Making a new start

NEXT week, Queen’s College will not be quite the same as deputy headmaster and science teacher of 19 years, Dave Osborn, will no longer be seen striding down the corridors.

Osborn is leaving for Middelburg High in Mpumalanga to take up a post as senior deputy headmaster and teach science.

Osborn grew up in Durban and attended Durban High School. After a stint in the army, he obtained his degree at the University of Natal’s Edgemead campus in Pinetown.

After teaching in KwaZulu-Natal, he came to Queen’s and Connaught House as a junior housemaster in 1998. Here he met his wife, Peta-Jane Larter, and they start- ed running the hostel when Leon Erasmus left. Their son, Connor, 12, will attend Middelburg Primary, while Dave’s daughter Tarryn, 20, will continue studying occupational therapy at the University of the Free State.

He leaves for co-educational “Middies” as it is known, with its 300 pupils and said with a chuckle: “I’ll have to brush up on my Afrikaans”. At Queen’s he has been master-in-charge of cricket and rugby at various times – and his new post also involves overseeing cricket.

He will also act as hostel superintendent at his new school and they will live in a house belonging to the school.

His involvement in the Queen’s sesquicentenary arrangements will stand him in good stead, when he co-ordinates “Middies’” centenary celebrations in 2018 – as he has been tasked to do.

Osborn has visited his new school, having undertaken taken science tours there and is duly impressed.

The town is much bigger than Komani and situated about 130km from Johannesburg, has many features which adds to its appeal.

“There is plenty of trout fishing, the Kruger Park is nearby and it is a very nice town,” keen fisherman, Osborn said.

Osborn said he was very sad to leave Queen’s as he and his family have been very happy and felt “this school has a huge role to play in South Africa”.

They would miss their family and friends, but feel it is time to make a change, take on new challenges and further his career.

Now all that is left is the big move.

Decisions must be made on how to pack up 80 bonsai trees (a passion of his), plus pets and all other paraphernalia, such a move entails.

Happy landings!