Long-time Isle of Man school exam invigilator talks to Media Isle of Man's Tom Curphey following her retirement

Transcript

00:00My name's Rita Steele and in 2005 I retired and became an invigilator.

00:10And you've now officially retired?

00:13Yes, for the third time.

00:15And tell me, 25 years being an invigilator, you must have had a lot of memories,

00:20you've seen a lot. Tell us a bit about what your experience has been like

00:23and also any significant memories you've got in the years.

00:27Right, I really enjoyed doing it. I liked being with the students,

00:35especially going into town. I'm not very tall and these very, very tall young men

00:41used to look down on the top of my head and say, hello miss. That was lovely.

00:48And some of them did have problems but the majority were really nice.

00:54I was in Shopright one Sunday morning and the boy who served me said,

01:01are the exams finished? And I said, yes, we did the last one last week.

01:06And he said, he was off to college, he said, thank you, you have invigilated every one of my exams.

01:14And that made me feel good.

01:16That must have been a lovely moment, yeah.

01:18And what made you want to become an invigilator in the first place?

01:21Right, my granddaughter knew I was retiring and she brought a letter home and said,

01:27here you are granny, here's something to keep you busy.

01:31So I thought it was a voluntary job and I said, yes, put my name down, that's all right.

01:38So I went along to Balacombe for the induction meeting.

01:42I think there were about nine or ten of us there and they told us we were going to be paid,

01:48which was really a surprise and a very nice one.

01:52That's lovely, so you were willing to do it voluntary anyway, but that's very nice.

01:57And you there, I spoke to you a little bit before and you said that there's been some,

02:02mainly you're very happy with all the students you've served and all the people you've been

02:06around, but there has been a couple, one time of cheating did you say, only one time you've got some?

02:10Yes, just one time which was really unfortunate

02:16that I had to report it because it was cheating, but I hated having to report it

02:23and the poor person who had cheated, I presume had their exams cancelled.

02:31It's never nice to see that, is it? But once in 25 years isn't all that bad, is it?

02:36No, no, not bad at all. Perhaps some of them did cheat and they were just very good at it.

02:42Yes, you might have missed them.

02:43Possibly, but the majority of time they were really nice. We did have problem kids,

02:51but the majority, it was a lovely job to do and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

02:58And today we're in the Theory Driving Centre and there's been some cake and a few gifts for you,

03:01of course. How's it been winding down all of this and saying goodbye to everyone?

03:06It's very sad to say goodbye to everybody. I've worked with some of them for a number of years

03:16and I really count them as my friends, so it is sad, but we've all got to retire sometime.

03:26Of course, and have you got any plans for retirement now you're all finished, a bit more spare time?

03:30Well, I'm quite busy. I go to the WI. I've got grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

03:41I do parasites. My friend and I sometimes go walking. I knit, I crochet and I stroke the cat.

03:55Wow, so you're very busy. You've got plenty to do in your spare time and that's very nice.

03:59Thank you very much for your time and thank you for the interview and best of luck.