VPHS
child!” She does not have any biological children
but she has adopted so many children into her heart.
She is a mother figure not only to her nieces and
nephews (who adore her), but to many of her learners who have come to rely on her guidance, encouragement and wisdom. She describes her life as
having been “immeasurably blessed” by them; they
recognise and respect the role model and mentor she
is to them and value the positive influence she has
on their lives.
does with passion, and her infectious enthusiasm is
an inspiration to her learners.
Miss Meyer has also been a great support to the Junior City Council representatives who have achieved
beyond expectation. Daniella Patsalos being elected as Junior Mayor was the cherry on the cake.
She confesses to having a bucket list and for the past
10 years it has been a goal to have a VP pupil in the
top 15 of the English Olympiad. Well, she ticked
that one off her list this year when 2 pupils (Pierre
Durandt and Taryn Benade) were placed 5th and 8th
respectively.
There is so much that I admire, value and respect
about her. She is extremely hardworking, is an excellent teacher (last year 17 of her Matric pupils
received distinctions for English!) and constantly
strives to be innovative and to improve her knowledge and skills. She has done computer courses and
even a Toastmasters’ course as she felt that honing
her skills in those fields would ultimately be of benefit not only to her, but to her learners. Her humility
and quiet strength might mislead those who don’t
know her well into believing that she’s a “push
over”.
She is also an Olympiad marker, in addition to being a Senior Marker for English HL Paper 2. The
experience she has gained as an external marker
has been invaluable in guiding her learners, and she
readily shares her knowledge with her colleagues.
In fact, if anyone in the English Department urgently needs a past paper, memo or document, Paulet is
the one who is approached - her filing and administrative skills are simply daunting! They will also
share how they have come to depend on her to do
many of the assessment spreadsheets with complicated formulae on the computer to simplify the imputting and finalising of marks. This she does quietly and willingly and without expecting any praise
or recognition.
When she was appointed temporarily as Head of
English while Mrs Webb was away, she ran the department extremely well; her calm yet firm manner
of dealing with things revealed her strong leadership ability. There are times when she does become
upset about something, but she (most admirably)
always ensures that she maintains her dignity and
has no problem in articulating how she feels. Paulet is an extremely kind and caring friend. When I
was suddenly unable to mark a set of Matric papers
due to a last minute departmental timetable change
and personal circumstances, she offered to mark
them for me, despite the fact that she already had a
huge amount of personal marking to complete. I am
blessed to have her as a colleague and friend.
At most school functions, you will see her front-ofhouse as the ticket lady and later in a supportive role
in the audience. Miss Meyer is in charge of TAG
(Teenage Action Group), which she finds very rewarding as the funds are used to assist the school
community. The Hiking Club, which she heads, enables her to share her love of nature with learners
and “to get to see a different side of the kids which
is awesome”.
Miss Meyer intends becoming a bag-lady after she
retires and plans to travel the world! Other cultures
and meeting people from other countries have always fascinated her; she also loves learning other
languages and has mastered the basics of French,
Serbo-Croat and German. We, as VP family, selfishly hope that she will not pack her bag too soon
and embark on her globe-trotting adventure as we
want to keep her here for as long as possible. A great
teacher’s work is never done!
Her starting the Film Society was instrumental in
several pupils achieving some noteworthy successes in the field of film-making. She laughingly relates (she has a wonderful sense of humour!) that
she made her television debut when Lindl du Preez’s
award-winning short film was broadcast on SABC .
She had to drive the main character into the school
and says it was “hilarious” because it took a number
of takes to get it exactly right!
Mrs Donnell Goldberg.
I have often heard her say with pride when one of
the learners whose life she has touched receives
an award or recognition of some kind,” That’s my
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