End Of An Era For Thame Community Education

AN ‘End of an Era’ party, marking 18 years of service for three Thame women who, between them had worked for what was originally Thame Adult Eduction and later evolved into Thame Community Education.
The three have all had leaving parties with their county colleagues, but Robert Harding, who was a member of the old Thame Community Education Committee, (these committees ceased when the governance of the service was centralised) thought that the departure of Mary, Karen and Jackie deserved to be marked with a party in Thame. So, on Friday they were joined by tutors past and present, members of the former Management Committee, colleagues from Lord Williams’s school and members of the many community groups who meet at the centre, to eat drink, reminisce and say good-bye!

Retiring Head of the Centre, Mary Stiles, told thamenews.net: “It was a lovely evening with lots of compliments, particularly about how welcome everyone feels in the centre. Norman Lilley spoke on behalf of the Visually Handicapped group who meet fortnightly at the centre and have done for many years and other guests included Cllr Beatrice Dobie, Sarah Hayes, representing the Thame Youth Theatre, which of course began its life in Thame Community Education and still runs here three evenings a week, and Robert Harding from the former Management Committee. Dawn Oliver spoke as a tutor and Christine Townsend as a former tutor, a learner and one of the PHAB Club’s organisers.
“The three of us were very moved by everyone’s wonderful comments, both those above and what was said more privately. We just feel we’ve been doing our jobs as well as we can and it feels really good to be so appreciated and we would like to say a big thank you for the party, the beautiful flowers we all received and everyone’s good wishes for the future. Many thanks too to Alison Barrow-Williams and Karen’s family for taking the photos.”

Jackie Hurst and Karen Clark were the administrators who worked very hard to make it a welcoming centre and they have taken on specialist roles too over the years; Jackie was one of the data specialists for the county and Karen specialised in finance and she also produced superb local publicity.
“My role,” explained Mary, “also evolved over the years from Centre Head to Area Head and most recently Curriculum Manager for Languages, Humanities and Science for the county, but still based in Thame. It was with the last two roles that I had less day-to day responsibility for the Thame centre and Jackie and Karen took that on so well.”

All three are taking voluntary redundancy as part of the latest restructuring of Adult Learning to save money, as they felt that there was no role for them in the new structure. But Mary added: “We do want to wish our colleagues continuing in the service all the best for the future, especially Jackie Ashkettle, Jill Austen, Jenny Richardson and Samantha Morgan, who are now staffing the centre.”

Photo: Mary Stiles, retiring Head of Thame’s Community Education Centre.