New faces for a new year.

Hello everyone, Happy New Year and welcome back from all at AIB. We hope you've had a restful break and a great start to 2014.

The end of the Winter term saw us saying goodbye to House matrons Mrs Conell, Mrs Cashden and Mrs Eagle. It was sad to see them go and everyone here would like to thank them for all their hard work and kindness and wish them good luck for the future.

But the Spring term is a time for new beginnings and in this case, the new term has seen the arrival of our three new Assistant House Parents: Mr Willenberg in Brooke/Refuge, Ms Fletcher-Hall in Brabourne and Mrs Williams in Alfred. Welcome to all of you, it's a pleasure to have you here! So, for our first blog of the new year, AIB has taken the opportunity to find out a little more about the new members of our boarding team.

It would seem fitting that to look after such an international group of students our new staff hail from far and wide. Mr Willenberg, though born in England, was brought up in Toronto, Canada. Now, Canadians are widely regarded to be the friendliest people on the planet, though I'm not sure that this extends to boys being late for bed.

From closer to home, though just as friendly, comes Ms Fletcher-Hall. Originally from Wolverhampton in the English Midlands, Ms F. comes to us fresh from a stint with Disney Cruises. Judging by the hat we saw her wearing in the Brabourne common room she's brought a little stardust with her.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, Mrs Williams has had 13 years of boarding school experience in many prestigious British boarding schools before joining the Alfred House team. Well, their loss has most certainly been our gain.

When asked what their first impressions of the school and its pupils were, the new staff were unanimous in their praise. Ms Fletcher-Hall describes Ashford as "a very friendly school, with a warm atmosphere and very inviting." Both Mr Willenberg and Mrs Williams describe the pupils as being "polite" with Mrs Williams adding "helpful and delightful."

So, what should our boarders expect from the new members of their boarding family? Quite a lot of food, as it happens. Ms Fletcher Hall has recently discovered that she's a bit of a dab hand at baking muffins while Mrs Williams lists among her hobbies "French, Chinese, Japanese" and yes "English" cooking. If that wasn't enough, Mr Willenberg is a self-confessed chocoholic (though I'm not sure if that wasn't a very early hint at a Christmas present). No doubt Mr Rayner will have some eager new faces at his cookery activity on Thursdays.

Activities are certainly something all our assistant houseparents are looking forward to getting involved in. Boarding captain Bruce had better mind his Ps and Qs as Mrs Williams will soon be joining him in karate club and Ms Fletcher-Hall has become our newest Prime Time contestant while already earmarking the Quiz Cup for a place in the Brabourne office. No doubt Brooke/Refuge and current holders Alfred may have something to say about that come 1st April!

As varied as their interests and backgrounds are all our new team members share common attributes and goals with all three declaring "getting to know the pupils better" as what they are most looking forward to over the coming months and I'm sure the feeling is mutual.

Once again, welcome to all of you and all of us here in the Ashford boarding community look forward to living and working with you.

P.S.

If you'd like to know:

Mr Willenberg declares his favourite pastime as "sleeping", I'm sure the boys in Brooke/Refuge will respect his wishes.

Mrs Williams enjoys making hats, always a useful skill as a member of boarding staff.

and

Ms Fletcher-Hall can do a brilliant impression of a pigeon, which as she rightly says "(You never know when that might come in handy…)."

P.P.S. Watch out for new AIB articles from new reporters Terrence and Vladislav over the coming weeks.