We made it! classoom assistants 2010

Well, we made it!

I can remember when my Principal suggested that I enrol in the Certificate 3 course, School Support Services run by BCA. I reluctantly agreed then proceeded to worry about how I was going to fit it into the busy schedule of a mother working full time, running a household and all the organisation that goes into two children, as well as leaving the Kindergarten teacher unassisted with 32 students and an extremely busy school office.

I was still a little negative when I arrived for my first session in September last year, but before the day was over I realised the worry had been unfounded. My peers were all in the same position, women with equally busy lives all hoping to improve their knowledge in working with children.

Clare Boland was our trainer and from the first day made us all feel at ease. Not only does Clare have a bubbly personality but a wonderful, positive energy that made us all feel capable of completing the modules with a high degree of competency.

Clare fits the bill of a perfect trainer as she is also a Primary teacher who can easily relate to support staff and was able to pass on valuable knowledge when working with us.

The content in each of the modules was very detailed and was obviously well researched by BCA. After completing the eleven modules, I believe, as I am sure my peers do, that I could return to my school a much more capable member of staff.

I think the days of support staff only doing photocopying or cutting and pasting, although helpful to teachers, is over. Support staff can never claim to have the knowledge of teachers but we can certainly contribute to the successful running of a classroom. Sometimes we may be the only person privy to important information regarding a student as we have gained their confidence whilst working one on one with them.

Working with children can be a very satisfying job. It can be frustrating when a child may take a whole term or two before we see any results but when those results become evident it really is worth all the effort.

Thank you to Bruce Callaghan and BCA for providing this course and for whetting my appetite for further study. Thank you to Peter Webster and the CEO for supporting their staff to do this course.

Thank you to Jessica Frank who was our first point of contact and has followed our progress throughout the last eleven months.

I would also like to thank my Principal, Rose-Marie Hoekstra for encouraging me to do this course and I believe I am a better classroom assistant because of it.

And thank you to Clare Boland who not only was an exceptional trainer but also a very patient trainer, especially when we occasionally went off track during our sessions. Believe it or not we were a very talkative group and Clare would gently direct us back on track. Thank you also for putting up with those of us who were late in getting their assessments to you – not mentioning any names especially mine! You never let us leave a session without making sure we thoroughly knew what was expected in our assessments and then you would mark them and return them with lightening speed.

For me one of the highlights of the course has been meeting and working with this wonderful group of women and I want to name each of them, Cathy, Colleen, Dianne Evelyn, Fiona, Karina, Lisa, Selana and Jennifer, it has truly been a pleasure working with you all for the last eleven months.

And finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Clare and BCA for giving me this opportunity (indeed the honour), of speaking today and Selana if you could join me we would like to take this opportunity to present Clare with a gift of appreciation. Thank you Clare we couldn’t have done this without you.

Cindy Miller

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