Pulteney Grammar art teacher, Rod James to retire after 37 years of service

After more than 30 years of teaching at an elite Adelaide private school, a beloved art teacher is set to hang up the paintbrush.

Beloved Pulteney Grammar art teacher, Rod James, is packing away his paints and clay after more than 30 years teaching, ahead of his retirement next year.

Following in the footsteps of his eccentric illustrator of a grandfather, art quickly became a passion for a young Mr James who’d lost his parents at a young age.

Pulteney Grammar School art teacher Rod James will be retiring after 30 years at the school. Picture: Brenton Edwards

After shifting from labour work to working as a landscaper at the Adelaide Zoo, it was in his late 20s that Mr James finally decided to make the move to art teaching at Pulteney Grammar.

“I’m very proud of it, I didn’t know when I started how good it was going to be, I didn’t know it was going to affect myself, but so many different people,” says Mr James. “You do sculpt people’s minds in a way because you can’t help your own passions and enthusiasm for different things, you encourage them.

“The kids love to look at the pieces you make, but I’m always amazed at what they come up with … they’re always teaching me too and that’s what’s made me enthusiastic. They make things that make you laugh, make you smile, sometimes make you cry too.”

Mr James says some of his students have gone on to do incredible things like tour the country as a blacksmith, become a professional national photographer, or in the case of his own two children/past students Isy and Henry, become educators themselves.

Currently about to round out his 36th year at the school, Mr James says he’s got another one in him, working part time for his 37th and final year in 2025.