Sylvia Fancy

Sylvia was already known to us as the mother of Christopher and Stephen when she arrived in 1989 to teach in the Prep. School and at once showed she is an indefatigable worker and an inspired teacher. She was appointed as a mathematician and able musician and has given countless boys in the Prep. an excellent grounding in all the subjects she has taught. No-one in her geography lessons could fail to notice her enthusiasm and love for the Lake District, nor in her English lessons her appreciation of well-constructed language. Her notes about 'Swallows and Amazons' have introduced many boys to the delights of reading seriously and her literature lessons have been full of glorious stories and poetry.

Mathematics in the Prep. has always been an important area in the curriculum with the highest standards sought and achieved; and in the years Sylvia Fancy has been here she has taught every boy on his way through P5 and P6 and has shown each, star or anxious stumbler, the elegance of mathematical concepts and the satisfaction of mastering them. Her lunchtime Maths. club in the Library for the less confident has given new insight to Library Mums and staff as well: we wish we had been in her classes!

Sylvia is most well-known at Haberdashers' for her music. She has trained, nursed, cajoled, required and inspired Junior and Senior Choirs and in particular the very special Chamber Choir. Any boy who has sung with Mrs. Fancy knows that the music (and words) are paramount: the performance is important in that it is a conduit for expressing what the music is and boys have the experience of being part of that channel between composer and audience. We have heard and seen them forgetting self, and not only making a lovely, joyful noise, but growing in spirit. No-one who has heard Mrs. Fancy accompany an instrumentalist in Prep. Assembly, or has walked through the hall when she has been playing Bach, will ever forget it; and we recall vividly the energetic music she has given in many Prep. productions: two 'Josephs', Rats!, Cats and many others. It is hard to write too glowingly about her outstanding contribution to Prep. music, and especially hard to write of her increasing problems with hearing, gallantly borne and practically managed.

Her colleagues in the Prep. - and parents too - know how much love and attention Sylvia has put into the nurture and support she has given to the boys in her form. It is said that teaching is like gardening. If that is so, then she has provided the very best growing any child could have: a top quality compost of affection and rigour, expecting the best from boys who are eager to prove her confidence in them right, wisdom when dealing with lapses of behaviour which they regret, understanding when difficulties are more than they can manage. Every boy feels she is on his side; and she is. The highest compliment she can pay is 'he always gives of his best'.

No appreciation of Sylvia's work in the Prep. would be complete without remembering the yearly Preston Montford Field Trips with P7 and P8. She was Medicine Man and Surrogate Mother to many a valiant and homesick boy. 'Do you think your mother will be happier or less happy when you ring off if you tell how you feel this first evening?' has shown a number of boys how to be kind and keep that call for a more cheerful Day Two. Her round of the bedrooms before lights out prompted many attempts at coughing - Mrs. Fancy's throat pastilles were delicious. Stream-dipping and castle-climbing, hill-walking and ghost stories on the Stiperstones found her in her element and the boys thrived.

Enough of the boys: her colleagues have relished her company and wicked dead-pan utterances in the staffroom, and her generosity and kindness in times of stress; and have envied her beautiful handwriting and ability to write an apposite report. No colleague ought to be allowed all these graces and it is a measure of the affection Sylvia engenders that no-one holds it against her. We are grateful that she has been in this place at this time. She, indeed, has always given of her best, and her best is superb.