Mrs. Kate Coull: Parent Turned Teacher

3 October 2011Taryn O

Brentwood has an effect on people. It invokes a certain longing to be part of the community and experience the beauty of the setting firsthand. For some it’s love at first site, which was how it all started for Mrs. Kate Coull.

Mrs. Coull began as an admirer of Brentwood when she saw its campus for the first time twenty years ago in 1991. Since then she has become both a Brentwood parent and even more recently, a Brentwood teacher.

A new addition to the math department, Mrs. Coull is no stranger to working at an independent school. The Peterborough, Ontario native got her Bachelor of Science at the University of Guelph and then continued on to Queens where she received her teaching degree, majoring in math and science.

After a three year stint in the “middle of nowhere” at the exclusively female, Bethany Hills School, in Bethany, Ontario, Mrs. Coull was bit by the travel bug and after sending off twenty job applications, she found herself traveling to Gisborne, New Zealand to teach. A small town, Gisborne has the honour of being the “first city to see the sun”, as it is the most easterly city on Earth.

In New Zealand, Mrs. Coull found not only a job, but also her husband, David, and nineteen years ago her family expanded to include her son Ben who graduated from Brentwood in 2010. In 1997 she relocated from one island to another and found herself living on Vancouver Island where she worked at Queen Margaret’s School running a residence as well as being the Head of the Math department. With a history of riding horses, the equestrian facilities fit quite well with Mrs. Coull until she moved briefly back to New Zealand in 2005. Later that year her family returned to the Island and she began working at Aspen Grove School in Nanaimo teaching senior mathematics and calculus as well as being a university counselor.

The former Brentwood parent now finds herself teaching at the school, making an easy adjustment having already heard much about the routines and rules from her son. Previous meetings with other Brentwood teachers may have helped as well, because despite teaching at Brentwood for the first time, Mrs. Coull is by no means a newbie when it comes to knowing the staff or the intricacies of the school. When asked how she feels about Brentwood, Mrs. Coull has nothing bad to say. It “took me twenty years to get here, but it’s where I have always wanted to teach”.

Mrs. Coull loves hiking, kayaking and running and is even taking part in the upcoming Victoria Marathon (walking with her husband). She has taken on the Allard Grade 12s as advisees and does duty in Hope House as well, getting to know the girls quite well. With an excellent start to the year under her belt, Mrs. Coull is ready to begin her years at Brentwood, which she says “feels like home”.

Welcome home, Mrs. Coull.

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