Olga Fitzgerald is the wife of headteacher Vaughan Fitzgerald and the mother of Justin and Leo Fitzgerald.
Backstory
Vaughan and Olga were happily married at their previous school until Vaughan had an affair with Allie Westbrook and they moved together to Greenock, leaving Olga with Justin and Leo in Edinburgh,
Series 10 Autumn Term
Olga first appears in Series 10 Episode 1, turning up out of the blue with her children Justin and Leo. Vaughan finds out Olga is going to a mental health clinic after having a mental breakdown, caused by the breakup of their marriage. She leaves the boys with Vaughan.
Olga next appears in Episode 4 when Vaughan, Justin and Leo come to visit her for her birthday. Olga and Justin are both still hopeful that Vaughan will return to her, but ultimately he does not.
Vaughan later goes to see her in Episode 5, telling her he cannot carry on paying for the clinic. Her doctors happy with her progress, she leaves the clinic to go stay with her sister Nadia in Newcastle, and this is the last we see of Olga this term.
Series 10 Spring Term

Olga and Vaughan
Olga returns in Episode 11 as the new agency supply teacher working for both Waterloo Road and Havelock High, as a shock to Vaughan. Initially hostile to his ex-wife, and worried that her staying at the school would affect Justin and Leo, Vaughan soon wants Olga to stay at the school and in Episode 12 offers her a job in the geography department after she persuades him to let Kevin Chalk transfer to Havelock High. Olga is not against the merger, unlike most of the staff, as she appreciates the resources that Havelock has to offer. Olga then moves to Greenock and moves back in with Vaughan, albeit platonically.
In Episode 14, Olga and NQT Marco D'Olivera accompany Justin, Kenzie Calhoun, Bonnie Kincaid and Scott Fairchild on a school trip to West Kilbride just along the coast from Greenock. Olga advises Marco against accompanying his group, but he does so anyway, while Olga lets her group (Justin, Kenzie, Bonnie and Scott) explore on their own. This turns out to be a disaster when Bonnie falls down a ravine after Kenzie exposes her two-timing with Justin and Scott. The group are late back, and Olga has to search for them, finding them bruised and battered and refusing to tell her why.
She accompanies the PTA on their visit to Havelock in Episode 15 and she also becomes aware of Leo's gaming addiction and blames Vaughan for his addiction.
This leads to Olga arranging counselling for Leo, to both his and Vaughan's dismay. She later catches Leo with Bonnie's computer, pretending to fix her e-mails but actually playing his game, and insists to Vaughan that Leo stays with her.
After the counselling session in Episode 17, Olga begins to blame herself for the breakdown of her family. After some harsh truths from Leo, Olga resorts to smoking in the girls toilets. A shocked Christine Mulgrew finds a despondent Olga in the toilets, and she confesses her fears to Christine. Later that day, while Olga is talking to Vaughan, Sonya Donnegan comes in and says that Justin has been in a fight with Scott Fairchild. Justin refuses to tell his parents why the fight occurred, to their annoyance.
In Episode 19, Olga is horrified when Justin is supposedly revealed to be the cyberbully of Bonnie Kincaid; she pleads his innocence with Vaughan but cannot argue against the evidence. She later brings Justin into school to be officially expelled. When it comes to the expulsion, Vaughan cannot bring himself to expel Justin and begins to doubt whether his son really was the cyberbully. Later in the day, Vaughan asks Justin to prove he is the cyberbully by creating an undetectable e-mail like the bully had. When he cannot, Leo is revealed as the real culprit, to Olga's horror.
In the final episode of the series, Olga persuades Vaughan to lead the anti-merger presentation, hours before it is set to begin, and later arrives with Leo as Waterloo Road is saved from the merger. None of them are seen again.
Quotes
- "I can't do this any more, Vaughan." (first line)
- Olga: "'Here for you'? You're bloody miles away, how does that work?! Face up to what you've done!"
- Vaughan: "Olga. Take the boys home."
- Olga: "I'm not going home! The doctors put me into a clinic, I can't eat, I can't sleep, I'm having anxiety attacks, I'm on the edge of a complete nervous breakdown, are you happy now?!"
- "I'll get Rosebank Park to send you the bills then, what's your tart gonna say about that?!"
- Leo: "It's nice in here. Less like a hospital, more like a hotel."
- Olga: "Or a retirement home for the broken-hearted."
- "Spare me the platitudes, I don't want to live on my own! Why should I at my age?"
- Vaughan: "What's going on? Only, I am in the middle of the first day of term."
- Olga: "I know. I'm the supply teacher."
- "Why are you dressed like a trussed-up turtle? New hobby, or did you just crash the car again?"
- Christine: "Don't get me started on him and his latest pet project. Does he normally like bikes?"
- Olga: "Vaughan? Take a taxi to the bathroom, if he could."
- "I just don't think you should sacrifice his prospects to suit your own political agenda!"
- Olga: "Education's about opening doors!"
- Vaughan: "Yes, it certainly is. Let me show you through this one!"
- Vaughan: "You're right, he's not himself."
- Olga: "Sorry, did you just say that I'm...? No, I must've misheard."
- "They've got my rubbish genes, the mental ones. It can't be a coincidence that both of my sons are in therapy."
- "And do what exactly? No offence, but relinquishing the role of main provider may not be the best way of helping your family right now. Never had you down as a stay-at-home dad anyway."
- "Listen to me, Vaughan Fitzgerald, you do not have the monopoly on guilt. In fact, in the queue marked 'Parental Shortcomings', you can get your butt right in line behind mine."
- "I don't know. But, there's no point wallowing. There is one thing I do know - that if we stick together, no matter what, we will get through this." (final line)