OUR PLACE:
Teachers Jayne and Katie Simpson Education issues – from the impacts of NAPLAN and an overloaded curriculum to the attrition rate of young graduate teachers – mean the teaching profession is often in the media spotlight. Teaching is a vocation and in Darlington’s Simpson family the desire to nurture a love of learning has enticed both Jayne and Bob Simpson and their daughter Katie into the profession. Jayne and Katie have found their teaching ‘home’ at Darlington’s Treetops Montessori School while Bob has just retired as Deputy Principal at Helena College. So, what drew them to a profession that clearly demands a lot, but that also offers rich rewards? Jayne and Bob trained in the United Kingdom and it was the adventure of a cycling race across Australia – from Steep Point to Byron Bay – that originally brought them to WA in the early 1990s. They liked what they saw, and the couple returned to settle in 1995. Katie and Jayne Simpson When Katie was 18 months, Jayne took her to the playgroup in the then much smaller Treetops Montessori School. She was instantly impressed with the concept of Montessori teaching and Katie (already lining up her dolls for teaching sessions) was soon enrolled at Children’s House. When the school discovered that Jayne was a special needs teacher, they invited her to join the staff.
Watching her parents, Katie would appreciate the amount of work teachers do long after the bell has sounded, but she also heard stories of small, steady achievements that changed students’ lives. “I could see how busy and stressful it could be, but I wasn’t put off. It always seems a good fit for me because I like learning and working with children,” she says. As soon as she finished her teaching degree Katie returned to the school where she had completed her early years education – and today you get the impression that there’s no way she’ll be opting for an alternative profession. However, she admits that some colleagues she trained with have struggled. “When I began uni I was surprised at the course’s lack of intensity and the fact that I was one-and-half years into it before entering a classroom for a practicum,” she says. “I was also surprised that while lecturers might have a Masters in Education degree, they’d never been a classroom teacher. There appears to be a big disconnect between universities and the classroom, and that means you’re not really prepared – you just don’t have the skill set for classroom teaching – unless you do extra things. I got a part-time job as an education assistant while doing my degree and I also volunteered for programs that weren’t part of the degree but that gave me experience at rural and Indigenous schools, tutoring maths and science and organising games and fun things. So, when I graduated I felt confident.”
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Now, Katie says teaching has become a neverending source of fulfilment for her. “Getting to know your students, their different personalities and how they work is the best thing. While I’m guided by the WA Curriculum which is quite prescriptive, at this school I have a great amount of freedom and the ability to be creative,” she says. Jayne says that WA has tried to avoid the ‘congested curriculum’ issue. “This State tried to do something about easing that congestion by combining history and social sciences, and sometimes you can create projects that tick a couple of boxes, say English and maths. That can be an important strategy for managing the curriculum and achieving all the outcomes. Individualising lessons and projects and taking opportunities to integrate subjects is probably what we do best here at Treetops.” She adds that while NAPLAN is a huge driver at some schools, “Treetops sees it as one test on one day and we don’t make a fuss about it. We try to educate our parents to understand that NAPLAN is not hugely important – that it shouldn’t take over the curriculum.” There are now 121 students from 3 – 18 at Treetops, and while the majority live locally, some travel from distant suburbs, attracted not only by the Montessori philosophy but by a school that has grown organically on its Beenong Road hillside. Having appreciated the school as both student and teacher, Katie observes: “I think its uniqueness is part of the attraction. Nowhere is there a school quite like this and, being a small school, it can really cater for each individual student.”
Darlington Review – April 2022
28/3/22 10:37 am
