CAMPS BAY PREP HEAD RETIRESÂ
After serving Camps Bay Primary School’s Preparatory Campus for more than three decades, Ms Linda Murray, who is the current Head of the Campus, will retire at the end of this year.
Linda joined the Camps Bay Prep family in 1984 as a Grade 1 (then Sub A) teacher and remained at the school until the end of 1995 when she took a break to pursue other interests, but returned to the school in 2000.
Over her many years of service at the school, she has held various positions including Grade R and Grade 2 educator, taking over as Acting Head of the Campus in 2014. In 2015, when the prep school and the primary school were merged, she was appointed as Head of Department of the prep campus and has ably led the school for the past 5 years.
Her long time colleague, Ros Byrnes, gave a touching farewell speech at her surprise farewell assembly, held at the Prep Campus hall on Friday, 29 November 2019.
Said Byrnes, “I would like to take this opportunity to honour Linda and thank her on behalf of the hundreds of staff and thousands of children whose lives she has touched over the last 32 years. Thank you, Linda for sharing all that you are with all of us! Thank you for bringing us your music and the many times you have accompanied choirs, celebrations, concerts and assemblies – you are a true “Jack of all trades” in assembly, moving with seeming effortlessness from leading assembly to playing the piano. You creatively made up songs to support the curriculum – “Do the right thing even if it’s hard” will remain with us always because you put the words to music. Thank you for the strong emphasis you placed on learning through fun. I had the privilege of watching your Maths lessons over the past few years, when you teach my Grade 2s once a week and I loved the stories you made up, the side anecdotes and the way you weaved all kinds of little lessons into Maths.”
Linda leaves a legacy in the form of workcards, theme books, worksheets, stories, phonics strips and quirky memory sentences at the school.
Concluded Byrnes, “We will miss you but are excited for you as you start this new season. We know you will miss us too, but we also know there are things you won’t miss! Think of us all at 6am on cold winter mornings as you slip back into bed with coffee and a book! Think of us two weekends before reports go out, as you perhaps bake one of your legendary quiches or carrot cakes. Go well, Mrs Murray – be blessed! We wish you wealth, peace and fulfillment in the years ahead!
At the special assembly, pupils and staff presented Mrs Murray with 32 roses – each representing a year at the school and gave her a beautiful personalised card and book of memories.
Special guests in attendance at the surprise assembly include former head of Camps Bay Preparatory, Nancy Roussopoulos, former Camps Bay Schools marketer, Vivienne Ashcroft and former educator, Rieke Pienke.