By Charlene Gatt
WHEN people ask Jackson School assistant principal Stephen Peter-Budge how he met his wife and colleague Sally, the 58-year-old revels in telling people “at an institute”.
It’s this same sense of humour that has seen the pair rack up a total of 80 years with the education department, most of which was spent in special-needs schools.
Mr and Mrs Peter-Budge were among 60 Victorian teachers commended for 40 years of service during an awards ceremony at Crown Palladium on Friday night.
The couple’s son Warwick accepted the award on behalf of his mother, who was in Darwin visiting family.
Mr Peter-Budge spent nine years working at mainstream schools before taking a special-needs course in 1979. He met Sally working at Baltarra Institute a year later. The pair married in 1981.
“I encountered a few students during my mainstream time and I found them interesting and challenging dealing with their particular problems,” he said.
“I was attracted to see if I could do something in that area. A lot of the stuff that I did early on was probably misguided, but you learn as you go along.”
Mrs Peter-Budge, 62, started her tenure with Jackson in 1987 as a co-ordinator in the senior department. She now works four days a week as a teacher in the senior department.
Mr Peter-Budge, 58, returned to Jackson in 1990 and has been the assistant principal for the past seven years. He had worked there previously for five years when it was known as St Albans Special School.
The school caters for primary, secondary and post-secondary age students with special needs.
Mr Peter-Budge said the shared vision of helping children with special needs had been a great driving force over his career.
“It’s a different style of teaching; you’re working as much on giving the student confidence to believe in themselves and to be able to access the community down the line. It’s more of a personal development and behaviour modification-type process.
“You can’t be too precious in an area like special education because the kids will always bring your feet back to the ground, with the way they behave and, quite often, they can make you really laugh with some of the things they say because they’re so literal.”
