We caught up with Teacher of English and Head of Raphael House, Davena Scott for this weeks edition of Staff Spotlight. Hearing about Davena’s inspirational teacher, wild hobbies and admirable quantities of fruit and vegetables at lunch, this edition takes a new approach. So please enjoy the wonderful story of Davena Scott.
Two people in my life have made a massive difference to my happiness (other than my parents and my children). These are the people I now subconsciously emulate – my inspirational English teacher, and my inspirational rowing coach.
I was born in Barking, which is consistently found to be the most underprivileged place in Britain (although we later moved to Derbyshire). Conversely Chorleywood, where I have lived for the past 20 years, was the most privileged place in the country around the time I moved there. I value the community I am embedded in there.
Education makes a massive difference to people’s life chances: I had an inspirational English teacher for A level, Dave Bone (and a very supportive Mum). Having studied English, History, Economics and Sociology, I was the only person from my school year to go to university and the first generation in my family. I didn’t get into Oxford and so instead, chose Manchester because of the Smiths (Rusholme Ruffians). Thank heavens they didn’t write about Scunthorpe, or I’d have ended up there! Luckily Manchester University had a great Law Faculty with Rodney and Margot Brazier, and was Russell Group (although I had no inkling about that at the time). There was beautiful countryside very nearby and I used to cycle to Buxton and back in the evenings in summer across the Peak District.
I was good at cross-country at school. Perhaps typically for mid-life crisis, I took up triathlon, undertaking a number of halves before leading to full Iron Man competition. I completed marathons to prepare for this. There is always someone faster. I was really pleased to start the London Marathon in the 3.45 finish time pen. Next to me was a guy carrying a surfboard. He told me without the surfboard he could do it in two and half hours. I have also broken a lot of bones over the years, mostly through cycling accidents; I’ve had my ankle and my wrist pinned and plated at different times.
I learned to scull at Thames Rowing Club, and I continued my education at Christleton College of Law, where I joined Grosvenor Rowing Club. I was always good at ergs – there was a time I’d aim for 7.12, listening to the Stone Roses’ Resurrection (which is eight minutes long). I had an amazing coach called Andy Turner, who launched Helen Mangan and Juliet Machin into the international circuit from this northern club. I got nowhere near there, but still, it was seminal for me. Nowadays, I love Head of the River Race, and Women’s and Royal Henley, and I still do a minimum of nine hours cycling and three and a half hours swimming a week, and people marvel at the quantities of fruit and vegetables I eat.
Despite having worked in the corporate world for 14 years on all kinds of glamorous, exciting projects, enjoying tremendous parties, sailing yachts and skiing for a couple of weeks every year, Biff in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman resonated with me – he shunned the corporate life for a simpler life which fitted his value-set: ‘I know who I am kid’.
I had my children and did my Masters in Modern and Contemporary Literature at University of London with an inspirational supervisor, Professor Roger Luckhurst, with a view to becoming a teacher. I have now taught for longer than I was in the corporate world. The previous school I taught at was in an underprivileged area and I found it to be very rewarding. I bump into the pupils I taught around the area from time-to-time.
I’ve been an exam marker for nine years – it gives me a tendency to be blunt as a marker, but an ex-pupil recently wrote that ‘it made me change my approach to English for the better’. I love contemporary arts: I take a keen interest in the Booker Prize and the Turner Prize every year.
The best media is books. I read, and books inform my life: I’m not the only teacher in the School who adores TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. I bought white flannel trousers specifically to wear as I walked along the beaches I used to sail yachts to (because the line of the poem is, ‘I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach’). I can still recite the entire poem.
There are many things I love about being a part of Taylors’. I loved being Assistant Head of Lower School and I love being Head of Raphael even more. When my son was in Year 9, he lost his memory stick, and I asked the Head of Year to find it for him. I pay that forward now by helping our pupils. In addition to the wonderful calibre and attitude of the pupils, I have lots of sentimental attachment to the School – in 2008 I first completed the Moor Park 10K and in 2009, I completed my first triathlon here at Taylors’, which I did again in 2010. I also adore the lake here, and I am perhaps proudest of becoming a British Rowing Level 2 Coach. I was recently described by a parent as ‘intrepid’. I have been lucky enough to be heavily involved in the trips in the UK to Wales and the Lake District, where we are in rivers and the sea. I also love looking out for the pupils whilst skiing.
I am passionate about Drama at School. To complement this, inspired by a Reading Group I encountered whilst doing my Masters, which studied Joyce’s Ulysses over twelve years, meeting once a month, I run a Reading Group at School where we have read and discussed plays one lunchtime a week. This has been running over two years now with the same core members. So far, we’ve studied Ibsen’s Dolls House, Pinter’s Betrayal, Tennessee Williams’ Streetcar Named Desire, David Hare’s Skylight and Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem. Next, we will be reading Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett. We have a trip to the V&A to watch a National Video Archive of Performance of Jerusalem booked, and St Helen’s join us for discussions on an annual basis.
So, my inspirational English teacher and rowing coach, I salute you. Maybe, one day, someone will say the same of me.
