Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Heather Harrison (1958)

Jun 30, 2017

A Handful of Home

Heather Harrison spent 25 years as the College Nurse at Fairholme. Originally from Aramac, and a Boarder at Â鶹ÊÓƵin the 50s, she returned to the region with Principal, Dr Linda Evans and Head of Boarding, Margie Dunne, to visit future families and Old Girls.


‘An Aramac friend once told me that just before leaving home to return to Boarding School, she would go outside and fill one of her pockets with dirt. Dirt from home to take back to school with her. Her home memories in her pocket.’


Heather Harrison’s own pockets are now filled with many memories, after recently travelling out to her old stomping ground, and sharing a cuppa with the many Â鶹ÊÓƵOld Girls dotted around Western Queensland.


‘We flew from Brisbane to Longreach in a Dash 8 and I must say, the whole country looks so very dry.’


Between Longreach, Blackall and Winton, Sister Harrison heard many stories of courageous women; Â鶹ÊÓƵwomen who’ve been dealt a rough hand, but have chosen not to give up, and instead, to dig in.


‘Some have barely seen the back of drought. Others are widowed, running an entire station on their own and doing it successfully,’ says Heather.


As the College Nurse, Heather Harrison believes she became a Grandmother figure to many, especially the Boarders who were so far from home.


‘I think the School Nurse has a good position, where she’s not having to say “turn off that laptop, lights out, stop that noise”. You know, I guess I was there more as a comfort to them.’


As the College Nurse, Sister Harrison says she worked incredibly long hours, and was on call 24/7.


But at each stop out West, it seems those hours counted for the Boarders who were once in her care.


At each stop, Sister Harrison was the travelling Â鶹ÊÓƵcelebrity.


‘I suppose I didn’t realise my presence had been so important to them. It was lovely to see how many wanted to catch up with me.’


Â鶹ÊÓƵCollege hits the road again next term, visiting our current and previous families, along with future students.




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I am soaking in the delights of fiercely contested debating finals, narrow wins and losses on the courts and fields of Toowoomba where the temperature is always colder or hotter than forecast and, the unparalleled joy of Junior School girls dancing on stage without inhibition, some perfectly attuned with the music’s beat and other’s not. I am absorbing the opportunity to witness learning at its essence. Performance in sport or The Arts is a public event. If your artwork is hung in a gallery space it is ‘public’ – open to be appreciated or criticised. If one is singing, dancing, debating or playing an instrument on stage with an audience there is nowhere to hide if an error is made. And, on a court or field – one’s performance is open to scrutiny or praise – or everything in between. Becoming is core business at these times. Anthony Simcoe, perhaps best known for his role as Steve in the epic Australian film, ‘The Castle’ with lines like, “Dale dug a hole, Dad,” or “How much for jousting sticks?” was a gangly fifteen-year-old boy when I first met him at Burnside State High School in Nambour, where he was seeking to master the volleyball dig, serve and set. Who would have imagined his becoming? Even years on, Anthony would say that he learned to become an actor through washing dishes at cafes – earning money between acting jobs – learning to observe the humanness in his customers. He washed a lot of dishes and served a lot of tables in order to become a credible member of ‘The Castle’s’ Kerrigan family. In tedious hours he learned about people and about hard, repetitive work. Repetition is the underpinning pattern of rehearsal and practice. Some of us do it well, others not so. I hear it in action many mornings as I pass the Performing Arts building, I see it on mornings and afternoons in our gym and on our oval. Rehearsal. Practice. Becoming. It is far more palpable; it would seem, than our classroom learning which inhabits a far more private space: often behind a closed door. How special it was, a few weeks ago, to invite the parents of Year 12.1 English to join their daughter, Mrs Anderson and I for a Period Five Friday afternoon lesson of ‘Macbeth.’ Seated in a huge circle in the confines of G24, students directed the lesson: spelling, quotations, thematic discussions and questions, for their parent and the other class members. It was an impressive moment (from a teacher’s perspective anyway) – to see students demonstrate their knowledge in a semi-public forum. It was timely for parents, no doubt, to remember the awkwardness of not knowing an answer, the joy of accuracy as well as the discomfort of feedback about an incorrect assumption – these are aspects of learning with which our students grapple, daily … as they become. There was delight in sharing the messiness of learning, the non-linear path of knowledge and how these segue to ‘becoming.’ Although, that moment of self-actualisation we seek or reaching the mountain top does not come at the same time or in the same way for any of us. And we have to be patient from our sideline position. We have to trust the process. We have to remember also, that losing and missing out are important components of future winning. We have to remember in the words of Saint Ignatius Loyola, Spanish Priest, theologian and thinker, “we learn only when we are ready to learn.” St. Ignatius reminds us that education is not confined to classrooms; it can happen anywhere and at any time: if we allow it. And thus, as adults, as we inhabit more than our fair share of sidelines real and metaphoric, during the rundown to the finish line, let us all be gracious in allowing our young people ‘to become’ … a process that is uneven, at times uncomfortable, messy, deeply disappointing and … often wildly exhilarating. Let us enjoy each and every facet and be gracious in the spaces where alignment with expectation is not met in performance or outcome. It is here, in this place, which can feel unpleasant, unsatisfactory and uninvited that the greatest learning and hence the greatest opportunity to become, can occur. If we, as adults who should know better, don’t mess with ‘the becoming.’ “Another ball game lost! Good grief!” Charlie moans. “I get tired of losing. Everything I do, I lose!” “Look at it this way, Charlie Brown,” Lucy replies. “We learn more from losing than we do from winning.” “That makes me the smartest person in the world!” replies Charlie. Win some. Learn some. Become. Dr Linda Evans │Principal  REFERENCE Maxwell, J. (2013) On Turning a Loss into a Gain | Adapted from Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn (October 2013)
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