Long-serving Pakenham Secondary College teachers Kevin Ware, Vyg Zilinskas and Robert Sartain. 35510 Picture: Luke Plummer
By Melissa Grant
STUDENTS who have filed through the doors of Pakenham Secondary College over the last decade are sure to recognise the faces of Vyg Zilinskas, Robert Sartain and Kevin Ware.
The trio have been teaching together at the school for the last 11 years, with PE teacher Mr Zilinskas claiming the longest post having recently clocked up 25 years.
All have enjoyed their time teaching at the school, and have seen it undergo dramatic changes, particularly since the start of the new millennium.
Mr Ware, who has been teaching Information Technology at the school since 1998, said the school was looking very different to when he arrived.
“My first impression of the school was it was pretty run down,” he remembered.
Mr Zilinskas said the structure of timetables, student demographics and liability rules had also changed the way of teaching over the years.
The school has had much success on the sporting field in its 42-year history. Mr Zilinskas listed State Championship winning teams in inter girls’ hockey (1978), junior girls’ netball (1985) and year 7 boys’ basketball (2002) as among the biggest triumphs during his quarter of a century at the school.
But he said probably the most fulfilling thing was seeing many of his students go on to teach sport, including Matt Owen, Michelle Webster and Paul Drake.
“I’m very proud of how many kids have gone on to become PE teachers,” Mr Zilinskas said.
Mr Sartain, who began teaching Art at Pakenham Secondary College in 1991, said students’ selection in the Top Arts program was a personal highlight.
He recalled how the introduction digital at age had seen the dark room disappear but the number of students interested in the subject skyrocket.
“It’s much more immediate now and it’s become very popular,” Mr Sartain said.
However, it’s not the same story for the Information Technology program.
“In 1998, when I started, there were three classes of Year 12 and four in Year 11 and now there’s one of each,” Mr Ware said.
>>> See how many faces you recognise in the 1991 Pakenham Secondary College staff photo, featured on the school’s centenary spread on pages 54 and 55.
