Penny
Academic Assistant
I’ve done so many different things in my lifetime: I started with a teenage modelling course after school, before going on to work in the Foreign Office. Later I returned to Oxford where I worked at Oriel College and met my husband – a finalist at Hertford College. We moved back to London where I had my two lovely daughters. One of my most memorable jobs was at a run-down Secondary School in a deprived part of North London. It was an experience to put it mildly- some highlights include a group of pupils smuggling various inhabitants of Whipsnade Zoo back onto coach, getting kicked out of the National Gallery when some of the students defaced paintings with felt-tips. I eventually came back to Oxford, hosting Foreign Language students for a while until I got my current job at Teddy. I’ve now been here a long, long time…
Outside of work, I don’t have much spare time once I’ve done seeing and caring for my mum. I enjoy looking after my garden though, and spending time with my grandchildren.
I’ve had some real laughs along the way at the Hall… thought I’d share some of the most outrageous! It’s mostly been students doing things they shouldn’t. I remember some (very!) inebriated undergraduates trying to scale the fence into Christ Church meadow and impaling their leg on one of the spikes instead. They were fine, but as soon as the firemen were done Christ Church demanded their spike back! A couple of years later more of our undergrads got in trouble smuggling a priceless painting out of University College dining room – apparently intending to do the SCR a favour by replacing some of the modern ones in their common room…
I’ve also developed some really lovely relationships with the students too. Some 10 years ago a ‘Crisis Student’ came to us from the Gaza Strip – the British Counsel actually brought him out in his own car. The whole College pulled together to support him both in practical and financial ways. The MCR were brilliant, but the poor chap’s parents’ house was bombed while he was here so he couldn’t go back until his course finished. I like to feel I did my bit – I felt so sorry for him. I left regular goodies in his pigeonhole and at Christmas times I took a tree and boxes of those lovely M&S bics in for him… bless ‘im. He returned with his family some years later and we had the biggest of hugs in middle of the quad!
What do you think when you hear ‘Women of the Hall’? What does the Hall mean to you?
The College means a lot to me - especially the lovely team we have here in the College Office. I am privileged to work in the oldest University in the world – with the brightest tutors in the world. The buildings (perhaps with the exception of those tacked on at the back) and our history are incredibly impressive. I particularly love meeting students from all over the world that can be found here at Teddy Hall.