A significant chunk of the lives of Rochelle Gough, Andrew Allen, Mary Tampion and Cath Evans has been dedicated to educating local kids and spent working alongside each other.
They all agree that it’s been the invaluable connection with the students that has kept them at the school for so long.
“It’s the staff and the kids,” Ms Gough said when asked why she’d been at the school for 27 years.
“You miss passing on knowledge, but it’s really those relationships you have with the kids (that you miss the most).
“We don’t just know our kids in the class that we teach, we know everybody. It’s a really great community feel.”
Director of faith and mission Ms Evans, who is now finishing up her 19th year at the college after serving in a number of leadership roles, including as deputy principal, and teaching from Years 1 to 6, said she felt “really lucky” because she’d been working with her friends over the almost two decades.
On this, 47-year St Mary’s educator Ms Tampion added, with a laugh, that “it’s been like a jail sentence” to work with Mr Allen, who’s been at the school for 35 years.
“I’ve worked with Andrew longer than I’ve done a lot of things,” she said.
“It’s a great place to work.”
Over the years, the teachers have collected countless memories at the school, like Ms Gough’s favourite moment when she was overseeing an excursion and they “never actually made it” because the bus got stuck on a one-way street, and Ms Tampion’s time on retreat when she heard tapping on the window while supervising outside, and it turned out to be her son, who was part of a crew of Year 8s there that were later made to move their beds for misbehaving.
Mr Allen said his favourite memories were those that involved the college’s old B4W program, an initiative for Year 9 students.
“What the research was saying was that Year 9 kids disengaged, and they didn’t like school, so the Year 9 program was an attempt to re-engage the kids, and to get them ‘Beyond 4 Walls’,” he said.
“The activities we got to do with those kids and the growth you could see in them from the start of the year to the end — that was probably one of the most satisfying things I’ve done as a teacher.”
As the years passed, too, the teachers have forged meaningful connections with local families, sometimes even teaching the children of their past students.
Ms Tampion’s own family has had deep ties with the school; she attended it herself, and had her own children and grandchildren attend it, too.
“It’s in my blood,” she said.
“I just love this school. My kids have wonderful memories of this school, and still are friends with people they went to school with.
“And the staff, it’s a really good place to work. We’re in good hands now with (principal) Wayne (Smith) and (deputy principal) Gen (Gordon).”
The long-serving teachers have been farewelled by their students and fellow staff members, and hope to still see members of the school community around town.
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