Gill Hall
Head of Department
Grade 2
Gill was born in Durban on an undisclosed date in the 1960's. Her father was transferred from Kloof to Pietermaritzburg when she was in Grade 4. Primary schooling was at Kloof Primary and Athlone Primary and thereafter she completed senior school at Pmb Girl's High School in 1978. She decided that the hotel industry was quite appealing, so completed a 3 year National Diploma in Hotel Management in Johannesburg. Having discovered that this was not what she had thought it would be, She left the hotel industry and worked for a safari company in Botswana for a while before enrolling to study as a teacher at Natal Training College in Pietermaritzburg. She graduated at the end of 1987 and a few weeks later married Linton. Her first teaching post was at Clarendon Primary. She was there for one year before being offered a post at Cordwalles in 1989. After 13 years at Cordwalles, Linton & Gill left South Africa for England. She lived in the stunning county of Dorset for 6 years before returning to South Africa at the end of 2007. She was fortunate enough to get a post back at Cordwalles. In the little spare time she has, she enjoys gardening, walking, cycling, reading and playing squash.

Viv Ford
Grade 2
Viv, the second eldest of four girls, was born in Malta and moved to Rhodesia when she was seven. She arrived in South Africa ready for high school, attending Rosebank Convent in Johannesburg where she became Head Girl. Having graduated from the Johannesburg College of Education she was offered a job back at her ‘old school’ where she taught for 17 years! In between she married her childhood sweetheart, Mike, and produced Kate a qualified speech therapist and Nicholas, a Graphic Designer and an ‘old boy’ of Cordwalles.

Grade 1
Wendy and her two sisters grew up in Greytown and matriculated from Greytown High School. Moving away from her hometown, she went to study at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg and completed her HDE at the Pretoria College of Education. Wendy was appointed to her first teaching post in a little mining ‘dorp’, Kriel, but luckily for her an opportunity arose in Natal at Drakensview Primary in Estcourt. Wendy was blessed to be part of Estcourt’s wonderful close-knit community for 11 years. During that time she was able to take a few months off to travel and work in the UK. Involvement in the school and community were centered around her love of children and passion for team sports. Whilst at Drakensview, Wendy taught Grade 1 and Grade 4 and became Grade Leader of the three Grade 1 classes.

Wendy moved to Cordwalles in 2002. Wendy enjoys hockey and has played for Northern Transvaal, Natal Country Districts and Midlands Masters. She has served on the Primary Schools Hockey Executive for many years. Wendy is married to Barry and they have a son, Jordan, who is in Grade RR at Cordwalles,  and baby daughter named Acacia.

Grade 1
Belinda had an idyllic childhood on the McIlrath family farm, 15km north of Empangeni. She was the third of four children and grew up surrounded by a large extended family. She started her schooling at Empangeni J.P. School and then continued onto St. Catherines Covent. At 10years of age Belinda followed her older brother and sister to boarding school in Pietermaritzburg. She started at Epworth in Grade 6 and matriculated there in 1987. Belinda was then determined to see her name in lights and wanted to study the performing arts. Her parents insisted she do a secretarial course at Durban Technicon first, which she did, and then went on to study Drama for three years. Belinda realized her acting ability was limited after failing at two auditions! She thankfully had her secretarial skills to fall back on and worked in the Fedic’s Food Services administration department for a year to earn some much needed cash! Belinda enrolled at Edgewood College of Education in 1993 to study for a diploma in J.P. Studies. She gained experience in a boarding establishment, in her first year, by becoming a boarder mistress at Durban Girls College. Luckily for her it only lasted a year, as she married Lance Veenstra at the end of her first year of Edgewood.

Belinda got her first teaching post at The Wykeham Collegiate in 1997, teaching Grade 3 girls. She took time off to have her two children, Jemma and Matt. Belinda moved to Cordwalles in 2005 to take up the Grade 1 post and the enjoyable challenge of teaching boys!

Grade 3
Debbie was born in Durban in 1975. She  was raised and schooled in Pinetown, starting at Ashley Primary and followed by Pinetown Girls' High, where she obtained her matric in 1993.  Not sure of what career to pursue, she completed first year BA at the University of Natal, but soon realised that teaching young children is what she wanted to do.  Debbie attended Edgewood College of Education where she completed her Higher Diploma in Junior Primary Education. 

Her first year of teaching was at a small pre-primary in Pinetown but at the end of that year, an opportunity to teach overseas presented itself.  Debbie taught English in a town called Tai'chung, which is about 3 hours south of Taipei, Taiwan - an experience which changed her life! After 2 years, she felt the need to return to home and family, where she then taught at Ashley Primary School for the following 4 years. 

Another opportunity to teach in a private school arose, and keen for a change and challenge, she went to teach at St Benedicts Boys College in Bedfordview, Johannesburg. Once again, after 3 years, home, family and friends tugged at her heartstrings, and so is back in KZN and excited to be teaching boys at Cordwalles!

Grade 3
Laura-Jane was born in Estcourt K.Z.N in 1960. I attended the Estcourt Junior School and later Sandringham High School in Johannesburg. I returned to KZN to qualify at Natal Teacher's Training College in Pietermaritzburg. Whilst studying, I met Bruce Colepeper who was a student at Cedara Agricultural College. From then on, my career path was determined by our proximity to town! After we married in 1983, we lived on farms in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal and I taught at a range of small country schools over the years – Dannhauser Primary School, Newcastle Junior Primary, Kilbarchan Primary, Nottingham Road Primary and Howick Prep School. I was fortunate to be able to spend some years as a farmer's wife and ‘stay-at-home mother’ to our two little boys, but once they were old enough and we were settled close to Maritzburg in 1994, I started teaching at Merchiston Prep School, where they were educated. Yes, Merchiston crept into my blood and I loved every minute of teaching there! I started in the Senior Primary, teaching Grade 4 and coaching boys sport. In 2002 I moved into the Junior Primary to teach Grade 2. As the years progressed, I moved away from the sport orientated extra-mural activities and found myself gravitating towards the cultural aspect of education. A short foray into the corporate world, where I worked in the line of Training, satisfied my need to try something other than teaching, but eighteen months later my love for teaching was reconfirmed and I was fortunate enough to go back to Merchiston.  I was appointed Head of Department in the Junior Primary in 2008 and taught Grade 3 up until my decision to leave at the end of 2009. Our second son Robert, now 24, is a qualified chef, working in Cape Town. Our daughter Beth is 10 years old, in Grade 5. My husband Bruce works in the Agricultural field.

I am very grateful that I love my profession and enjoy being consumed by my work, but I am always striving to balance this with home, family and personal interests, which include the outdoors, nature, wildlife, travel, reading, crafts, art, poetry, music and literature. I am inspired by other teachers, children, my friends, books, art, music and the fresh opportunities presented by each new day!