully and marked thoroughly. The pupil would then be praised appropriately for their efforts. If a pupil had just seen him for a pink card, there was no animosity or bias. In Robin’s classroom, every pupil was in the safe hands of someone who would get the very best out of his class. His passion for teaching the First Form in his Junior Chemistry Club was equal to what he shared with the Upper Sixth. The fact that there were so many Old Oundelians at his funeral shows how fondly they thought of Robin.

Robin’s embrace of the tried and tested practicals from 20 years ago was an inspiration, and many a breaktime was spent discussing the best, and legal ways, to demonstrate the chemistry of a particularly obscure part of the course. Robin knew his chemistry and he knew how to teach it, sometimes adding drama to the lessons with evacuations from SciTec, as he appeared from his smoke-filled classroom, bashfully apologising for getting a little too carried away with his use of potassium nitrate during a particularly enthusiastic fire-writing session.

Robin was never one to shy away from giving his view. He was always open to discussion about a new pedagogy, giving assurances he would give it a try, and then share his opinion. If he disagreed with you, he would tell you, but hold no grudges. And if he got it wrong, he would be contrite.

The day that Robin announced that he was due to retire, there was an immediate sense of loss in SciTec. Who would we tease about Chelsea losing again at the weekend? With whom would we talk about 1980s snooker players? And would he leave his infamous raincoat that lent him the image of Columbo, as a lasting memento?

The department asked Robin to give his name to a new chemistry competition, and it was wonderful that Robin could be there as the head judge for the inaugural competition.

Despite being the loudest voice in SciTec and his faux-grumpiness, Robin was a gentleman in every sense of the word. We all miss him dearly. Not only was he a colleague, but he was a great friend to us all.

Jonathan Peverley
Head of Science