Casuarina Senior College’s Ralph family reflects on school’s 50th anniversary

A Top End school is celebrating its 50th anniversary and a family is celebrating its role in 40 years of that history.

The Ralph family has taught and studied at Casuarina Senior College since 1983 and has reunited for the school's 50th anniversary. From left to right: Peter, Rik, Ursula, Jackson, Kathryn, Patrik, Jennifer and Stuart. Missing are Richard and Matti. Picture: Sierra Haigh

As a Top End school celebrates its 50th anniversary, the Ralph family is reflecting on its place in 40 years of education history.

Casuarina Senior College assistant principal Peter Ralph said his family had been teaching and studying at the school since 1983.

“Casuarina Senior College has been a big part of our family, so having everyone here, coming up a week before the celebrations has been great,” he said.

Ursula Ralph taught English at the school from 1987-2004. Rik Ralph was the assistant principal from 1983-1989 and returned as a part-time science and maths teacher from 2000-2004. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Rik – who started as assistant principal in 1983 and later taught part-time as a maths and science teacher – said working with a team of passionate educators was a rewarding experience.

“In ‘83, we did a sort of analysis of what was being taught, and something like 75 to 80 per cent of the curriculum was directed towards 15 per cent of the students,” he said.

“We started looking at alternate education programs, introduced short courses.”

He said those short courses were echoed in today’s VET courses.

Ursula and Rik Ralph were involved in Casuarina Senior College from 1983-2004.

Ursula taught English from 1967-2004 and said the multicultural nature of the school stood out to her.

With a background of teaching in Papua New Guinea, Ursula said teaching a variety of students and a mix of high- and low-achievers was “wonderful”.

“We’ve met up with some of these ex-students even where we live,” she said.

“We actually live in Maleny.”

Peter Ralph is the current assistant principal. Kathryn Ralph taught geography from 1995-1999, and again from 2001-2011. Stuart was a student at the school. Picture: Sierra Haigh

Peter said he was incredibly proud of his school’s sense of community.

He said students wore their uniforms with pride, to a point where they pushed back against changes to the outfit.

Former geography teacher Kathryn said watching her students mature during their time at the school was a pleasure, but hearing about her impact years on was particularly rewarding.

“I was a traveller as a geography teacher, and the students, some would come back and say, ‘I went travelling because of all your crazy stories of travelling,” she said.

“That was a good achievement, outside of getting their results.”

Jackson was a student at the school. Jenni is the Defence School Mentor. Patrik is the Attendance Officer and is studying to be a teacher. Picture: Sierra Haigh

As the school’s Defence Mentor, Jenni said she enjoyed being the person students from military families could lean on.

“I really enjoyed doing the Anzac Day Commemorations here at the school,” she said.

“I got all the Defence students to run it themselves and present at the assembly and got a catafalque party to come in and interact with them.

“That made me feel really proud.”

Attendance officer Patrik said the “Ralph Dynasty” was a “pretty good road map” for what comes next in life.

As he studies to become a teacher, Patrik said he was also incredibly grateful for his teachers-turned colleagues.

Patrik said one of his teachers said he was always welcome to join her class as part of his professional development.

“The relationships that they had with me provided me with a really good example of how I interact with students as well,” he said.

“As the attendance officer on site, I have to talk to a lot of students.”

The school celebrated its past and present students’ achievements on Friday night.