Posted on December 2, 2021 / Alumni News, / General news
Maria – I retired at the end of 2015 as Year 12 and VCE/VET Co-ordinator after 27 happy and
fulfilling years at Tintern, teaching Science and Senior Chemistry.
Geoff – I retired at the end of 2017, also after 27 memorable years at Tintern teaching
Mathematics and including the final 10 years firstly as Head of Tintern Campus and then as one
of two Vice Principals.
However, in many ways it feels as though we have never left. In fact, this year has been the only
year since our formal retirements that we have not undertaken formal teaching roles replacing
one or more Science or Mathematics staff colleagues on leave or taking small teaching loads that
could not be covered otherwise.
Through 2021, we have still had reasonably regular appearances at school as casual relief
teachers. So, we’ve been in the fortunate position of observing how things may have changed at
Tintern and yet in many ways they have still stayed the same. The School’s motto, Factis non
Verbis, is still very much evident in practice and Tintern Grammar has the same welcoming
family feel to it under our current Principal, Brad Fry, as it did under Sylvia Walton when we
commenced respectively in 1989 and 1991.
We continue to find great pleasure from the 3 aspects that we have always loved about Tintern:
the collegiality of fellow staff, working with its wonderful students and enjoying the unmatched
environment at the Campus. We can certainly testify that when schools went into lockdown in
2020, Tintern provided outstanding “gold standard” training and ongoing support for students
and staff; so much so that as retired teachers both of us were able to successfully undertake our
first ever experience of online teaching.
Of course, nowadays, other activities occupy much of our time. We have four grandchildren to
dote on and spend as much time with as possible, with ages listed as of July 2021: Harrison (8)
and Oliver (6), whose mother Anita (YG 1998) is our older daughter, live approximately 10
minutes away from us; and, Eva (5) and Ethan (2), whose mother Angela (YG 2000) is our
younger daughter, who have recently relocated as a family to Noosa Heads.
In recent years, we have also enjoyed travelling overseas extensively until Covid-19 put the brake
end on such experiences, at least until some time in the future. We have travelled to: Belgium,
The Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Hungary; Thailand; Croatia and Hungary (again); and
Singapore and Vietnam. In 2020 we had arranged to travel to Spain and Portugal and also to
Hawaii – but both of these trips had to be cancelled. This year, between various lockdowns, we
have managed to spend some time in Noosa Heads as well as visiting our family beach house at
Venus Bay.
We continue to attend as many student and staff reunions as well as annual school events that
we are able to and we catch up with quite a number of past staff colleagues for regular end of
year celebrations.
Maria & Geoff Connor
