Ag teacher retires after nearly 40 years at one Murraylands school
Phillip Roberts is retiring after nearly 40 years of teaching agriculture students.
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After nearly 40 years, an era has come to an end for Coomandook Area School's agricultural teacher.
After this week, when assessments are marked, Phillip Roberts will officially be a free man as he takes long service leave before retiring next January.
Even on one of his days off last week, Mr Roberts was setting up a pedal prix bike for an upcoming race day.
Mr Roberts was first introduced to Coomandook Area School in 1984, when he completed his first teaching placement there.
Before he officially started his role at the school in 1987, he taught at Cleve Area School before deciding to head back to what he loved.
When he first started at the R-12 school there were around 350 students; now the school has just 150.
"Every year level had a class ... now all the classes are combined," he said.
"It's just a reflection of bigger farms, less people and lack of utilities."
Mr Roberts now teaches most of his past students' children: "I have a really good rapport with their parents."
The key was offering great relationships with the community, so kids could develop their own curriculum with the tools around them, he said.
"Being in charge of a single subject at a school means you can become an island, and the challenges of managing and teaching can be quite daunting ... so you really need to build up your relationships," he said.
Mr Roberts was thankful to be part of the local ag bureau, ag teachers' association and national ag education committee.
"You've got to be willing to take on the challenges, and work through them," he said.
He picked up a number of other subjects over his teaching career, including maths, science, PE, dance, music and tech studies.
For his last year of teaching he's been focused on all agriculture, coming into the school three times a week.
"I've spoken to kids and they've said one of the only reasons they come to school is for the double ag lesson," he said.
A lot of past students are now the ones supporting Mr Roberts, donating stock and feed for the school's current ag cohort.
"It's been a really good journey ... it's a good place to be and a supportive community," he said.
"You can't do it on your lone ranger."
Now he'll be focusing on his family, his three granddaughters and his horses, on his retirement property in Murray Bridge.
