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Greg Stragnell provides an insight into the life and times of Julie Leigh.
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Many colleagues will know that Julie Leigh, who has been Oxfordshire’s specialist adviser for ICT since 2001, retired at the end of last term. For five years Julie led the ICT Advisory Team and tirelessly promoted the use of ICT in education, acquiring a national reputation for excellence. Julie started teaching at North Leigh Primary School in 1970 and within a year her extraordinary talents and abilities were recognised – in 1971 she was granted an additional pay scale point for taking charge of needlework and playing the piano. After a short break delivering her two children, Julie then spent some time in her husband’s hardware shop in Witney. It was while working at Leigh & Sons that Julie’s interest in ICT was first nurtured. In 1980 the shop invested in some IT and introduced a stock control system. Julie took on the responsibility for keying in all the details for every item of stock sold in the shop, a task which took about eight days working 16 to 17 hours a day. Naturally, this being IT, almost as soon as she had finished this task, the system crashed and she lost all the data (no sensible backup strategy in those days). The data was re-entered however, her troubles weren’t finished – the computer kept crashing. After some investigation it was discovered that the hard disk crashes coincided with every time a bus drove past the shop – the bus was causing the shop floor to vibrate crashing the hard disk. The solution was to bolt the computer to the wall. |
In April 1988 Julie returned to teaching at Carterton
Primary School and once again gained rapid promotion – she was anointed ICT
Co-ordinator in September 1988.
It wasn’t long before Julie’s ICT talents and capabilities were spotted and she
joined the ICT Advisory Team on a year’s secondment in September 1992. Racing
around the county, Julie promoted ICT in primary schools and, in particular,
her favourite applications, Logo and spreadsheets.
Following her secondment, Julie went first of all to Greenmere Primary School in Didcot where she worked as a deputy headteacher for two years. She then spent a year as an acting head at Whitchurch and East Hanney before being appointed head at Stephen Freeman in Didcot. Even a headship, though, clearly did not provide sufficient challenge – Julie continued to act as the ICT Co-ordinator, network manager and webmaster in her spare time.
In April 2001 Julie joined the advisory service as the specialist adviser for ICT and a link adviser for a patch of schools. Julie’s time in the post coincided with a massive investment in ICT infrastructure, the development of the OCN and the general transformation of ICT from the computer in the corner of the classroom to the provision we have today; ICT suites, mobile trolleys, laptops for teachers, data projectors and interactive whiteboards and the Learning Platform. During her stewardship the ICT Advisory Team produced a range of ICT topic booklets which acquired a national reputation. Soon the DfES was knocking on her door asking that she oversee the production of the History vignettes for the DfES CD ROMs and a variety of other tools and resources to assist teachers in integrating ICT in a meaningful way in the classroom.
Julie has always had a passion for ICT and the way in which it can enhance learning and teaching. She worked tirelessly for the benefit of pupils and teachers in Oxfordshire schools and we shall miss her vision, commitment, dedication and enthusiasm and wish her all the very best for a long and enjoyable retirement.
