There are more bluetongue lizards than permanent students at Fiona Doherty’s school.

Ms Doherty is General Assistant (GA) at Field of Mars Environmental Education Centre, Ryde. The school has no permanent student population. Instead it is used for students and teachers from other schools who come on excursions for fieldwork, outdoor learning, environmental education and classes on sustainability.

“All we do is school excursions, so last year I had 20,000 students,” said Ms Doherty. “They get the chance to get close to nature.

“It’s a school built on the old Ryde tip in the 1980s. It’s a good build. It was built in the time government constructed things, so it is easy to maintain.”

Ms Doherty, who has been at the school for more than three years, said she is planting a lot of native trees and caring for two lizards.

“Then I look after the stick insects,” she said. “The location is beautiful and I like the people I work with. Swamp wallabies and snakes come through the grounds; you would not know it was in the middle of suburbia.

“I was gardening with a red belly black snake one morning and with a kookaburra another day while lifting mulch.”

Bill Martin is another GA who has “seen it all”.

He has worked in a small school, a large high school serving a huge area on the NSW South Coast and a school in a youth detention centre. For the past two years he has been working in a school that doesn’t fit the mould as a typical NSW education facility.

The Ponds School is a “purpose-built, special support school” that opened in 2016. It educates children with high needs. 

“I find it totally different to the other schools I have worked at,” he said. “It is an amazing school to work at. It brings a different set of tasks to the role.

“Because of the high number of children in wheelchairs, it is flat, which makes GAs happy.

“But I can be twice as busy as your typical school, even though it is small. There are gates everywhere, which is tough when you mow.”

Mr Martin chairs the PSA General Assistants Advisory Group (GAAG). The group advocates for better conditions for GAs throughout NSW.

“We have been under-appreciated, undervalued and no-one realises how our role has changed,” he said. “Our wins help all GAs with better pay packets, better conditions and better recognition.”