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2 Term 3 Week 7 In black and white WITH sAm Adler And jAson cHAng Goodbye Mrs Marsh This week, B&W interviewed a muchloved Cranbrook icon, Mrs Marsh, who has announced her retirement after thirty years of devoted teaching, librarianship and Housemastering. You’ve been at Cranbrook for thirty years. How do you feel about leaving? What are your plans for retirement? I’ve got very mixed feelings about leaving. When you work at a place for so long, it’s very hard to work out what else you’re going to do. It’s really hard to leave all those things that have become so important to you, particularly the friendships I’ve made with the staff and the boys. I have a couple of plans; I’m going to sing in a choir, perhaps write a book, I’m going to learn how to swim (I can swim, I’m just getting stroke correction at Waverley) and I plan to travel. You work as a librarian, a teacher AND a Housemaster. How do you manage to juggle all these elements? I think it’s probably easier for me than those who are teaching throughout the day and are in the classroom most of the day. I only teach two or three periods a day and so that gives me plenty of time where I can be flexible What has been the most rewarding part of the job? Definitely being a Housemaster. Probably because you get to know the boys so well; you get to know the boys’ families and I think you will find most Housemasters would tell you the same thing. Would you say it’s like being a mother? No. Thank goodness you can give them back at the end of the day! And the most challenging? I think when boys reach Year 11 and they are going for leadership positions and they don’t get them, when they try out for various teams and aspire to get somewhere but don’t get there, usually they don’t understand why. That’s one of the hardest things to help boys get through. You would have many stories from working across many areas of the School and some, no doubt, you won’t be able to put to paper. However, what would be one story or memory you will treasure from Cranbrook? I think probably one of the best teaching moments of my life was on Outward Bound back in the 90s. There was a guy called Basil who had a sort of physical disability that meant he couldn’t walk very well and back then, there weren’t all the medical forms to fill out and so no one knew much about the kids at all. So, Basil and I found ourselves out in the bush, falling miles behind the rest of the group, he holding my arm until we would finally reach the camp where he would let go of my arm and walk into camp on his own. Back then, Year 7s did a rather challenging abseil down a rock face, rather
than a tree, and the day he abseiled was fabulous. All the boys cheered and I cried. And there are wonderful memories with staff too; we all have a good time socially and had lots of laughs together on harbour cruises and things like that. What motivated you to start teaching? I wasn’t very good at school and I didn’t like it much. I didn’t go to university; I just wanted to have a good time. I didn’t really do anything with my life until I had children. That’s when I decided to go to university. When my third child was born, I decided teaching would be the thing that would fit in with raising my children and being home for the holidays. Amazingly, being at Teachers College was a total breeze, it turned out I wasn’t as stupid as I had thought. Will you ever come back to visit? I don’t think so, no. I think it’s a mistake to come back. Things change and it’s a whole new life you make once you leave. So I won’t come back. But, of course, I’ll follow the Northcott boys and their results in the HSC; I’ll follow George Polonski and his music career and Steve Solomon as well. And finally, obviously Davidson is the best house in the School. So, now, can you tell us what you really think of Northcott? opposite page from top: IN THe lIBrArY; TAlkING WITH NOrTHCOTT BOYS; this page, clockwise from top: WITH Her HOuSe; APPlAuDING STeve SOlOmON; lOOkING ON AS HeAD Of NOrTHCOTT, DAvID NeWell, TAlkS TO STeve Any true colours you can reveal now you’re leaving? Well, I think that Davidson and Northcott are very similar houses. We come around the same place in almost everything, with the exception of swimming: I’m pretty sure Davo came last in that. We are very similar in a lot of ways, but I suppose what I tried to do with Northcott was make it a ‘family’ House. We’ve got a lot of diverse characters with a lot of different learning styles and abilities, physical skills and abilities. I’ve always wanted every boy to feel really special and to know that every boy has got some sort of a talent, and so I’d like to think that every boy likes being in Northcott. Thursday 30 August 2012 3
Page 1: Cranbrook Chronicle 04 laptop rollo
Page 5 and 6: cAs Athletics THursdAy 13 sepTember
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Page 9 and 10: The State of Australian Television
Page 11 and 12: Boarders Ski trip On the 17th of Au
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Page 15 and 16: Advertisements LAST CHANCe To APPLY
Page 17 and 18: DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY & INDUSTRIAL
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Page 21 and 22: Cranbrook CARBO Night and CAS Athle
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