Bega Valley education identity Gabbie Stroud has decided the time is right to get back into the classroom.
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She will be starting teaching at the Thomas More Christian Montessori School in Bega along with another new teacher Jo O’Connor, sharing a class together.
In October 2015, Ms Stroud had a very public resignation from teaching with a post on her Facebook account announcing her decision going viral, gaining 4600 “likes” and over 1600 shares.
“I’ve spent a lot of time since then recovering from burnout and stress,” she said.
“[But] I’ve realised I miss the children, I’ve not missed the work I did, but I missed being with kids.”
She chose to join the team at Montessori as she had heard great stories about the school from friends, and her daughter also goes there.
“I don’t believe education is a standardised experience,” Ms Stroud said.
“I think Montessori lives up to that, recognising individual children’s needs.”
Ms O’Connor liked the Montessori education system as it was not rushed and allowed children to discover and learn what they were interested in.
“I think it’s really good for the children to be able to learn at their own pace,” she said.
Originally from Sydney, she has taught around NSW including for a long time at North Nowra Public School.
When she moved to the Valley she was surprised to find how many other systems of education were there aside from public, such as Montessori, Steiner and the Anglican college.
Montessori school parent Lance Jenkins said the school has nearly doubled in numbers of pupils this year, including six that enrolled last weekend.
This means the school is reopening the bottom classroom next term, as it had been closed for the first part of the year due to reduced numbers.
Mr Jenkins was glad to have Ms Stroud and Ms O’Connor starting at the school.
“I think it’s really appropriate for the next chapter of Montessori to have people of this caliber,” he said.
“It’s pretty exciting stuff.”