By Michelle Contarino
It only seems like yesterday that I was marching in the parade celebrating Stanthorpe State Primary School’s 100th birthday. I was in Year Three at the time. I was fortunate enough to spend all of my primary school years as a student at this wonderful school. There are so many memories of school activities, sporting events, playground fun and academic achievements. I was house captain of Kookaburra in 1978 when we won the Hilton Cup at the showgrounds against all the district schools. That’s a day that I’ll never forget. I am thankful to have lifelong friends from my primary schooling. Thanks to the most fantastic teachers and their inspiration, I decided to follow a career in teaching.
I was transferred to Stanthorpe State Primary School as a second-year teacher in Term 4, 1988. Throughout the years following, I mainly taught Years 5, 6 and 7. After years of maternity leave, I became a support teacher for the school and three of the local small schools.
A change of Principal saw me move to the younger years, where I am still teaching today. I’ve seen so many changes throughout my days at Stanthorpe State Primary School. Back in the 80s, we used spirit duplicators for copying student worksheets, teachers didn’t have laptops, we used library cards to borrow books and Year Seven was actually a part of primary school. Today, teachers have an Australian Curriculum to follow, use interactive whiteboards, ipads and laptops in their lessons, they wear high visibility vests for playground duty, regularly rehearse lockdown procedures and a morning fruit break provides brain food to the learners. One thing that hasn’t changed however, is that teachers always put the students’ needs first
