The Teachers I Remember - Part One

My first day at Westleigh College started in the Kindergarten, or what we now call "Prep".

The Kindergarten building was a separate timber structure from the other class rooms and it was connected by a passage-way to the house where the Misses Everard lived. The passage-way had large windows where Matron kept some potted maiden-hair ferns and geraniums.

The room seemed to me to be quite large. There were many interesting things to be seen in that room: blackboards, of course, hand made phonics charts, vocabulary charts, number charts, beads for counting and threading, a few toys, and a very old piano.

The Kindergarten had two teachers who came on different days. Their names were Mrs Polnar and Mrs Begley. I preferred Mrs Begley because she could play the piano and we would be able to sing nursery rhymes and other simple songs accompanied by her playing.

We sat at colour-themed tables. These were painted in a light green, and had a coloured motif in the middle. For example the red table had a tomato, the orange table, an orange. I think there was also a pink table and a yellow table. One could be moved from one coloured table to another, and now I am sure that these tables were graded from "brightest" down to "not so bright'!

Before each day started we would be in the Kindergarten playground, always wearing an apron or "pinnie" (pinafore?).

The Kindergarten playground was covered in asphalt: the rest of the school's play areas consisted of grey sand and pebbles. There was no grass, hence the many grazes that were treated with iodine!

One of the senior pupils would supervise us while we participated in games like "The Farmer in the Dell", and several others which I no longer remember.

After that we went inside for "more serious learning" like counting, reading, drawing and colouring and possibly handwriting.

Once out of the Kindergarten there were the composite classrooms which were located in the main building and were also made of timber.

I think the first was Mrs Oliver's class - grades 1, 2, and 3.

By then we were formally taught handwriting - print script.

Later we were taught a version of what we called "running writing" - Copperplate Script.

This wasn't generally in the State School Curriculum. It was very ornate and a bit difficult for young children but I can still see the influence in my handwriting today. In the lower grades we used lead pencils and exercise books that had read and blue lines so that you could see where to place your letters.

Other subjects taught were Reading, Poetry, History Geography, Nature Study, Health, Arithmetic, Grammar, Composition and Spelling.

(We also did Art, Physical Education, Sport and Singing which were taught by specialist teachers.)

Mrs Oliver had to know and teach all these things and she seemed to be able to answer almost any questions asked of her, as well as being able to identify any plant or insect we brought in to show for "Morning Talk" - the equivalent of "Show and Tell'.

I think, to this day, Mrs Oliver was my favourite teacher ever! She was fair and compassionate, knowledgeable and effective.

I was never bored in her classes, although I was disciplined for talking too much on the odd occasion.

After completing grade 3 we were promoted into the next composite classroom
and we had Mrs Mason.

Mrs Mason was also an excellent teacher but somewhat stricter than Mrs Oliver. I don't know where she taught before but once she arrived she didn't quite know what hit her. Westleigh College was "another world"!

She confided this to my sister and I when we went to visit her out of school hours. She lived in a tiny flat which was in a War Widows building in Caroline Street, South Yarra.

She had a son called Bill, who worked as a sportscaster on ABC Radio and later ABC Television. I don't think she stayed there for a long time because eventually, and much to my delight, Mrs Oliver took over her classroom, and at this point some of the subjects were taught by Miss Clarice and Miss Everard.

By then we had transitioned from lead pencil to using pen and ink for our handwriting. This lead to a whole new routine of changing pen nibs, using blotting paper and the much-dreaded inkwells that fitted into a special place on our desks! Every week someone was chosen to be the "Inkwell Monitor". Most of us hated this job: it was messy and time-consuming.

The whole scenario now reminds me somewhat of the classes at Hogwart's, minus the magic, and some Enid Blyton stories!

Miss Clarice

We always knew Clarice Everard as "Miss Clarice". It was pronounced "Clarris".

She was the youngest of the sisters, yet the principal of the school. She was in charge of practically everything from excursions, special and sporting events, public relations and the day-to-day running of the school.

She seemed to me to be tall and slim. Her hair was long and white, parted in the middle, and in some kind of braided arrangement which I have never seen before or since and am unable to describe. Unfortunately there are no pictures of her or her sisters available to me.

She was extremely capable, and had little patience for slow learners, or people who didn't try to do their best: the latter being a good quality for being a teacher, the former - not so much!

It was not really a good idea to get "into her bad books"!

Discipline was not really a huge issue in the 1950's, especially at Westleigh College, as good manners and socially acceptable behaviour was de rigueur.

If ever someone were expelled it could have been for something as trivial as saying "shut up"!

I don't recall anyone being expelled, but that is about all it would have taken for Miss Clarice to expel someone. Anything worse than that and expulsion would have been inevitable and swift, with no hope of a pardon.

I know she had her favourites, but she frequently changed her mind so one never really knew where one stood with her. It varied from day to day.

Generally Miss Clarice taught the more senior girls, from grades 4, 5, and 6 and up to the secondary levels that existed back then.

When I started there the notice board outside Westleigh College stated that the curriculum offered was from "Kindergarten to Matriculation".

I don't recall if all the higher grades/levels were operating when I was there, but I think it went to Form 3 at least, as it was known back then.

I remember her mainly for teaching me geography. She loved doing this! She was passionate about it.

I think she also read us some rather interesting adventure books, and possibly taught me history as well.

In fact, she could teach almost anything if necessary!

I especially recall her getting us to make lists of countries showing their capital cities and the rivers on which they were situated. I still remember a lot of them, notwithstanding the fact that political maps have changed enormously since then. We also had to memorise the continents, the oceans, the largest islands and so on.

Back then we all had plastic template maps of various countries which we would trace into our mapping books, then outline them with our mapping pens from ink stored in an inkwell on our desks.

When that was completed we were allowed to colour them in with our Derwent Pencils.

These pencils were quite a status symbol back then, especially if you had a box of 72!

Of course, back then, the box wasn't quite as fancy as the one pictured.

Miss Clarice also taught French, albeit with an English accent. Teaching any language in a primary school was virtually unheard of back then.

This may well have been due to the fact that Australia was just starting its intake of European migrants, of which my family was one, so there was little need for other languages back then.

It was a good basis for me when I learned it later in high school and university.

(It is possible that some of the other private schools back then taught Latin, but I cannot say for sure.)

Miss Clarice's biggest event of the year was the annual Speech Night which was held in the Northcote Town Hall.

She always dressed up for that - a fur stole, a new dress, and even lipstick which she rarely indulged in during the year.

Miss Clarice certainly commanded respect from everyone: teachers, parents and pupils alike.

I guess she made quite an impression on me because I remember her very well, not to mention the geographical facts!