Paul Azzopardi’s teaching career has spanned the decades of the schools transition from CBC Warrnambool, to the Emmanuel College Senior Campus, to the Rice Campus. Throughout this time, Mr Azzopardi, or ‘Azza’ as he is better known, has focused on connecting to community and creating opportunities for our students to find their success.

Originally from Morwell, Azza got his first taste of Warrnambool at his job interview that had somehow been scheduled on the same day as the Warrnambool & District League’s grand final.

“The interview was on a Saturday and I was wondering why the town was so quiet.” Azza explains, “The Old Collegians had a fairly strong link to the school, and they were in the grand final! So the interview with Br Kearney was brief. Tom just wanted to get out of the place as quick as possible so that he could get to the grand final.”

Graduating from Rusden College (now Deakin) at the end of 1983, Azza was pleased to secure not just a job before finishing his degree, but one that he wanted. “I was looking for a small school, and I went to a boy’s school. CBC was known for its sport, and that suited me really well.”

Starting in 1984, Azza admits that he was very nervous. One of his students in the 1984 College Annual is recorded as saying, “Our class teacher was Mr Azzopardi. It was his first year at CBC and this inspired us to familiarize him with the running of things at Canterbury Road.”

Whatever ‘familiarize’ meant, Azza survived his first year, and was quick to put his hand up for additional responsibilities. He attributes having the confidence to give things a go, to the encouragement and support of the Christian Brothers, along with other teachers such as Mr John Hingston.

One of these early responsibilities was that of Careers Coordinator, a role he was appointed to during his second year of teaching. “There was no Careers Program at that stage. There was just a little section at the back of the library where they tucked a few pamphlets – that was it.” Azza explains.

Along with boosting the information available, and creating an independent careers office, Azza improved processes and support for students. He began interviewing all the boys to build a profile, so that he could provide them with the necessary support for their choices – whether that be helping them to access apprenticeships, through to the paperwork involved with tertiary applications.

However, Paul humbly steers the success of the development of the careers program to the ‘Careers Association’ of the time. This was a group that was comprised of himself and other careers teachers from schools across south-west Victoria. He puts it simply, “We supported each other.”

We do wonder if Azza had a hand in so many CBC boys choosing teaching as a career. “There’s quite a few of them I’ve taught.” He smiles. “Mark Owen was in my first homeroom.”

Throughout his career as a teacher, sport has played a pivotal role. It has provided Azza with many moments of joy and pride, along with being the vehicle to connect with the community he now calls home, and perhaps most importantly – a tool for teaching.

In the early days, he was coaching teams from volleyball to badminton, and supported Mr Glynn (Mate) as an athletics coach. “We (Mate and I) fitted in really well, because he was the long-distance runner, and my area was sprinting.” Azza highlights.

Also integral in the coordination of school sports days, alumni from the 90’s might remember a creation of Azza’s - the running of the Emmanuel College Gift. An event that always had a tight finish, and saw Azza walk away the champion on more than one occasion.

However, Azza’s greatest contribution to sport at Emmanuel is undoubtably the introduction of the Sports Academies. Together with Mr Ian Britton, the pair did extensive research and preparation to introduce the first of its kind program to a Warrnambool school.

“The school has a great history of sport and sporting achievements, and if students wanted to reach the highest level possible in their sport, they and their parents had to make many sacrifices. The idea was discussed, to somehow give these students a way to develop their sport, but not have their school work affected.”

It all began in 2000 with AFL Football, Cricket, Netball, Soccer, Golf, Athletics, Basketball, Tennis and Swimming/Surf Lifesaving.

“The program was so popular that we had around 250 applications in the first year, and this remained consistent for many years after.” Azza highlights.

While the whole program is a source of pride for Azza, it was the Cricket Academy which he ran himself until 2008, that remains closest to his heart.

“Students were given a range of experiences during their time in the Academy. Not only were they developing their cricket skills, but they were given opportunities to pass these skills onto younger students through coaching clinics in the community and also by coaching junior teams within the school. The Year 10 students were also able to complete their Level-1 Cricket Coaching.”

While the involvement in sports afforded Azza to follow his passion and connect to both the College and broader communities, in the classroom he will be remembered as a teacher of all things commercial. Predominately in the senior school, he covered classes such as Accounting, Business Management, Economics and Legal studies. He loved how all students would be so motivated by the practical projects in these subjects.

“There have been many barbecues, lolly sales, hot chips, etcetera sold over the years through the running of small businesses.” He says.

Another thing Azza recalls the students looking forward to was the excursions to Barwon Prison. “You’d go in, and there’d be a panel of prisoners talking about what their life is, what they’d done – that sort of thing. And the students could ask any questions they’d like. Over the years we met murderers, robbers, all sorts.”

On top of all these developments, Azza has held numerous leadership roles including VCE Coordinator, Year Level Coordinators and the Timetabler, however he believes the role that has the greatest impact is that of the Homeroom Teacher. “Just doing one little thing to connect with them, can be the difference to them staying at school for some students.”