Emma Husar (Lindsay, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Being a teacher is a vocation. You give up lots of additional time outside the nine-to-three teaching hours. You give up your holidays and weekends. Teaching doesn't just stop at three o'clock.

I have risen today to give thanks to Mr Warren Irwin, a teacher who has dedicated five decades of his life to educating young students. He started out as a teacher in 1969, when big hair, platform shoes and colourful clothes were all the rage, and he's still teaching now at Nepean Christian School out at Mulgoa. He's also been a teacher at Christian Brothers' High School at Lewisham and at Wycliffe Christian School at Warrimoo. His career highlights include being awarded the 1995 BHP award for science curriculum development. Associated with that award, he presented at science teacher conferences both interstate and overseas, including the British ACE science teachers conference at Manchester university. He has also appeared on a children's TV show to demonstrate the Rubens' tube.

More importantly, Mr Irwin is an amazingly inspirational and gifted teacher of science. What I love about that is that he's inspirational. He loves bringing what exists outside into the classroom for students to marvel at and experience. He has not stopped innovating in the 50 years that he has been a teacher. He is currently building an agricultural studies work-and-learning space on the grounds of his current school, and even in his 70s he has an unrivalled work ethic. I would like to wish him all the best and very much thank him for his 50 years of service.