Staff Spotlight                                                                                                                                                 Pam McRae Junior School

I first started at Gosford Christian School in 1984 when the school was in its infancy. I taught General Primary, Secondary English and Music part-time. The core subjects were learnt using the Christian Lifepac Curriculum and I was employed to do some face-to-face lessons. As the school grew, changed premises and moved towards the traditional teaching model, I continued to work part-time until 1990 when I taught a half program in the secondary school.

From 1991 until 2005 I took up a full-time position in the Junior School where I taught Kindy to Year Two. After retiring, I did some casual teaching at what was by then St Philip’s ….. as I worked through my “withdrawal symptoms”.

I enjoyed every minute of my time at Gosford Christian School and felt so blessed to be surrounded by wonderful children, supportive parents and fellow staff who were a huge encouragement and example. Many are now among my closest friends. Most of all, I loved the family atmosphere of those early years and the freedom we had to talk about Jesus daily and share our faith with each other and the children. God’s blessing was evident everywhere we looked.

During my years at the school, resources were often scarce, facilities limited and money in short supply but these were more than made up for by the commitment of staff and parents to seeing each child thrive and feel safe and valued. Lamington drives, chocolate fundraisers, street stalls and fetes were a regular occurrence and the teaching staff second to none when it came to hard work and self-sacrifice.

I suppose the things I remember and reflect on most were the special days and creative opportunities that I think were enjoyed by the staff as much as the children. Primary, Secondary and whole school musicals were hard work but great fun. We all learnt so much and were especially blessed to have access to Laycock Street Theatre and a professional team of helpers. I was also privileged to conduct and accompany Eisteddfod Choirs (a number of the songs were especially composed for us by Roy Meredith) and later to run the end-of-year Infants Musical Plays. The children always amazed me with their talent as did the staff who would also join in enthusiastically. It was always “all hands-on deck.” Book Week Parades weren’t just for the children either!

Many of the talks I heard in Chapel from Christian Leaders across the Coast have stayed with me over the years and at church and for SRE I have also used a number of the Christian songs written by the primary students as well as Roy Meredith and John Newsome (teachers) which were compiled into CD’s.

There is life after school. Following my retirement from 2006 – 2016 I taught SRE (Scripture) in the nearby public schools and served on the Central Coast SRE Committee. I played piano as part of the church worship team for many years and until two years ago, I was part of the team at House of Praise facilitating and helping prepare Christmas Hampers and thousands of gifts to bless families in need. An old saying goes, “Once a teacher, always a teacher,” and to this day I still teach in Kids Church at In-Life. I catch up with Neroli Oldfield and Jean McSwan for coffee once a fortnight and much of our talk surrounds our precious school memories.

I also have a wonderful husband to whom I have been married for 51 years, 3 awesome children and 11 amazing grandchildren to help keep me busy, the eldest of whom is getting married to a lovely Christian girl in October this year.

How blessed am I!