Welcome back. After having detailed my teaching up until the beginning of 2004, let me continue and also get to the nitty-gritty of the story as well.
Our decision to leave Canberra and return to Wollongong was not completely dictated by the disastrous bushfires in January of 2003 in which nearly 500 Canberra houses were destroyed. That event, that came so close to our home, did, however influenced the decision.
So, we returned in January and set up home in a lovely house in Horsley that has been our home ever since. I could have applied for permanency with the NSW department but I had no philosophical commitment to the policies and curricula of the department, I didn’t want to put myself in the position where I would have to support it when I didn’t believe in it. Besides, I had thoroughly enjoyed casual relief teaching in Canberra and felt that it really was my “niche”
Most teachers I spoke to couldn’t believe that I actually liked doing casual relief. They couldn’t understand how the lack of a firm structure and knowledge of what was going to happen each day could be attractive. For me, however, it was the variety and unpredictable nature of the job that I enjoyed. One day I could be teaching Kindergarten and the next Year 12 English. I built up my own collection of lessons and units of work and was ready to go and do whatever was required. I could go to a school with the expectation of teaching Year 6 only to find that the lie of the land had changed and could I teach a Year 1 class instead? Of course I could.
So, with trusty guitar at the ready and a rapport with kids that I had developed over many years, I spent the next 8 years ping-ponging around Illawarra Primary and High schools, dispensing my own variety of education, old-skool, tinged with a solid dose of music and humour.
This all came to an end with the after-effects of my 2010 accident. After recovering and getting back to work I found that the strain on my injured leg was simply too much and my inability to react quickly to a potential incident in the playground worried me more and more, so I eased out of the game entirely in 2012.
But it was those 8 years that inflated the number of how many schools at which I had taught by the amount that I mentioned in my intro yesterday. I taught almost full-time for those 8 years and tallied up stints ranging from one day to a whole term at over 30 schools.
And it was that thought that provoked me to embark on the “A School Excursion” ride yesterday. The plan was simple. Ride around and try and photograph as many of those schools as I could.
It soon became clear that that simply wasn’t possible in a day, so I limited myself to around 20. Here are the highlights and some interesting facts about the schools I visited. In no particular order, then, here we go.
Windang Public. (picture above). It was funny going back to teach at schools where I had done Practice Teaching stints but it was good fun. WPS is pretty much like it was in 1969 which was very neat. I did discover that the Infants Mistress was a lady who I had taught in Year 6 at Koonawarra school in 1975. It was great to see that she had made a big success of her career. She was a lovely kid and she has turned into a lovely adult.
Berkeley West. Like many schools in the Illawarra, the population of the school is shrinking, the big population “bulge” in the mostly Housing Commission suburb has moved on. It’s a nice little school now and, strangely, I spent most of my days there teaching Infants classes; no biggy, infants kids are fun and you can have a lot of laughs stringing them along with ridiculous ideas.
Koonawarra. This was a fascinating one. Built to service the needs of a huge Housing Commission estate, KPS was, when I first went there in 1974, a huge school with a student population of over 1200 children. It was like kids were squeezing out from between the gaps in the bricks. Now, the population is around 300 and many classrooms are unused for teaching, being repurposed for other uses. It now has a large indigenous component to its enrolment and the needs of these kids are well catered-for (often to the detriment of their education, I must say). It was fun teaching there again and seeing the looks on kids’ faces when I told them that I had taught there over 30 years previously. My youngest grandson also attended this school when the family lived in Koonawarra.
Kemblawarra PS. Another school with a huge indigenous component, teaching there was quite a challenge.
Port Kembla Public. This is the “new” school, not the old 1950’s building in which I did two “pracs” back in the day. The old building was vacated when they found that it was riddled with asbestos and was vandalised and, ultimately, torched and the new building, across the road from MM beach is a vast improvement.
Did I say across the road from the beach? The school has a wonderful feature I have never seen anywhere else. When the whales are migrating, if they are spotted in the ocean, passing by, a special bell rings and the kids are allowed to leave their classrooms and go and look at the whales. Most of the classrooms have multiple pairs of binoculars handy so that the kids can get a close look.
