Principal's Message Week 5 Term 4

Principal’s Blog Week 5 Term 4 2026

World Teachers’ Day

Last Friday was World Teachers’ Day. I offer my thanks and appreciation to all teachers at ATC for their dedication, commitment, and true sense of vocation to Catholic education in the Edmund Rice tradition. We are truly blessed at our school to have staff who genuinely seek to build positive, respectful relationships with our boys, and to promote their safety and wellbeing in addition to their learning, and formation in faith.

Being a teacher requires commitment that moves beyond simply having a “job”. It certainly is not a 9-5 occupation. It calls on staff to give freely of their time and talent for weekends, overnight camps and retreats, holiday workshops, parent and community evening events and so on. Then there is the marking that goes home each night. Teachers do not get paid overtime, yet they do all these things because they have an abiding belief in the goodness of young people.

We have a global shortage of teachers. In Australia that shortage is only becoming more acute. That is why many schools now employ (with permission of the government) those who are in the process of becoming a teacher, but who have not yet completed their degree, to fill the shortages in schools. Teaching is not universally viewed as an attractive career. If that were the case, then we would not be facing a shortage that is only becoming more desperate.

The numbers of men entering the teaching profession also continues to decline. There are many primary schools now with no males in them at all. We are lucky at our school to still have (as at this year) 44% of our teachers who are male.

If I can encourage one thing, it would be to implore our young graduates to consider teaching as a career choice. I will also be bold and suggest to our parents that some of you may like to consider a career-change opportunity to join us. We need good people with a desire to make a difference in someone else’s life, to take up teaching as a conscious choice. We need intelligent people to take up teaching, and we need those who want to inculcate in a young person a sense of otherness, goodness, and to be a role model for these qualities as well.

I have been involved in education for the entirety of my career. I have occasionally questioned why I have stayed. It might be better to reframe that and ask myself what has kept me here. First and foremost, I think it is the kids! I genuinely have loved being a small part of the growing up of generations of young people and sharing my educational passion with them. I have also enjoyed the opportunity to have helped mums and dads in some way, shape the character of their child, navigate the throes of adolescence and to share my faith with them. I have never regretted my choice to become, and to stay in the teaching profession.

It is a privilege to share in the life of another. It is a profound responsibility to teach and model to young people and to help them develop their skills, knowledge and understanding of their subject matter, their world, and themselves.

Our teachers work hard. They belong to a vibrant community at ATC, and I can attest to their commitment to your sons. Happy World Teachers’ Day to all our staff, and again, thank you for all you do.

Dr Craig Wattam

College Principal