PLC i n P ri nt | D ec em be r 2021
Our deep appreciation goes to all leaving members of staff. The following leaving staff are recognised for their service to PLC of 20 years or more. Many of their current and past colleagues have taken the time to contribute to the following articles. We recognise the lasting contribution these long-serving staff have made to the students and the wider community of PLC.
Farewell to Mrs Julie Bateman From videos to video streaming Over the past 29.5 years, Julie Bateman has enthusiastically welcomed change and ensured that PLC has always been at the forefront of developments in video technologies and platforms. This has ensured the best for generations of PLC students and now, with her impending retirement, we thank her. Genevieve Lynch Head of Library Services What is the most significant change you have seen at PLC? A new Senior Library has been exciting and interesting, allowing us to expand services and our use of new technologies.
Staff Farewells
What year did you commence at PLC? What was your role? I started at PLC in 1992 as Audio-Visual Coordinator, which included providing video services to classrooms through a home-grown analogue video distribution system. This included TVs on trolleys which teachers would wheel from the corridor into the classroom. There were boxes on the wall and the teacher would plug in the TV and pick up a handset to ring AV. We would then ‘stream’ the video which would play on a video cassette player in the AV department. We had to make sure that we had the right player connected to the right classroom. This system was created by Alan Raymant, who was a Senior Audio-Visual Technician until he retired in 2019.
What happened to video? When I started at PLC, there was a shelving unit with disorganised catalogue cards of videos. The Head of Library then brought in a computerised Library Management System, making it possible to catalogue the video collection digitally. We also brought in a schedule to record and catalogue programs for teacher use. We were at the forefront in offering this service in a school environment. Then there was the introduction of video resource sharing between schools through our membership of the Audio-Visual Association of Independent Schools, an organisation which continues today.
When did computers arrive and what impact did they have on AV? Apple Mac desktop computers arrived in the late 1990s; six were placed in the staffroom for emailing and word processing. When laptops arrived and teachers started using them in the classrooms, data projectors had to be installed and the existing video distribution system was connected to projectors. TVs on trolleys were phased out slowly.
What will you miss at PLC? The people – I’ll miss the students and staff and working in a great team in Library Services. There is collegiality and the sharing of ideas and information to build better resources. I will miss keeping up with the changes in technology – coming down to user level and moving forward with it is exciting. I would not have had this experience if not for PLC.
Mrs Heather Carson Heather is helpful, generous, tireless, patient and resilient, loyal and caring, calm in a crisis, friendly, up for a chat and laugh, a positive thinker who finds humour in a challenge, adaptable and selfless. Heather possesses diverse skills, including: endless washing of glassware containing smelly, messy remains of experiments; chopping, measuring and counting hundreds of beetroot and potato shapes; expertly dissecting male and female rats to show their reproductive systems; and creating eye-catching corridor displays and resolving AV/IT emergencies. A mistress of organisation, Heather neatly arranged materials for practical work on benches before lessons and communicated pack-up instructions. On call during lessons, she was a willing gopher, fetching extra things as students requested. For years, Heather prepared mountains of equipment to take on Biology field trips to the Otways. Microscopes, binoculars, reference books and environmental testing tools were neatly packed in boxes, colour-coded to allow easy identification and access from buses in different locations in any weather. Heather created dormitory and duty lists and could tell you who was doing what at any time. She was the Biology Department’s PA. She knew what teachers would be doing before they had thought of it themselves!
A trained teacher, Heather volunteered to supervise camps, relieve classes in any subject and taught Year 9 Personal Development. She was a valued group leader on Biology field trips. Heather spent hours patiently assisting students in IB and VCE with self-designed experiments, helping them operate data-loggers, manipulate equipment and trouble-shoot. Heather gave helpful advice to fellow lab technicians and often lent a hand in other areas of the Science Department. She had the responsibility of organising the Science teachers’ birthday morning tea roster, a duty she performed particularly well. Heather began commuting from Chirnside Park in August, 1997 to work at PLC while running her household and supporting her family of four children. If you asked her what she did on her weekend she was likely to reply that she spent hours at hospital, waiting for one of her sons to get X-rays after an injury incurred during footy or cricket! Although they’re not playing much sport now, her children have found success in careers and marriage and have blessed her with five beautiful grandchildren. She is an adoring grandma and will soon visit her interstate and UK families to cuddle the most recently arrived members. We hope her trip to the UK and the dream of living in a house at Phillip Island are all achieved in the near future. She is a treasure and we will miss her!
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