Interview by Harsha Madhu

After eleven and a half years of teaching at RCHK, sadly, it is time to wave a bittersweet goodbye to one of our beloved Mathematics teachers, Steven Smyth. He is leaving our school to travel the world with his wife and I&S Teacher, Noelle Du Puy, embarking on a new chapter of their lives. To celebrate his journey and learn what’s in store for them, we asked Smyth some questions. Read on to find out!

• What are your plans for after RCHK?

So we’re going to do a little bit of travelling, see some family… we’re going to spend six months seeing family and friends in different parts of the world. Then eventually, we’ll go to the USA, California, where Ms Du Puy is from, try to find jobs, and settle down for a bit.

• What is the most rewarding thing that being a teacher allowed you to do?

I like creating, making resources for lessons [and] things like that. It’s fun, and partly it’s fun because students here enjoy it and make it fun. Putting a lot of energy into things you can get, students will like that and will try hard in the lessons, so it kinda motivates me as well to do that. So, yeah, I’d say being creative with making lessons and resources and having the motivation from students to do that has probably been the most fun thing. 

• Any favourite memories from your teaching experience here?

Ooh, no particular memory jumps out, but I think the feeling, in general, is that it’s always a fun place to come; I enjoy it. I like coming [to] work, which is a really amazing thing. I just find it a really positive, friendly, welcoming place, which... you know, I’ll miss it a lot, but I don’t have any particular memories that jump out, no… 

• Do you think you’re going to keep teaching in the future as well?

I am not entirely sure if I’m going to teach when I go to California. I’m going to just see what it’s like, see what other things I could do. I may go into teaching. However, I don’t know how long I’ll be in California [for]. Maybe two or three years? After that, I’ll certainly go into teaching if I haven’t taught in California. So, yeah, I will definitely teach again, but I don’t know if it will be in California. It might be in the next place after that, wherever that is. Maybe back in Hong Kong, who knows? [Laughs]

• Do you see yourself having a career related to Mathematics again?

The job I might do instead... yeah, if I was to change jobs, I might do something like, maybe, a part-time Maths tutor, but then maybe also possibly something to do with data analysis and statistics? That might be another thing I would look at. So companies or businesses have huge amounts of data and then employ people to analyse that and draw charts and stuff like that. That’s something I quite like, so I might do something like that as well. I’m not really sure, to be honest! [Laughs] I’m just going to have a look and see what it’s like, see what the job market is like… I mean, I’ve never done that job before, right, I’ve only ever been a teacher, so I don’t know if anyone will actually give me that job to do… [Laughs]

• Do you have any last messages to RCHK before you leave?

Ah, I just want to say it’s been an absolute pleasure teaching at RC, coming here every day, and I’m going to really miss it. I just wish everyone the best of luck, to just enjoy being here, [and] enjoy working with each other because it’s a great place. You know, nothing lasts forever, so enjoy the day-to-day things because things change over time, so just enjoy it, yeah! Enjoy being here and take as much advantage of it as you can.