Irish teachers help to stem education shortages in Bendigo

The young teacher, fresh from County Clare in Ireland, has taken up a teaching spot as part of an initiative to bring new staff into our classrooms.

The jetlag (he arrived in Australia around 11pm on July 30) did not dull his desire to get into the classroom and he was at the Kangaroo Flat school hours after touching down to meet his grade three and four students.

His new students were keen to know about Irish beaches, Gaelic football and - most importantly - about whether Mr Moloney had brought his pet dog and cat with him.

Principal Fiona Dearn said the children had been shown a video that Mr Moloney made to introduce himself and they had been keen to learn all about his homeland.

The chance of moving to Bendigo first came up when Mr Moloney attended a Sandhurst Diocese teaching abroad event in Limerick City.

The partnership between Catholic Education staff from Bendigo and Ballarat aimed to find Irish teachers to address shortages in Australia.

"There were good promises made, I liked the sound of teaching in Australia so I just decided after going to the events that it sounded like it was for me so I just took the chance," he said.

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He said he thought he would be tired on his first day but was bright and bushy-tailed while getting used to the Australian schooling system.

He was already noting a few differences.

"I arrived at half-eleven last night, got a few hours sleep and today I'm just getting introduced to the kids and being shown around the school," he said.

"I'm just getting my bearings at the moment so hopefully by Wednesday I'll be up and teaching."

Mr Moloney, who has taught in Limerick for the last three years both in Irish and English, said the school set-up, particularly St Monica's open plan classrooms, was a key difference to schools back in Ireland.

While his current position is for six months, he said he was keen to stay teaching in Australia longer if possible.

Jenni Kennedy, from Catholic Education Sandhurst, said bringing teachers from Ireland was a "long-term" initiative responding to a shortage of teachers locally.

"Initially, we knew there was an excess of teachers in Ireland, there is a declining population over there and obviously we're a growing country," she said.

"So we felt that that was a really good target market and that Irish teachers are really well trained, and that their skills were transferred to the classroom in Australia really, really well."

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Mrs Kennedy said the offers were aimed at people who were already looking to travel to teach overseas.

From an initial 300 expressions of interest, 90 people were interviewed with the best names put forward to local schools.

Ms Dearn said once she had the names the process was the same as for any application and having the additional stream of applicants would be useful for the school.

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