Another Catholic teacher will be leaving their full-time teaching position after 40 years as the school year draws to a close.
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Paul Kennedy from St Joseph’s Primary School said he has followed his faith throughout his career.
“I saw teaching as a vocation and not a career because of my Catholic faith and I wanted to bring children closer to God and have Jesus central to their life,” Mr Kennedy said.
“I just wanted to try and help them spiritually, academically, socially and physically as best as they could and try to develop the whole person.”
Mr Kennedy finished school in 1975 at Trinity Senior High School and studied teaching at Aquinas in Ballarat in 1976.
Growing up in Wagga, Mr Kennedy traveled for 20 years as a teacher around the region, interstate and overseas but remained at St Joseph’s from 1997, except for one year in 2007 as an assistant principal in Ganmain.
“I taught in the Torres Strait and then in Papua New Guinea for three years in a really isolated place but it was a great experience,” he said.
Mr Kennedy said the children have remained the same since his first class in about 1978, but technology has changed the classroom in some degrees.
“It changes, but it’s still the same; the children are still the same now as they were back in 1978-79,” he said.
“It’s been empathetic for the children and for them to have trust and faith in you, but of course there’s been lots of change with technology and a lot more details put into the curriculum and programming.
“When I first started there was no such thing as computers in classrooms, let alone schools, but there’s still the relationships between between teachers and students which have remained the same.”
Mr Kennedy said he gets “thrills” when he runs into his past-students and he gets to hear about their experiences as well as sharing schooling memories.
“When I see ex-students who I taught and when they come up to me as adults and they say to me, ‘Mr Kennedy I remember what you told me about God and faith’, and they tell me what they’ve done with their life and what they stand for,” he said.
”I ran into a fellow the other day who was 52-years-old and he was in my first class.
“But throughout my times there’s been so many great parents, teachers, priests and children who have all inspired me by working with them.”
Mr Kennedy said a big challenge during his time as a teacher was when St Joseph’s burnt down in 2006.
“This was a very significant and challenging time as we moved across the road for two years,” he said.
“But in a strange way it was a blessing in disguise because we were able to do so much more with the school to improve it.”
Mr Kennedy said he will “put his name down” for casual teaching as he is ready to leave the day-to-day pressures of a full-time teaching job.
“I still want to be involved with schools and while I’ve had a great run, I’ve been planning for a long time to finish at the end of 2018.
“It goes back 12 years when I said ‘I reckon by 2018, that’ll be it.’
“I sort of lapsed in St Vincent de Paul work and I used to do it more when I was younger, so I’d like to get back into that, as well as enjoying more golf.”
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