Jurien Bay
District High School
Issue 6: September 10, 2026
Email: Jurien.DHS@education.wa.edu.au
Website: www.jdhs.wa.edu.au
Location: 19 Hamersley Street, Jurien Bay, Western Australia, Australia
Phone: 08 9688 6100
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jbdhs
With so much in the public domain about the toxicity of the manosphere, the Tate brothers and the negative representation of young men on our screens, it is heartwarming to hear a feel-good story of two beautiful boys, who will become fabulous young men.
Even though I won’t use the real names of the boys, or the teacher, I don’t think it will take too long to figure out the names of those involved.
It was the last week of Term Three and the last Homework Club session for the term and two young boys really wanted to complete their assessment and submit by the due date.
The boys noticed one of the teachers was visibly upset - it had been a very difficult last period. The boys were caring and polite and showed great empathy.
This impressed the teacher….but not nearly as much as what happened the next day.
Before school the two boys went to the teacher’s classroom and asked the teacher how they were feeling as they could tell that the teacher was upset the day before.
As they asked, one of the boys took what he was hiding behind his back and offered the teacher a beautiful bunch of yellow flowers.
Of course, the teacher cried, especially when one of the boys said, ‘We saw you were unhappy yesterday, and we wanted to see you happy, so we pooled our pocket money and bought you these flowers.’
Of course, the teacher was overwhelmed and responded with, ‘And such a beautiful colour!’
To which one of the boys replied, ‘I remember from your class last year you taught us yellow symbolised happiness, so we bought you yellow flowers.’
To be overwhelmed on two levels - the kindness of these two young boys AND one of them had actually remembered something I had taught him!!
Win! Win!
April 10, 1925. YES 1925!!
That was when F. Scott Fitzgeraald’s The Great Gatsby was published and one hundred and one years later Fitzgerald's classic twentieth-century story of Jay Gatsby's quest for Daisy Buchanan and Gatsby's vision of the 1920's American Dream and the hedonistic lifestyle of the privileged young people in that world still resonates with audiences of all ages.
As a teacher you know a novel has touched students when long after they have studied it in class those students organise a booking to a production of the book, which is exactly what happened with the Year Twelve ATAR English students.
The students got together, and of their own volition booked tickets for the performance at Crown Theatre and travelled to Perth on a Saturday night to attend a ballet version of the novel.
How proud their parents must be of them. The students were beautifully dressed for the theatre and impeccably behaved.
What was so rewarding for me was to hear the students quietly question, ‘But where is the green light?’ and ‘Oh there are Gatsby’s shirts,’ and ‘Finally, Doctor T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes,’ all of which were symbols in the novel. Knowing the symbols and motifs from the novel gave the students a more intellectual understanding of the themes of the novel.
I would like to thank the students for organising this event. I had an absolutely wonderful evening and couldn’t stop smiling at how extraordinary these young people were.
Linda Bishop
ATAR English Teacher
