Page 46 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

Long-serving RVC staff members leave the RVC
Dr Isobel Vincent
Issy joined the Clinical Skills Centre (CSC) team in October 2005, in the converted Obs Barn Bovine Theatre (now CIC), which was the original
CSC. She quickly became an integral part of the team with Nicki Coombes & Melanie Capello. Her main role was the delivery of teaching to all courses across the RVC, as well as being a familiar face during the OSCEs, either as support
for students and assessors, animal management, or assessing on one of the several OSCEs she herself had authored.
Sheep and their welfare was always her first love, having originally done a BSc
in Zoology (UCL) followed by a PhD in sheep nutrition and reproduction (RVC). She worked for the Guide Dogs for
the Blind Association for six years as principal research scientist, assessing the effects of training methods on success rate.
Her working collie dogs Rowan (sadly deceased) and now Ember, have also been familiar sights at the Hawkshead Campus, helping with the sheep flock at Boltons Park Farm or being used in the Animal Husbandry DOPS (Direct Observation of Procedural Skills). Issy was co-author and director of this novel exam format, that has now become so much a part of the RVC assessment portfolio.
She always had animal welfare of all species at the forefront of any teaching, passing on her vast knowledge of domestication in her lectures on the subject. She did her PG Cert in MedEd and became one of the first FHEA teachers at the RVC.
Issy moved to the department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences
in September 2017 to follow her passion for delivery of practical teaching, always with her focus on animal welfare at its heart and she coordinated and taught first year Animal Husbandry practicals. She incorporated first chicken then
dog handling classes to the repertoire of sheep, lambing, pig, cow and horse management classes, running in the often freezing cold January/February months, always with patience and a strong desire to teach the students their first grounding on how to interact and treat animals with respect.
She has now literally gone off to pastures new – running the family sheep smallholding and continuing her love of working with and training working sheepdogs. She has had a long association with Riding for the Disabled Association both as a volunteer and trustee and plans to further increase her involvement.
She will be missed by all who knew her, she has a wry smile and a wicked sense of humour and always managed to see the funny side of life.
Good luck Issy, from all of us!
Contract Research team. Then, in
2010, Professor Brian Aldridge enticed him into the Farm Animal Health and Production department, with a promotion to Assistant Lecturer. From then onwards John concentrated on practical teaching and assessment across all years of the veterinary undergraduate course.
His passion for passing on his knowledge of ruminant welfare, handling and fertility to students was a strong motivating factor during his time at the RVC. His
role as Flock Manager at Boltons Park Farm meant that he could focus on
the promotion of increasing student involvement in sheep husbandry skills. He has headed off to concentrate on his next goal, which is to increase the family sheep flock and run a mixed livestock farm.
We wish John all the best on his next adventure.
John Thompson John joined the RVC in 1985 as a Sheep Research Technician in the
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Photo by Richard Addison
Animal Husbandry department.
He hailed from a solid farming background, where the family ran a
flock of 1,200 sheep and a herd of 100 suckler cows on 1,200 acres of mixed pasture and arable land. He quickly became involved in teaching lambing practicals and cattle and sheep handling classes with Andrew Madel.
In 1988 John moved over to the Obs department, helping with the setting up
of a new cow fertility recording system (DAISY) in the Farm Animal Practice Teaching Unit (FAPTU). It was there that he first worked with John Fishwick, and this proved an enjoyable recurring interaction throughout his time at the RVC.
John changed departments again in 1997, joining BSU as part of the