By Daniel C, Amelia L and Ryan B

 

We expected Mrs Bon to have lots of special and funny stories from her 28 years at St Joseph’s and that is what she shared with us as we sat down with her for one last chat.

 

Way back in 1989, when shoulder pads and paisley ties were the fashion, and our parents would have been rocking out to New Kids On The Block, an interesting new teacher arrived on the scene at St Joseph’s.  We all know Mrs Bon as the leader of the senior school – but did you know when she first joined our school she was in charge of the junior school?

 

Mrs Bon’s first day at St Joseph’s actually didn’t go as she’d planned. As she was sitting at a table with two students reading, she didn’t know one of them had scissors and was cutting up the other child’s pants. But when Mrs Bon found out she wasn’t exactly … happy. The boy ended up running down the drive towards a woman yelling “HELP ME, THERE IS A CRAZY WOMAN CHASING ME”. Only then did Mrs Bon find out that it was actually the boy’s mother. As she sewed up her student’s shorts she seriously wondered what she had gotten herself into.

 

Teaching runs in Mrs Bon’s family, her father taught architecture, her mother was a speech therapist and her sister was a kindergarten teacher. She also loved pretending to be a teacher to her brothers when they were growing up. At college, someone suggested teaching as a career and she thought it was a brilliant idea. It was at teaching college she also discovered her love of the guitar.

 

Mrs Bon wanted to be a teacher because she loved seeing children learn, that’s also why she has remained teaching for the past 47 years. She has taught at many schools,  both here and in Australia. Did you know four of these, including ours, has been named after St Joseph. Was this a sign from God?

 

When she started working at St Joseph’s, her two sons were also students here. Alex, her eldest, refused to let her teach him in the senior school but David, her other son, had no choice because there was only one year 2 class back then. Mrs Bon still laughs at the fact that he would call her “Mrs Bon” during school but when the hometime bell rang he would call her ”Mum”again. Like all 6-year-olds the first thing he would say to her is, “You’ll never believe what we did at school today”…

 

While at our school, as Mrs Bon put it, she has helped “break in” four principals; Mrs Hook, Mr Manson, Ms O’Connell-Cooper and Mr Bridgman. After working with Mrs Bon for less than a year,  it looks like Mr Bridgman has already passed her “Principal test” and she can leave knowing the school is in safe hands.

 

Mrs Bon has had many roles at this school, the one she has enjoyed the most was being a home group teacher, but she also found this job the most challenging. As a teacher, she often tried to be creative but sometimes this got her into trouble. If in the future we find any small gold nuggets around the school, please don’t think this will make you rich. These were the result of a “Gold Rush” game Mrs Bon ran. She dug trenches all over the school and hid painted gold stones in them. The result was the kids had fun but we had a lot of mud for many months and a … NOT so happy caretaker.

 

Her impact on caretakers didn’t stop at our school either, she became well known to the Rosmini caretaker as well. You see when Mrs Bon was teaching in the old block by the convent, she would throw pencil cases out the window when kids didn’t behave. This technique was very successful up until one day when she was called to the window by a very grumpy caretaker. He had a boxful of stationery and an ultimatum that she had to stop if Rosmini was ever able to mow their lawns again.

 

We were also intrigued to know how Mrs Bon has been able to remember so many students names over the years. Well her secret is she gets to know all of us through our stories and achievements. When asked what some of her favourites are, for subjects she said teaching Inquiry, Art and Literacy, and for guitar songs, her top three are “God of the Morning, Grandma’s Feather Bed and the Flower that Shattered the Stone” and as for the best excuse for not doing your homework, it has to be “My dad thought it was rubbish and threw it in the bin”. She could not narrow down her happiest teaching moment, as there have been so many, but she did tell us her favourite school traditions have been Camp, Graduation Night and the Leavers’ Mass.

 

Mrs Bon’s proudest achievement while at St Joseph’s is seeing children who find learning difficult, succeed.  Her favourite Bible Story to teach has been “The Prodigal Son” because the father forgave his son, no matter what.  She said it teaches all of us that mistakes are OK to make. If she could pass on any wisdom to the students, she says being resilient, getting back up and finding solutions to our problems is what really makes a difference and is always being grateful to God for all the opportunities we get in life.

After Mrs Bon retires she has plans to go traveling in Europe next year. She will be visiting the Czech Republic to visit her son David, who is working there. Mrs Bon also wants to improve on her French as she plans to visit France on her trip too. She also wants to do more yoga and finally start reading books for pleasure rather than for teaching.  And the number one thing she is most looking forward to doing in her retirement … is “Going Fishing”.  Surprise, surprise, Mrs Bon admits she is quite competitive when it comes to fishing, so she is aiming on breaking some fishing records as she gets to spend more time out on the water!

 

The mass started and we all began to sing the opening song, Mrs Bon sat down with her family and treasured her last time in St Joseph’s Church. During the mass, we had 2 new and unique performances. Instead of doing Prayers of the Faithful in English each child did the prayer in their own language. Then while we had our communion and prayed a group of Year 5 and 6 girls presented a special liturgical dance.

 

Then later that afternoon Mrs Bon was stunned by the surprise assembly that the school put on. She was welcomed in by the Rosmini and St Joseph’s Kapa Haka groups. Followed by that was Hannah M, she lead us in prayer. Next was Daniel C.  He presented a Retirement Survival Kit. It included fruit bursts, lolly watches and many other useful pieces of equipment. We also sang a special song for Mrs Bon. Mrs Wannenburg changed the lyrics of We Will Rock You by Queen and made it We Will Miss You. Following the assembly was a tree planting ceremony. Mr Kelly dug a hole on the front field and the school gathered around Mrs Bon as she filled in the hole with an Olive Tree. Then we watched as Mrs Bon and her family drive away in a fancy white limousine.

 

Mrs Bon, you have been a fantastic teacher and we thank you for always going the extra mile for every one of the children you have taught.  We wish you a very happy retirement with your family and safe travels overseas.

We also asked her to reveal her Toffee recipe as a leaving gift to the school, she told us…”It’s your standards. toffee recipe of sugar and water but there is one secret ingredient, knowing you have earned it!”