Testimonials

Dear Headmaster,

As someone who has been heavily involved in all facets of St James life and from the age four all the way through to eighteen, it is my honest opinion that the school possesses no greater asset than Dr Whitehouse.

When I look back upon everything I have done hitherto, starting my journey to become a physicist, nobody has influenced, guided, inspired and taught me more. Even now, after my first year of University studying Physics, nobody at my University has had remotely the same impact and I cannot see that changing throughout my entire degree and perhaps beyond. It is my fervent belief that even when my career is over, I will look back and say that it was Dr Whitehouse who shaped me.

The St James Sixth Form is of a size where every pupil can get individual attention from their teachers and nobody, in my experience, excels this arena quite like Dr Whitehouse. He is peerless in the pursuit of 'going the extra mile' to help his pupils. When I think of all the reasons I am studying Physics and why I love Physics, ultimately, almost all of them stem from Dr Whitehouse and his efforts outside the curriculum. He gave me books from his own pocket, USBs full of articles, his own slideshows on dozens of topics, weekly and monthly magazines that otherwise I would have had no access to, as well as invaluable ideas and advice that I would -and could- never otherwise have come by.

I will refrain from waxing on for page after page about Dr Whitehouse's merits but I hope from this it is clear that I could.

In a vain attempt to sum my experience with Dr Whitehouse up, I offer this. Parents send their sons to St James to become rounded, multi-faceted and multi­ talented men, if on top of this you wish to create great men, send those sons to Steven Whitehouse.

On the 12th of December last year I made the arduous journey into central London to the Goldsmiths' Hall. I'm sure you all know what an onerous undertaking this constitutes, but I did it for good reason: to spend the day with Dr, Whitehouse. We picked the Goldsmiths' Hall because we were due to collect a chemistry prize there.

The doctor pulled up in his silver Jag and I immediately accosted him with a question about quantum mechanics. He told me to leave him alone until he'd had his coffee.

After the coffee, our conversation commenced; superconductivity, Cooper pairs and the BCS wave function were all on the agenda. Our discussion was halted by the start of the ceremony, which consisted of the winners presenting a short piece on their favourite element.

Because Dr. Whitehouse knows everything, I took his advice and chose Hydrogen.

Unfortunately, as the talks were ordered by atomic number, that meant I was first, presenting to the fifty best under-18 chemists in the country and Dr. Peter Wothers, perhaps the most prolific chemistry professor in the UK.

And, because that's inevitably the way of things, the IT let me down. The connection between the computer and the projector failed and I was left presenting about an empty screen to my esteemed audience. However professors rushed in and soon the projector was fixed.

I talked about hydrogen economy, its applications, advantages and drawbacks, and also about the deuterium (a different kind of hydrogen) proof for the Big Bang.

After this the prizes were awarded by Dr. Wothers. The prize, one each awarded to Dr.Whitehouse on behalf of the school and myself, was a bespoke glasswork, depicting within it an electron probability-density model.

It was a very special day, in a very special place, and my trophy sits on top of my notes about lattice vibrations and phonons, which I recalled from the great Dr. Whitehouse's teachings throughout the day.

I would also like to extend a huge thank you to my chemistry teacher for giving me the chance to participate in the competition that led to the prize.

I was a student under Dr Whitehouse for my final two years of secondary school. To say Dr Whitehouse influenced my studies is an understatement. I am almost sure that I would not be studying the course I am had I not received such an original perspective on mathematics. With a vast understanding on any topic we came across, his lessons showed us the ins and outs to every theory.

As a result, the subjects taught by Dr Whitehouse I understood at a far deeper level an managed to get even higher marks on standardised tests. I went from being a Literature student to being 'one of the maths kids'.

Dr Whitehouse believed in his students, to put it mildly. He trusted me to achieve things I thought I'd never be able to achieve and gain honours I never thought I could deserve. I am currently studying a double degree in Econometrics and Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands. I have no doubt that one of the reasons that I passed the punishing first year is because of his teaching in the previous years.

Dr Whitehouse,

I hope this email finds you well and apologies for my lack of sooner communication with you I never meant for it to be so long. I am headed back to uni soon and so will not get a chance to meet with you likely until my next break sometime in late April but regardless I look forward to it. I am loving my time at bath uni and the physics is getting very interesting (next semester I shall be covering some special relativity and quantum physics); in fact the mysterious phonons have even come up in my lectures. Again I would like to stress how grateful I am for all of your lessons as well as Mr Byrne's (I trust you are still educating him on phonons and Scalar Tensor Vector Gravity solutions for dark matter). Never give up I would love to arrange a meeting with you for a beer at some point, but until then I wish you all the best.