Craigieburn South Primary School teacher awarded for 45-year career

Craigieburn South Primary School’s Christine Stonehouse has been teaching for 45 years. Despite the long innings, her love of helping students learn has never diminished.

Teacher Christine Stonehouse with students Jude and Leilani at Craigieburn South Primary School. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Christine Stonehouse has been a school teacher for more than half her life, but the 63-year-old from Craigieburn South Primary School has no plans to retire.

In July, Ms Stonehouse was one of the 408 teachers honoured by the State Government for dedicating 40 years or more of service to public education.

Ms Stonehouse, who has been at the Craigieburn school for 26 years, and has taught for 45 years, said she chose her career after being inspired by a teacher herself.

“I had a Grade 6 teacher, Mr Orchard, who was really inspiring,” Ms Stonehouse said.

But what has kept her in teaching is the joy of helping children develop.

“Just the love of seeing children learn,” she said.

“(Seeing them) … look at something they think is hard and eventually go ‘I can do this’.”

Soon to be a grandmother-of-three, Ms Stonehouse said she was just 19 when she started at Viewbank Primary School, Rosanna in 1977.

It was a time when there were no computers in classrooms or curriculums, but one thing remained the same: “kids are kids”.

For the past four years, Ms Stonehouse has been helping students from non-English speaking backgrounds hone their language skills.

“I have been working with children here in Craigieburn who have been learning English because they have just come from overseas whether it is Syria or Samoa,” she said.

“It is really good to help them learn more conversational English so that when they are in class they can understand what the teacher is talking about.”

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Ms Stonehouse said it was a very rewarding job as the students “really wanted to learn”.

Thanks to her long innings she has also taught the children of her former students.

“There are three children in Grade 2 this year (whose parents) I taught in Grade 2 in 1998,” she said.

“The little one came up to me and said ‘do you remember my mum?’

“ ‘She said you were her best teacher’.”