Year of 19692009 reunion2005 reunionKhandallahKhandallah School
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Profiles /
Ann BurtonI spent all my school days as Ann Burton, using my second given name upon leaving school, and adding my husband's name to my own upon marriage. I started at Cashmere School (I am sure that that was how it was known then, although now it is referred to as Cashmere Side School for those days, and Cashmere Avenue School today). We all come up to Khandallah after Std 2 and had Standards 3 and 4 in the prefabs at the top of the school. I was in Mrs Lyon's class in Std 3 and Mr Sharpe's class for Std 4 - I had vague memories of having Mr Gooder but on reflection I can't have done - it must just be that I was aware of him as one of the other teachers there. After Khandallah I spent the rest of my schooling at Queen Margaret College in Thorndon, leaving in the 7th form for university. I determined in Form 2 that I wanted to follow my parents and maternal aunt into Librarianship and, although academically I didn't shine, worked towards that as my career goal. I managed to leave school with a B bursary and embarked on a BSc at Victoria which I completed after 4.5 years in mid-1979. I worked for 18 months as a library assistant at the Meteorological Service ("weather office") before being accepted for the 1981 intake at the Dept of Librarianship at VUW (the second intake at Victoria). When I graduated I went on a sort of "student work experience" trip to the UK over 1981/82 - one of the coldest winters recorded at the time. I returned to New Zealand in February to a position as Assistant Librarian with the NZEI where I worked for 2.5 years. I left to go on a geology study tour of the Western US (I had taken some geology papers as part of my degree)and came back to do a number of temporary jobs in libraries (CIT, Ministry of External Relations & Trade) before taking my last temporary job at the British Council, located in the British High Commission. This job became permanent and I remained there, meeting and then marrying my husband Chris Bell, for 11 years, and finally leaving in April 1997 ahead the birth of our son Nicholas. I had a brief part-time stint at Woolworths in Crofton Downs before being appointed as one of two medical data entry operators at Matpro and WIPA (Wellington Independent Practice Assn.). I left WIPA in September 2004 for my present position registering teachers with the NZ Teachers Council.
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