When Maureen Price started her teaching career 50 years ago, she had 68 grade 3 pupils for the first six months.
The school was Yarraville Primary, and the other grade 3 teacher wasn’t starting until term three, leaving Ms Price to get inventive.
“I didn’t even have enough desks for all of the kids,” she says.
Ms Price remembers taking all 68 pupils on monthly trips down to where the West Gate Bridge was under construction so they could talk to the men building the bridge. And she remembers the sad day the bridge came down.
She has had 17 other roles in her five-decade career, including consultant, curriculum writer and manager of a school support centre.
She has been the principal at Mossfiel Primary School in Hoppers Crossing for the past 20 years.
“The kids ground you, and I also think that you get the immediate feedback that you’re actually making a difference to the kids,” she said.
Her colleague, teacher Sue Said has notched up 45 years in the industry, including four decades at Mossfiel.
The Truganina resident said she had originally wanted to be an accountant, but changed to teaching when she was told employers were reluctant to hire female accountants. She has never regretted the switch.
Ms Said spent five years at Coburg North before moving to Mossfiel, where she works three days a week as an intervention teacher.
“Here I’ve experienced lots of different things,” she said.
“I’ve taught art, PE, preps, I’ve team-taught with different teachers, I’ve had a great, wide experience within the school. I’ve never felt the need to move on.”
She considered retiring at the end of this year, but realised she wasn’t ready.
“I still wake up and I don’t think, ‘Ugh, I have to go to work’,” she said.
“I think that would be the telling day.”
