Since joining our School in 2017 as the Head of Primary, Mr Rob Whirledge has made a profound impact on the Primary School. His dedication to childhood education shines through his cheerful spirit. Teaching is far different from his previous career in England as a real estate agent!
Having completed my degree, I worked for a decade in commercial property in Central London, selling multi-million-pound real estate throughout the West End, including Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street. Teaching was therefore the obvious choice for me, upon arriving in Australia at the age of 31. I am unsure how ecstatic my wife was about the decision to drastically reduce our disposable income, however, we survived.
My first position was at a school in Busselton and following twelve exciting years, I figured I had acquired enough knowledge and skills to move to the most coveted educational position in the South West, Head of Primary at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School. I arrived in 2017 and have loved the challenge.
Very simply, I wished to be happy in what I was doing and needed to believe that there was a true purpose to each day that I could relate to. Teaching has provided so many incredible moments and I have never questioned the decision that I made with my wife almost 20 years ago.
Since arriving at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School, I have been rejuvenated by the beautiful School environment, the culture and the love of learning. Our Primary and Secondary Schools are places where it is cool to learn, where striving to be the best you can be is a common goal and where teachers and parents are happy to give every bit of themselves to the School. It is a unique and special place, sometimes we forget how fortunate we are to have so many incredible opportunities. The Thursday staff lunches every fortnight are also pretty special, I love the food!
One of my highlights since being at the School was travelling to Canberra with the Year 6 students in 2018. It was awesome! There was so much to see and do in Canberra and then there was the skiing… so, so cool!
I also love what goes on in Early Childhood, the way they learn is just so much fun and their classrooms have all these plants in them and there is so much stuff to play/learn with. One afternoon, they all went for a walk through our bush and I was allowed to tag along. We climbed over logs, scrambled through bushes and explored in the dirt; then we had a sausage sizzle and before we knew it, it was dark! It was a bit scary, but all the kids had brought torches, so I was OK as we all wandered back across the oval and everyone was picked up by their mums and dads.
But the best thing must be the Multi-Cultural Festival. To celebrate all the different cultures in our School through food is just brilliant, it is the most incredibly uplifting day and a true celebration of our School and Australia’s diversity.
My favourite part about my role is that I get to go into all the classes and see all the amazing things happening in the School. I watch our gifted teachers engage with our students and see firsthand why our School is so special. I am also excited about the future; Mr O’Brien brings a different energy to the School and I believe there will be some very interesting and exciting developments over the next few years that will see our School grow and flourish.
