Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 21

Staff in profile
to help me with travel costs. All in all, it was a
magnificent experience, including achieving
78th place.
What has been your biggest challenge
over your years at Scotch?
This is a tricky question! As a teacher of
German, immersing the boys in as much German
as possible was always my primary aim. I’m not a
believer in teaching or learning a language using
mostly English as a medium. It makes no sense,
as I experienced once when I was trying to learn
Greek at a Melbourne TAFE college.
As a classroom teacher I think the hardest
task in this day and age is to get children to
actually listen properly and to focus on set tasks
long enough to be able to do them to the best of
their ability.
What do you like most about your job?
I enjoy the daily contact with my class; the
interaction, friendliness and rapport with the
boys. I have two excellent colleagues, who
make my job worthwhile. We work well together
with our teamwork, and we have lots of fun in
our everyday school life.
Interview:
Ian Clarke
In 1985 while living in Hamburg, Ian Clarke was
the first person from a European international
school to participate in the International
Teaching Fellowship teacher exchange
program, organised by the Victorian Education
Department. His year in Melbourne changed
the life of his family and friends forever. Ian
won a scholarship to spend two weeks at the
Houston Space Centre in 1989 while his family
was in the middle of the process of obtaining
visas to emigrate to Australia. He decided to
tag a couple of weeks in Melbourne onto the
end of his trip, having fixed up interviews at
various schools, including Scotch. This led to
him being offered the opportunity to start a
German program in the Scotch Junior School in
1990/1991. He left in 2002 to work in Oman and
Dubai, always keeping in touch during his 10
years away. He returned in 2012 and has since
worked in PE, Year 5 and Year 4.
After all these years of service to Scotch,
what is your favourite corner of the School
and why?
I love to be at the table tennis table at
lunchtime. I went to a primary school in England
where there was a couple of teachers interested
in table tennis and they ran a club at lunchtimes.
I began to love the game and carried on for years
after that. At school it’s a great way to let off
steam and have some fun with colleagues.
Many years from now, when you are
no longer teaching, what are some of the
Scotch memories you will reflect on to warm
your heart?
I love that Jenni Thom and I worked together
to do the Year 3 concerts in German. One year
we did Rolf Zuckowski’s Die Vogelhochzeit
and we also presented it to the residents of the
Tabulam German nursing home in Bayswater.
I had the opportunity to meet Rolf at a
teacher’s weekend where he took a copy of our
performance back to Germany with him.
In 1994 I was selected in the Australian team
of six athletes for the World 100km Challenge in
Japan. We marked out a track on the oval and
all the classes did a run, and brought a donation
What story will your colleagues tell about
you at your farewell speech when you retire?
I’m not sure if I’d trust my closer colleagues
to make this speech! I think I would have to make
a safe choice (which wouldn’t include my two
Year 4 comrades). Whoever it may be, would of
course, talk about my super professionalism, dry
wit, thoroughness, creativity etc., etc.
What are a few of the memorable
incidents in your career at Scotch?
When the Year 12s come to the Junior School
at the end of the year, it is amazing to see some
boys we may not have seen since they left in Year 6.
I have also taken great joy in hearing of some
boys who have continued with their German in the
Senior School or have taken it up again later in life.
I spent five weeks in Sydney as a volunteer
during the 2000 Olympics, and was in the
opening and closing ceremonies. As we were
outside in our formation waiting to go into the
stadium for the opening ceremony, I heard a
couple of our boys among the thousands of
people, shout over to me. They were in one of the
bands, and I didn’t know they were participating.
In my very first week of teaching German to
Preps in 1991 I remember a teacher telling me
one of his boys had gone home and told his mum
he’d had his first Japanese lesson and how much
he’d enjoyed it!
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