March 27th

Inniu Dé Máirt 27ú Márta: Geal agus grianmhar.

Grisbourne is a small town about an hour from Melbourne and the two schools we visited were the closest we got to country schools. St. Brigid's and Holy Cross were sister schools having split into two eight years ago. They both had almost 200 pupils and seven mainstream classes. Both had gathered in St. Brigid's for a Cultural Day where they were split into groups that went from activity to activity. We were surprised to be greeted as Gaeilge:

"Conas atá tú?"

So many of the teachers here have Irish roots and are so proud of their heritage. Of course the pupils were also told the story of St. Brigid and her cloak.

At break-time all pupils gathered in the playground while one of the (young) teachers and pupils from St. Brigid's had their heads shaved for charity (Cancer).

Into the Staffroom for a big feed of foods from many countries. We were delighted that there were loads of spuds, we felt quite at home. For a change we did not interview the Principals but rather the Deputies and got a very interesting slant on their working conditions.

Some observations:

• The post of Deputy was advertised outside the school but both were appointments from within. It is quite common for outside people to be appointed.
• Both had been leading teachers (POLs) and Deputy was a natural progression for them.
• Both felt very involved in the decision making in their schools.They averaged about two hours of meetings per week with the principal, outside of teaching time.
• Typically they worked from 8.00 to 6.00 and there was an odd night when they finished later due to meetings.
• They also had responsibility for leading the learning in Special Ed. and a curricular area.
• Neither of them were remotely interested in becoming principals. Due to the workload the numbers of applicants for principalship in Victoria had dropped from over forty, a few years ago, to about twelve.
  

Other observations:

• Breakfast meetings @7.30, for whole staff, were not uncommon.
• Earlier that week, they had had a "Twilight School Day" which started at 1.00 p.m. and finished at 7.00 p.m. It gave the parents a chance to visit the school for curricular demonstrations, that week it had been Maths.
  

Nath na Seachtaine:

"I'm the Casual Relief." (Substitute Teacher)