Sadly Jane died last week, after a long battle with cancer.
Some of you will know her name from the many textbooks she wrote and contributed to, including the Nelson Thornes AQA Psychology AS and A2 books and also a number of the Collins Psychology books. She wrote with great clarity and accessibility – it always looks easy to produce text but is much more skillful than you would imagine, and Jane was one of the best.
Jane was also one of the most respected examiners for AQA A, valued for her experience (she was there for over 20 years) and her good-humoured, compassionate, thoughtful and professional approach. For the last few years she has been Principal Examiner for Unit 4 and will be much missed by the team this January. Karen Duffy, one of the team, describes her as a ‘true lady’!
Until fairly recently she taught psychology at the City College Norwich and held various positions of responsibility in the 6th Form Centre. One of her colleagues, Barbara Smedley, ‘Jane joined me in 1989 as the only two in the Psychology Department at the time. We often talked about how good those early times were. She never lost her interest and love of her subject. She was highly valued and respected by her students, by those of us who worked with her, and even more so by those who also had her as a friend’.