Australia’s Best Teachers: Pomonal Primary School’s Cat Fleming helps kids after school saved from fire

Cat Fleming has told of how she became a teacher who helped students heal after their school was saved from a burning bushfire.

Cat Fleming left Melbourne for a teaching tree change at rural Pomonal Primary School near Hall’s Gap — but after just 17 days found herself in the middle of a raging bushfire disaster zone.

And amid the fire, smoke, fear and confusion, Ms Fleming found herself.

“It was the right move for me and I don’t go back on that despite how difficult term 1 was this year,” Ms Fleming, 64, said.

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Her resilience has seen her recognised as part of our Australia’s Best Teachers campaign.

The Herald Sun has joined forces with corporate partners Officeworks, Teachers Mutual Bank, and Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools to launch Australia’s Best Teachers campaign Sunday, to celebrate the nation’s best educators. It is part of a concerted push to drive greater respect and recognition for teachers.

Moving for the teaching job was spur of the moment. After surviving aggressive breast cancer five years ago and a mix of personal and professional difficulties, Ms Fleming found herself reading a ‘Come work for us’ sign out the front of the Pomonal school.

“I sat there and though, ‘yeah, I want to’. I have always wanted to work remotely and I was up for a challenge.”

After an interview with the principal, who offered her the job on the spot, and securing a rental home in nearby Ararat on the way back, Ms Fleming became a local.

She spent the first couple of weeks getting to know her multi-age class from Years 2-6 and adjust to the pace of country teaching.

When an email arrived saying don’t come to school tomorrow because it’s been declared a catastrophic fire day, Ms Fleming didn’t worry too much.

But over the next few days as she sat at home, the district around her was under attack from fire.

Catriona Fleming with students from Pomonal Primary School. Picture: Supplied

“I was pretty isolated as a newbie to the community and I was just home thinking, ‘has our school burned down’ and ‘are my kids’ houses burning down?’.

She wanted answers and connection so made her way to the Stawell relief centre supporting children and people who had lost their homes and everything they owned.

“I was amazed at people’s resilience. How someone could sit there having a laugh and sharing stories when they had just lost their home.”

The school was saved by CFA firefighters who entered the grounds to defend it, knowing how important it was to the community. And it was a close call. A circle of black surrounds the school and the fence and trees were burned but the building was saved.

Ms Fleming said the school invited families back for a picnic in the grounds to demonstrate to their 23 students why the smell and smoke damage would prevent lessons.
They packed up supplies and set up school in Stawell for a week and a half while the community back home cleaned and repainted the school.

But even the return to Pomonal wasn’t easy.
“We thought the kids would be ready to learn, but no one was in the frame of mind to sit down and do academic work,” Ms Fleming said.

So she drew on her performing arts background and training to help develop a wellbeing program.
“To me, art is therapy. I got my guitar out and we sang songs — happy and sad — so we could tap into all our feelings, we meditated and made cards for the firefighters.”
Term 2 has seen a return to traditional learning and the students are all coping well. Ms Fleming said they all learned a lot about resilience and she realised she was in the right job.

“It was mutually beneficial. I feel I filled a gap at the school, but they have filled a gap for me, too.”

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Originally published as Australia’s Best Teachers: Pomonal Primary School’s Cat Fleming helps kids after school saved from fire