No stopping this retired teacher

RETIRED St Margarets teacher Jill Sykes is no longer in the classroom, but that hasnt stopped her continued involvement with teaching.

When the Gazette spoke to Ms Sykes in June 2001, the former history and geography teacher had been shortlisted for the secondary school Teacher of the Year awards.

Ms Sykes made it to the final four teachers in the state and was rewarded with $500 and a certificate to commemorate her outstanding achievement.

I was very overwhelmed to be nominated in the first place but to make it to the last four teachers was very surprising, Ms Sykes said.

Ms Sykes retired from St Margarets in Berwick after 14 years of service but couldnt completely break away from the learning environment and took up a role as a coordinator of the Global Education Project.

I retired from St Margarets at the end of 2003 but still wanted to stay involved in education in some capacity so I took up a role as a coordinator of the Global Education Project.

The program incorporates a number of subjects, including history, geography and English, and works with teachers to help create a global perspective that is incorporated into classroom learning.

After two years of involvement in the project, Ms Sykes fully retired from the work force and jumped straight into a volunteering position with the Commonwealth Games.

I wanted to continue to be involved with something and Melbourne hosting the Commonwealth Games was an ideal opportunity to be part of a big event.

I was rostered to work at the MCG. The whole event was such a remarkable experience. Everyone was really positive and the crowds were remarkably well behaved and friendly.

One of the many highlights for Ms Sykes was the opportunity to watch most of the closing ceremony before helping to usher the athletes out of the stadium.

The lure of education and teaching still exists and Ms Sykes accepted an opportunity to write a chapter in the VCE Geography textbook.

The text was about natural environment studies and took about three months in total to research, write and edit the chapter.

While Ms Sykes continues to involve herself in many activities, great joy comes from the time she is able to spend with her three grandchildren, aged two months, one year and three years.

Its lovely to have the time to give to the grandchildren and I really enjoy spending a great deal of time with them.