Honouring Jean: Three Decades of Outstanding Service at Brinsbury College

Staff and students at Brinsbury College have bid a fond farewell to a long-serving staff member who has retired after more than 30 years.

Jean Farmer, 66, started working at the college in 1994 in the finance office as a purchase sales ledger clerk.

After around four years in the role, she moved to the college’s admissions department where she worked until taking retirement in October last year.

Jean first went to the college in her early 30s to study a farm secretarial course.

This involved working with electric typewriters, word processors, spreadsheets and using Teeline shorthand.

She also learned how to drive a tractor and reverse a trailer and learned about crops and horticulture which she said she “really enjoyed.”

Jean went on to join the staff and has seen quite a few changes over the years. She said: “The IT systems they have replaced are brilliant. I mean, when I first started here, if you took a phone call and had to message somebody, you had to write it in a message and put it in their pigeonhole. Whereas now, you can just email people.”

Among the highlights of Jean’s time with the college, were trips to Sweden on a college exchange for staff and a staff visit to France to see The Palace of Versailles and Monet’s garden.

Jean also became the secretary of Brinsbury Old Student Society for two years, organising events like discos and car treasure hunts.

During her retirement, Jean is looking forward to going on a cruise next year and visiting more National Trust venues.

She added: “It is just a lovely community at Brinsbury and everybody gets to know everybody else. We always used to say in our office, ‘if anyone was having a bad day, they could come in and we would do tea and sympathy.”

Christine Bianchin, Principal of Brinsbury College, said: “We would like to thank Jean for her many years of service with the college and wish her a long and happy retirement.”

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