Jenny Wood, A Silver Jubilee

Interviewed by Lucy Loney (Ogilvie, 1988) | Development Manager

Morris Staff: Janet Henderson, Jenny Wood, Jeff Greenwood & Shelia Given.

Jenny wood attended Friends’ from 1959-1963, then returned to commence her teaching career in 1971. A classroom teacher for Kinder to Year 7, including the two final years (1985-1986) of the school at Sherwood, Jenny has coached swimming, athletics, softball and netball for students and old scholars and for 49 years has entered students in the Drama section of the City of Clarence and the City of Hobart Eisteddfods. 2020 is Jenny’s 50th year teaching at Friends’.

Tell me about your first days teaching at Friends’? Who were the first people you encountered?

I taught the first year, 1971. I just loved it. When I first came there was Kath Lane and Maggie Brent and Cracker Morris, and of course Joan Pease. Sheila Given was there of course, and Daisy Gourlay, and Mrs Gourlay in the Canteen as well. It was lovely for me, because I was one of the young ones. I taught with people like Lea Lawson (Oakes) (1964) and Margaret Ibbott (Davidson) (1962), people who were young like me, and Jeff Boyes (1941) was Head of our part of the School, called Walpole.

When you reflect on the last 50 years, what is your most cherished memory? Your proudest achievement?

You know the thing that gives me great pleasure is when I meet naughty boys who, of course, tend to become your favourites because you work really hard. And then you’ll meet them later in life and the first thing they’ll say to me is “You’ll be so proud of me Jenny, I’ve been to Uni and done well”. And what they impart to me is that they felt that I cared about them and saw them as they really were. Stephanie Farrall has this lovely saying “your job as a teacher is to confirm in the child what they believe in themself”.

I’m a very practical person, I like doing things, and doing things with kids. I have a real passion for teaching, I just love it. You just get so much in return. You find a connection then you can expand it. By the end of the year, you’re very sad to see them go because you’ve got a real connection with them.

Who has been an inspiration to you at Friends’?

Well, I would have to say Peter Jerrim. Peter Jerrim was a wonderful person, a wonderful teacher. He was one of those people who could find the best in children. I think most of that staff, people like John Christie, Joan Pease, John Bath. John would get the kids to do practical things, like he’d let off an air balloon in

the playground and it would float all over North Hobart then he’d go and get it. He’d make a creek through the playground, bring in big things for the kids to work with outside. We were a small staff, so we had that intimacy, we had a really nice time.

On Netball and Sport...

Sport gave kids the opportunity to shine when they weren’t shining in the classroom. I had that enthusiasm, and I would encourage them to give of their best. Everyone got a game, that was the philosophy. There was a little girl, she couldn’t catch a ball. We used to go out and get beaten 40-0, we would always make sure we threw the ball to her, she got the ball, then she passed it, then we’d have a few more go’s then she’d be let out.

Then the thing that I loved doing was breaking up the game, like I do when I teach maths. Making it into small bits and then bringing it up, and that’s the same with Netball. Then we went out and we played all these more aggressive players, and I stopped allowing kids to just play willy nilly and we made it into systems. We got beaten a bit but once we practiced it we did so well we left the others for dead. One of the special things was taking a group of high school netballers to the Australian championships and we played, and then we’d go and watch Australia play.

On Eisteddfods...

Do you know, I think most of the things I did in my life were things I couldn’t do as a little girl. I wasn’t very confident. I sang in the Eisteddfod and I had so many nervous swallows that I thought “how lovely to grow up and be an adult and be able to speak in public”. It wasn’t winning the Eisteddfods, it was the skills to be able to do it. And that’s what parents have always said to me. It was to do with being confident. Then I have people come and say to me, “I spoke at a wedding last night, and I thought, how could world and make a difference. They

I do that? And it’s because I said a poem in the Eisteddfod when I was 10”. And that is a great joy to me, because not only have they got great confidence to speak in public, but they have got a great wealth of poems that they know.

On Gappies...

We had one Gappie, and then she returned to Ireland. And the School said “well, if we’re going to have Gappies we need someone to look after them” and they came to me and said “would you like to?” and I said “I’d love to!”. The first Gappies came from The Mount School, York and it just grew and grew. The lovely thing is that they all want to come back and they share their lives with me. The Gappies come to our lovely island, they feel safe here, they feel part of our small city. They feel like they belong. The students love them because they’re not teachers, they’re teachers’ assistants, and they’re only a few years older than them. On one trip to Germany, 14 former Gappies came to see privileged. People say “you’re great to them” and I am, but to me, I get just as much in return, probably more, because it’s nice to have that extended group.

What is the essence of Friends’? What is the Friends’ promise?

I think, you know, it’s the feeling like I feel, and others feel, that we belong. We belong to this lovely group of people. These people accept change, will go out to the me, they travelled. I feel very

all find their little niche. When they come back into that group, there’s a bond you can’t break. And when we sing Alma Mater I always sing the last two lines with gusto “Friends’ School boys and girls forever, ‘Neath the scarlet, grey and blue”. We belong to this group of people and we feel really privileged that we’ve had this education. My education at Friends’ was the making of me. I was very fortunate to come to Friends’ and then to come back as a teacher, how wonderful to be able to do that.

Do you have a recollection or anecdote about Jenny Wood? Please share it with us at stayconnected@friends.tas.edu.au and we will pass it on to Jenny.