General News
22 September, 2024
Tom’s play of passion
I’LL be back, said Tom Bleicher as he walked out of Boort District School at the end of term last Friday. But the only assistant principal in the history of the P12 school is stepping away from the role after more than 12 years. First there’s...
I’LL be back, said Tom Bleicher as he walked out of Boort District School at the end of term last Friday.
But the only assistant principal in the history of the P12 school is stepping away from the role after more than 12 years.
First there’s knee replacement surgery that will have him out of the classroom for term four, an occupational symptom of a career that started at Boort in 1987 as a newly-graduated physical education teacher.
The new school year will see Tom still teaching three days a week. English, geography, outdoor education will still feature in the shortened weeks for the sports fanatic who arrived in Australia with his parents from southern Germany and started school in Tullamarine.
“But it’s not retirement,” he said as Year 9 humanities students studying life and financial decision making arrived for the last lesson with Tom.
“I grew up chasing tadpoles and rabbits in Tullamarine ... it was then outskirts of Melbourne then,” Tom said.
“The family moved to Ballarat and I did the PE teacher’s course there. We had to put down regions we might like to teach in after graduating and I got Boort.
“This is a beautiful place and the community was so supportive of sport ... I met my wife (mathematics teacher) Noemi here and the kids didn’t want to leave, so here we stayed.”
Tom taught physical education until 2005 but continued being in local football and cricket teams, even playing in a Pies’ reserve flag.
“Had a lot of fun playing until I was 40, even if I had lost some speed and fitness,” he said.
Tom says the creation of the P12 school had been positive for education in the town.
“It brought education together, community together and gave us access to funds to improve facilities,” he said. “And that has meant a better education for our young people.
“There have been good partnerships steering the ship too. Lee-Anne Sherwell was principal for 10 years, so to have two people in leadership positions for so long is actually rare.”
Current principal Todd Woodfine said Tom had been a strong support when he started in the role this year.
Tom says 40 years in Boort had seen long-lasting friendships formed with early students, their children now in some of his classes. He said stepping away from school administrative duties would create more time for he and Noemi to be with family.
Daughter Andie returns from Britain in November after being part of a team working on vaccination trials in Bristol and Jordan is in Melbourne. “Family will be closer again,” said Tom.