inducted 2024 Service
“I came here in Grade 3, which I reckon would have been 1969. I always liked it [school]. I was not bad at it, so that helped. The classroom suited me.”
Mr McCluskey admits that he enjoyed class time so much, that school events outside of the classroom were more likely the days that he’d avoid. He recalls, “they had a trike race that raised money for the Brother’s African schools. I wasn’t a big fan of those things. I preferred school days.”
Football however, was always a favourite pastime for both Mr McCluskey and CBC. “I played for CBC Green.” He says. “There was a CBC gold and a CBC Green, and I didn’t know at the time, but they picked the best players for Gold. Green played Gold on a Sunday down at the Allen Oval, and there’d be a big barbecue and there’d be cars all around. All the families were there. It was like a big day. And rarely did we beat Gold - now I know why!”
In the classroom, helping other students from as early as Form II (Year 8) steered Mr McCluskey to consider teaching as a career. “I liked explaining things and trying to help people understand. Sounds a bit corny, but that’s probably where it came from.”
His leadership and support of his peers during these early school years, perhaps led to him being selected as Head Prefect. Graduating in 1978, Mr McCluskey headed to Melbourne gaining his teaching qualification in Science Education, before retuning to not only Warrnambool, but his alma mater – CBC. “I taught Year 7 Science and I had two Year 9 Maths. It was pretty good first term, but then they work out how to get around you and they had a bit of fun with me.”
Mr McCluskey took inspiration from teachers such as Mr Warren Trencher, Ms Ann-Marie Dalton, Mr Bernie Murnane and Mr Dennis McKnight, and appreciated how supportive staff were as a collective. “I used to watch and listen to what other experienced teachers said and just tried to copy what they were doing.”
“One of the first things we had (for the year) was a House meeting. I was very wet behind the ears. I was in Green and Anne-Marie Dalton was in charge. In the meeting I think I learned more off her in 5 minutes than I did in all my teaching rounds.”
Entering the classroom at about the same time as the calculator, Mr McCluskey identifies learning styles, curriculum, and corporal punishment as just some of the key changes that have occurred over the years. He emphasises how important learning is for teachers, just as it is for students. “You had to make sure that when something came in, you were up to date with it.”
The biggest change however was the amalgamation of CBC and St Ann’s, which brought challenges and joys, but ultimately resulted in the great school that is Emmanuel today. In true Mr McCluskey style, his recollection centres on how everyone came together to collaborate as a team. “There was a lot of get togethers and in-services, between the two schools in the year leading up to it . . . It took a while for everything to bed in, student wise and staff wise. But the school did a particularly good job, and the teachers and students did a really good job of making sure it worked.”
From his own days of football at school, the transition to coaching the school team for Mr McCluskey was a natural one – a role he took very seriously. Appreciating the talent he could see among the boys, he got them to work together, and together they showed up some pretty well-funded and highly skilled teams well beyond the South West Victorian boundary.
“We were in a regional comp, and if you won locally, you’d go and play in Geelong and then if you won there, you’d play at VFL Park Waverley, which at the time was a fully-fledged AFL ground. We played there so often that it almost became second nature to the kids. Even 3HA and 3YB had reporters there to give back the scores. It was a big deal.”
Mr McCluskey has many-a-tale of matches, where the CBC or Emmanuel boys were underestimated as a group of ragtag boys from the bush. He highlights that while many of the teams they played could boast Falcons or VFL listed players, our boys ability to play as a team would always bring the others undone. “We took it really seriously, they rocked up and thought it was just gonna be a walk in the park. When we won the Herald Shield two years in a row, Quinton Gleeson got T-shirts printed with ‘Back-to-Back’. It was fantastic.”
Mr McCluskey’s leadership of the school teams quickly led to his recruitment as an assistant coach with the Falcons.
Despite his passion for footy and his teams, Mr McCluskey continued to value his class time above all. “The boys in class would always be wanting to talk about footy and I’d just say, OK, do you wanna talk about footy now? We’ll talk about Maths at recess.”
In his retirement, Mr. McCluskey leaves behind a profound impact on the story of Emmanuel College and the students he has taught. Notably, he will also be remembered by staff as the orchestrator of the Daily Quiz, a tradition that consistently brought about ten minutes of lively chaos during recess. As for Mr. McCluskey himself, he departs with many cherished memories from his time teaching, yet he believes that he will miss the everyday interactions with students above all.
