By Shamsiya Hussainpoor
Upwey High School teacher, Grant Nichol has retired after 35 years from an extraordinary career that made it hard to move on from.
Teachers are called many things, educators, mentors, instructors and sometimes, even accidently mum and dad.
No matter what they are called, a school’s greatest asset is having teachers with great personality that truly have a gift of influencing lives inside and outside of classrooms.
To the school, Mr Nichol was not just a good teacher; he was like a candle – that continued to light the way for others.
Whilst Mr Nichol is looking forward to spending his retirement days with his family, especially his grandson, he said he will miss the daily interactions with students the most and of course his former colleagues.
“Working with young people and interacting with them on a daily basis was what kept me young,” he said.
“I couldn’t retire at 65, I couldn’t walk away. But I had to move on at some point.”
During the beginning of his teaching career in Upwey High School, he was keen to get involved in outdoor activities like camping but the school didn’t have many camps back then.
Mr Nichol along with another teacher, who started at the same time as him, put in the effort and established camps.
“I got involved in doing camping and sport because it was a way to get to know the kids out of the classroom…when you got to know them out of the classroom, they were much better and more likely to want to learn in the classroom and I learned that pretty early,” he said.
Mr Nichol is officially retired, but he enjoys working and volunteering for the school, even to this day.
“I’m easing out of teaching. I can’t quite walk away; I’m still doing the fun stuff.”
He is employed to run the volleyball teams and help the school with camp trips, and last year he was asked by the school to run their 85th anniversary.
Mr Nichol was known for his many great contributions and skills to the school and community.
The school had no reunions so he started organising one and from there it became an annual thing for him and the school.
“Every year I was in charge of organising 10 year reunions, nowadays, I’m organising a 10 year, a 20, and a 30 year reunion every year,” he said.
He’s determined to continue this, even after his retirement.
“I’m not going to stop organising [reunions]; I was never paid to do them in the first place…it’s a great way to catch up with my former students.”
During his final days, many students suggested to him they have to hold a party to celebrate his retirement.
“A number of people said we’ll organise it and we’ll have a party…it all felt a bit hard to me and I wasn’t convinced they’d be much interested.”
“I know my students and ex-students like me, but I wasn’t convinced…we all have busy lives and everyone’s got things to do,” he said.
On Sunday 3 March, more than 100 ex-students and former colleagues turned up to give him a big and warm farewell.
“It was literally a pleasant day, reminiscing and talking and thinking about my career, it was a nice day,” Mr Nichol said.
He has taught two generations of students, many of his latest students were the kids of his former students.
“In the class that I taught their parents, I show them embarrassing photos of their parents, when they were at school,” he said.
Mr Nichol was also a photographer, during camping trips; he took photos and often shared them with his students.
“I took photos of their mum or dad when they were in Year 7, the same age as they were. The kids loved seeing their parents as kids at school…probably embarrassing, but that was even better,” he said.
Mr Nichol started his early career as a civil engineer for three and a half years with Melbourne Water. Then moved on to working as a youth worker for 11 years – he didn’t start teaching until he was 35.
Prior to becoming a teacher in the Hills, he was a teacher in a school overseas.
From 1995 to 1996, Mr Nichol and his family went to Zimbabwe with the Australian volunteers abroad.
“We spent two years teaching in high school in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, it was a great experience for me,” he said.
Many teachers across the country struggle with classroom behaviour especially after Covid but for Mr Nichol, his relationship with the students never deteriorated.
“Teaching is based on relationships, if you don’t relate well, the students would be awful, and you’ll have a terrible career.”
“But if you get on well with students, you get on well with young people, you’ll love every moment of it,” he said.
He said there’s a lot of expectations on teachers to solve society’s problems.
“We just don’t get the funding to help those kids that we need, teachers are expected to deal with all sorts of different behaviours and learning levels in the classroom. And that’s almost impossible.”
The highlight for Mr Nichol is the relationship he’s had with all of his students throughout his career.
“I’ve watched them grow older, watched their kids grow up.”
“I’m still in touch with many students I taught in 1991, they’re my friends.”
Mr Nichol brought his youth working skills to educate his students about issues in the world and the need for people to be active and having a crack at trying to make the world a better place.
“My philosophy is you’ve got to try and make your life better you’ve got to try and make a difference. You’ve got to live your life in a way that tries to make a positive difference to the world. Otherwise, what’s the point?”
After his first year in the school he started an Amnesty International group which ran for 16 years.
Mr Nichol’s big heart has shaped and enlightened many little minds.
“I’ve got a great fear of missing out. So I try and do everything,” he said.
“I’ve got this long list of jobs of things that I want to do which I hadn’t had the time when I was working – everything from awful things like painting the house to sorting out all my photos.”
He now has more time to be a grandparent and that’s the key thing he’s looking forward to.
“My life is incredible. I packed my life; I feel every minute of my life has been very busy.”
