The Teachers over the Last 50 Years

           1962

All Catholic Schools were staffed by Religious Sisters. The Sisters of Mercy got paid a stipend until 1975. This wasn’t much money and the parishioners had a pantry day once a year to raise more money for the Sisters.

The Religious Sisters would get put into a class to teach and would have to study to become a teacher at the same time as teaching a class. Back then the students sat at their desks and the teacher would stand at the front of the class and teach with a blackboard. The students sat at their desks, listened, and did as they were told.

On the Opening day of Sacred Heart School there were 110 students on the roll and they only had 3 classrooms. In the Junior Class which was New Entrants to Year 3 there were 37 students, in the middle class which was Years 4 to 6 there were 41 students and in the senior class which was years 6 to 8 there were 32 students.

           1970

The first lay teacher started teaching at Sacred Heart School in 1970. Her name is Mrs Val McInerney. She got paid by the Church when she started teaching, unlike the Religious Sisters. She was only hired for one year at a time. She started teaching in the Junior Class. Lay teachers started teaching because there weren’t enough Religious Sisters to teach.