A Conversation With... Mr Alcock
As part of an ongoing feature, A Conversation With..., we are this week catching up with Shiplake veteran Mr Chris Alcock. He joined in September 1997 and has been teaching English with an enormous grin ever since!
What does your average day entail?
I rise at 6.35am and begin the day with quiet time - prayer and bible reading. I try to be silent and listen for some of that time. I drive in from Whitchurch-on-Thames, which can be a beautiful journey on the back roads, arriving at 8am. I teach most year groups, so the day can begin with grammar with Year 9 followed by Larkin’s poetry with Year 12. Coffee fuels me to jump on desks and create havoc with Year 10 or 11 as we cover An Inspector Calls or more poetry. After a huge, delicious lunch I snooze, er... no wait, I gear up to take the 3rd VIII out on the sweet Thames, ensuring I have a good play list and a megaphone – their rhythm improves as I play Blue Monday by New Order through it… After Darjeeling tea, sandwiches and a little marking, I wend my weary way home at about 6pm.
If you didn’t teach English, what would you like to teach?
I think I would teach Theology or a bit of History - how hard can it be?
What has been your biggest accomplishment during your time at Shiplake?
There have been a few highlights in my short time here - apart from some obviously fabulous exam results. Being appointed Orchard Housemaster was a real privilege - and a challenge. Probably the other one is recent: the 3rd VIII winning an unexpected bronze medal at National Schools' Regatta last summer, which resulted in an unscheduled dip in the river…
What has been your most memorable moment here?
Playing guitar in Orchard House concerts, seeing a set 5 boy getting an A* in English, taking a bet to dance on a desk in class if a boy had used a semi-colon in his prep (I lost). Scoring 3 tries v Orchard in a match at a 10-a side OVS ‘House’ rugby tournament in 2006 (fear lends you wings). Singing stupidly loudly, and clapping in chapel. An impromptu visit during a lesson (when they were 70 minutes long) to Reading station to see A4 Pacific Sir Nigel Gresley go through on a charter train - with Jordan Ferguson’s immortal line ‘Sir, does it start with a key?’
What were you like as a schoolboy, and what was your favourite subject?
At school, I was sensitive, and hardworking (not). I loved English, writing stories, and sport.
What is your favourite sport to get involved with?
Well rowing I guess. Although until my rowing renaissance I spent my time circling the island with J14 scullers – wondering if I’d ever get to shout for Shiplake at a regatta again..
What does the future hold for Mr Alcock?
The future? Just teaching until retiring… at some point. Now I am, as a sixth from girl recently observed, 'a nice old man’, I am determined not to become boring, grumpy or a ‘chunterer’, like others I know. I hope to sip from the elixir of youth, and to keep following Jesus until called home. It’s the only way to be...