JUDY Borrett rates her time at Jimboomba State School as the golden years of her 37-year teaching career.
The recently retired literacy mentor juggled a plethora of roles in the past 23 years at Jimboomba as a grade six and seven teacher and technology educator.
Ms Borrtett said she has come a long way since her first day on the job in 1995 which reduced her to tears.
“I walked though the school and it was just row after row of demountables. It was a dust bowl and had the maximum number of students, close to 1100-1200 students,” she said.
“Every inch of ground was pounded on and I thought what had I walked into. I went home and cried.
“All these years later Jimboomba State School is beautiful. We now have big modern buildings, the hall and we started the Jimboomba markets to fundraise for our pool.”
Ms Borrett said she prided herself on her ability to reach out to every student no matter how difficult.
“My mantra was to make a difference and I feel I was able to reach students that other people couldn’t reach because of my patience and work ethic,” she said.
“I also made a difference to extend the students in the top end of town. I had the golden years at Jimboomba and worked with the most wonderful staff and went through amazing changes. The job I was doing was exhausting. I taught some of the most difficult students but I always tried to get through to them and 99.9 per cent of the time I had huge success.”
Laughing off the common quip that teaching is a 9am-3pm job, Ms Borrett said it was an exhausting but worthwhile profession.
“I would have staff email me at 2am, and I would always answer them because I knew if they were up at that time they were worried,” she said.
“I loved being able to help teachers in crisis and being able to suggest strategies...it is an all consuming job and I can’t imagine the number of hours I worked. I loved it so much that it didn’t matter.”
Ms Borrett said adaptability was one of the most important qualities for effective teachers.
“The job you start with will not be the job you finish with...you have to be able to change with the times and keep up with every new thing, whether that be the curriculum, technology or the way the public and government is thinking,” she said.
“Jimboomba has changed enormously. It was a small country remote town, but it is not anymore. People still appreciate those who are fair, honest and have a good work ethic.”
Jimboomba State School celebrated Ms Borrett’s long teaching career during the final week of term three.
Principal Tim Farrell said Ms Borrett went beyond her normal duties to organise graduation ceremonies and write school year books.
“Mrs Borrett attended many school camps including Mapleton, Tallebudgera, Currimundi, Lake Cootharaba and the tour to Canberra and the snowfields,” he said.
“She was instrumental in setting up leadership programs for our seniors including student leaders, playground leaders and the student council. She built strong ties with Beaudesert State High School and Flagstone Community College to ensure that the transition into secondary school was smooth and seamless.”
Ms Borrett said she was determined to travel to parts of the world she had never seen before with Antarctica and the northern tip of Australia on her list.
