Much loved teacher says goodbye to St Joey's

“I taught in Melbourne initially, in the state system,” Ms O'Brien said.

“About 33 years ago my husband and I decided to have a lifestyle change.

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“So we bought the Baddaginnie store, moved up here and started a new life in the bush.

“The shop didn’t really make enough money, so my husband Paul was working part-time and I got asked if I’d do some emergency work here at St Joey's.

“Since then I haven't really look back.”

Ms O'Brien has been with St Joey's ever since — with the exception of one year spent at St John's in Euroa.

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“I started as the music and art teacher, so we did school productions and those sorts of things.

“Things were a bit different back then. We had blackboards, for example, I think white boards were just starting to come in.

“Computers were in by the time I got here, they came in at the beginning of my teaching career.

“I’ve been through a few principals here at St Joseph’s but really the school itself hasn’t changed that much.

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“The first time I walked into the St Joey's staffroom I found it a very welcoming place and I thought, `I think I’ve found a home here.'

“In that way the staff are still very supportive and united.”

Ms O'Brien has held several roles at the school but said her favourite part of the job was being in the classroom.

“I’ve had promotions whilst I’ve been here. I was the Catholic identity leader here at the school for about 12 years.

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“I was deputy principal for a few years, but I just missed the classroom too much.

“We employed a girl and I thought, `yes, she’s really good, she can take over Catholic identity’ — so I could resign from that.

“Then I resigned from the deputy principal role and went back into the classroom, and that’s my passion.

“My other passion has been religious education.”

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Ms O'Brien said the two most noticeable changes in her time were the class sizes and an increased number of learning support officers.

“Classes were probably about 28 to 30 students when I started,” she said.

“Now I'm down to about 22, which is much better.

“The other big change is that when I started teaching we didn’t have a learning support officer or teacher's aid in the school.

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“Now I reckon we have one to every two classrooms, minimum — and that would be across the state as well.”

Ms O'Brien said one of the joys of teaching primary students was when she was stopped in the street by a former student who remembered her fondly.

“I have even got one girl in my class whose father I taught, but most parents are that bit older,” she said.

In retirement Ms O'Brien plans to travel, walk, garden, do some voluntary work, and students might even see her back at St Joey's from time to time.

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“Ideally I'd like to travel to England, whenever that is possible,” she said.

“And I've got kids in Melbourne, Bendigo, Wangaratta and Torquay, so there'll be visits there.

“I might even come back here and do some emergency work when the need me.”

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