Warilla North Public. Another school that is in the middle of a Housing Commission estate, when we lived in Warilla, the school population was over 1200. Recess and lunch times were staggered to reduce the number of students in the playground at any one time. The “bulge” has moved on and the school was slated for closure enrolments had dropped so far. It was saved when the Department of Education administrative staff were moved there when West Wollongong school was vacated and the land sold off. Why mention this school? Well, between 1966 and 1969, I lived in the house directly across the road from the front gate!
Albion Park Public. In the 8 years of doing casual work I certainly spent more time at this school than I did at any other (apart from long-term postings). A solid and very traditional school with a stable staff and enjoying massive support from the local community, APPS was a great school in every respect. My regular appearances there as a casual teacher saw me being treated very much as a staff member and they were a great gang. A school tinged with sadness, however, as the retired Deputy Principal and his wife became two of the casualties of the Russian attack on an airliner over Georgia some years ago.
Jamberoo Public. A little school in a little rural community, JPS was a great experience. It had the old-skool country school feel to it and I loved doing library work in the old stone building that was originally the school’s main classroom.
Kiama High School. I did a lot of work at KHS. The staff were very supportive and it was the best school in that the staff who you were replacing always left detailed notes on what was required for their classes. It was also great doing sport there as it usually involved some sort of activity on the Showground, overlooking the Pacific Ocean!
Huskisson Public School. A bit out-of-area, but there was a good reason. The principal was a dear friend of mine and, when she found out I was willing to travel the extra distance to get there, I ended up doing a lot of work there including a whole term on a Year 3 class. It was a tough school and the kids seemed to have a mission to make it as hard as possible for you each day (that is probably why the Year 3 teacher I was replacing was away on stress leave). However, I enjoyed it and the added bonus of riding to and from school each day didn’t hurt.
Mount Brown Public. Nestled off what was the highway at the southern end of Dapto, MBPS was another school at which I spent many happy days. A well-run school with supportive staff and great community support, I taught all of the classes over the years as well as doing a regular stint replacing the Music teacher when he was away (that was especially fun). I found a lovely Year 5 student who played the clarinet and was delighted to find that she was the daughter of another ex-student of mine from Koonawarra in 1975. MBPS is built on a steep hillside (“Mount” Brown) and it was the strain that teaching there placed on my recently busted leg that hastened my decision to stop teaching.
Dapto High School. A fascinating place for a number of reasons. I did my HSC exams there in 1967 at around the same time that my wife was attending there as a student (though I didn’t find this out until much later). When I came back there to do casual work the staff and the students thought that it was quite a novelty that I knew all about the school already! I did many days there teaching a whole range of subjects from English (I replaced an English teacher for a whole term at one point), History, Maths, Home Economics and various technical subjects. Later all three of my grandsons attended there as students.
Dapto Public School. A school that two of my grandsons were later to attend, I did a bit of casual there, too. It’s a big school and getting bigger as the West Dapto area expands and the staff have adapted well to teaching in a pretty frantic environment. The Principal has earned top marks from me over the years and it’s no wonder that the local community is anxious to see him stay. Keeping a high standard in a big school is always difficult but I always liked the kids and the staff there.
So, that was the School Excursion, I’ve left some out so as not to be too “wordy” and there are also two schools that I SHOULD have included but I didn’t ride to either of them.
Mount St Thomas Public. In the leafy and affluent inner-north of Wollongong, I did my six week “prac” there in 1971 and then lots of short and long-term casual postings as well after I returned here in 2004. It’s a great school, casuals get great support from the staff and the kids are very respectful. It is also a school where my niece teaches and where two of her children have been students. It was sorta funny teaching in the very same classroom where I had taught in 1971.
Shell Cove Public School. This one doesn’t really belong because I only did a few casual days there but I DID work there for three years on a part-time basis doing their IT Consultant job.
And now, through the magic of the intersweb, here is a travelling record of my day…about 5 hours and 263kms
Thanks for sticking with me, I hope you enjoyed the show.
