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Staff and students have been celebrating a Jersey College for Girls alumnus, who went on to stoke a creative fire in thousands over the course of a 40-year career as an art teacher at the school, as she prepares to retire.
Angela Crowcroft, who announced her departure “Love Actually-style”, will be stepping down at the end of this term.
Known for her quirky and warm teaching style, the JCG stalwart is perhaps best known among students past and present for her unique artistic language – and ability to draw a perfect circle.
Upon retirement, Mrs Crowcroft will be swapping the classroom for her own studio and the Battle shed, focusing on her own work and designing floats for future Battle of Flowers parades. However, she has pledged to still make time for designing sets for school productions.
JCG alumni have been invited to share their well wishes on an online page. JCG's Head of Art and Deputy Head Girl shared their reflections on Mrs Crowcroft's 40-year contribution to school life with Express...
Mrs Crowcroft - Angela to her friends and colleagues, ‘Mrs Crow’ to her more recent students, ‘Miss Evans’ to those slightly older, ‘Mother of the Parish’ to St. Helier’s residents - is retiring from teaching Art at Jersey College for Girls.
‘So what?’ you may ask. Well, consider this…
Angela has taught at the same school for 40 years. In that time, she has inspired hundreds, nay thousands, of young people to engage with, and thrive on, their creative potential.
On top of that, her connection with the College goes way back to when she was 11 years old. Angela has JCG coursing through her veins.
She cruised through school (winning the Sixth Form Art prize in passing, I’ll have you know), breezed through four years of Art school, gaining a rarely-achieved First degree in Illustration at Newport, spent a year training to be a teacher, then returned to her spiritual home to take up the post of Art teacher under the nurturing leadership of the legendary Pat Miller, who had herself taught Angela and recognised her talents as a youngster.
Pictured: A former student herself, "Angela has JCG coursing through her veins", according to the school's Head of Art.
When Pat retired, Angela served under the equally legendary Michael Richecoeur for many years, honing her professional skills and endearing herself to generations of young ladies.
When I appeared on the scene in 2006 following Michael’s retirement, I felt slightly undeserving to be Head of Art in a two-person department featuring such an experienced and hugely talented teacher. It was immediately apparent that Angela knew way more than I did about Art and how to teach it, grounded as she was in the ‘old ways’ and steeped in the classical traditions.
Over the next 15 years she taught me as much as she passed on to her students, instilling in them a life-long appreciation of art and culture. On the surface, her teaching style may have appeared light, frivolous and peppered with uniquely coined Crowcroft-isms (appley-dappley, swirly-whirly, witchy fingers…) but fast forward to the end of a lesson/project/ year/course and witness the depth of learning she would engender in those eager students who would invariably leave her classroom happier than when they arrived.
Pictured: Just as creative in the kitchen... Mrs Crowcroft crowned as ‘Best Amateur Chef’ for her dish of skate poached in La Mare wine with a Jersey butter and caper sauce in Genuine Jersey's 'Skills for Life' cookery contest.
Why?
Because she cares deeply about all those in her charge, and she cares even more about teaching her subject in the right way - that is to say, learning from the ground up: how to look, how to measure, how to compose, how to balance, how to appreciate…funnily enough, all the qualities that have resurfaced over the last couple of years as covid has caused us to us to re-evaluate our lives and how we perceive the world around us.
There is a lesson there for all of us.
I have also learnt much from teaching by Angela’s side. She has witnessed many changes and many ‘innovations’ over the years, from the heady fumes of meths-fuelled Gestetner copiers to the infallible touch-screen, from chalkboards to ‘smart’ boards. Oh, how we have bonded through our shared faith in IT!
Pictured: Angela Crowcroft and her husband, St. Helier Constable Simon Crowcroft.
Together we have seen all initiatives come back round several times but have never lost faith in what remains truthful and necessary in education. I am hugely appreciative of her experience and her friendship, of her generosity of spirit and of her humility and deep feeling for passing on the creative torch to each successive generation. She will be greatly missed by so many.
We will be holding a Vin d’Honneur for Angela in the Art Department on 5 July, when we can celebrate her remarkable achievements whilst enjoying an exhibition of her own highly-accomplished artwork; something that she has kept up throughout her life, and that she plans to continue with in her new studio after her retirement. If Angela touched your life at any point over the last 50 years or so, I’m sure you will join me in wishing her a well-deserved and fulfilling break.
However, as she has already committed to returning to school to help out with the scenery for the next drama production, as well as designing more Battle floats for the parish, it follows that she will be as busy as ever and her creativity will continue to enrich all our lives for some time to come.
Thanks Ange!
The Art department has always been a special place for me, and 'Mrs Crow', as we affectionately know her, is inseparable from it.
A place full of music and colour, the room bloomed under Mrs Crow's quirkiness. Any student at JCG could reflect fondly on their art lessons in the lower school and the bizarre vocabulary they left them with; Mrs Crow being a woman who seems to have her own word for everything. These tender memories are echoed throughout the school, even by students who are no longer studying art.
Mrs Crowcroft, in The College and in herself, is singular.
Those of us who have continued art to GCSE or A Level have each grown as artists under her warmth and guidance. A teacher who is wholeheartedly invested in her students, Mrs Crow's gentle eccentricity has fuelled our own creative development, prompting us to be imaginative, fearless and thoughtful creators.
Pictured: "Mrs Crowcroft, in The College and in herself, is singular."
On the day Mrs Crow told my Year 12 art class about her retirement (Love Actually-style with a placard), there were teary eyes all around. But whilst I am saddened to be losing the constant presence of Mrs Crow, I am also glad that she'll have the opportunity to focus on her own artwork. After enriching the lives of so many of her students, it seems about time.
Although she won't officially be my teacher for much longer, Mrs Crow will always be a special person in my journey as an artist. I'm certain the sentiment is widely shared.
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