Rhian McLeod

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"I've been teaching for 18 years now. I taught at 3 different schools and there's no question for me, the job has become more challenging, especially post covid. I always remember 2013, I was teaching at a school in Werrimull, Victoria where there were only about 60 kids from prep to 12 and my VCE Art class had 2 year 12 students. One of my students in there gave me this envelope. And it had 'Open at 10.45 am' which is when his exam started. I opened it and he had written 'I've given all the staff highlights from my year, it represents the wonderful yet colourful opportunity you as teachers have given a student, the chance to succeed, have a dream and take on the world'. And then he's written the most amazing letter. It's got 'Dear Rhian, best teacher in the whole world. What a difficult year it has been. Your resilience, honesty and integrity have not only guided me, but everyone around you. You've helped me so much this year with school and life. This is probably the hardest letter I'm going to write as words cannot describe the sadness I feel. I think if I had to say goodbye in conversation I would cry, right now I am.' So when I find this job challenging, when I'm feeling a little bit down about it and wondering about other professions, I always go back to this letter and I realise as teachers we absolutely make a difference. So that's been probably the highlight of my career so far."

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