“We're thinking of it as like our next phase of life. We've got grandchildren and children that we want to do more with”, Ms Sawyer said.
With a combined 66 years of primary school teaching between them, Julie and Peter have been instrumental in shaping the lives of multiple generations of Seymour families.
For Mr Sawyer, it is this relationship with the Seymour community that leaves him with a degree of “mixed feelings”.
“Over the years, you develop a lot of friendships and relationships with your colleagues,” he said.
“But the most important thing in all of that has been the kids and being able to do things with the kids to not only give them academic skills but some life skills as well.”
The pair, who met at teacher’s college in Bendigo more than 40 years ago, has called Seymour home since 1987.
Ms Sawyer still experiences a buzz when she reconnects with a former student.
“It feels good when they come up and they're 18 and they say ‘thanks for teaching me, and now I'm doing this, I’m off to uni, or now I've got this job’. That's really good,” she said.
Mr Sawyer is particularly proud of his involvement in the Energy Breakthrough program.
“The Energy Breakthrough was a program that allowed the parents to be particularly involved with their kids again and (their) education,” he said.
“It was just a fantastic program that allowed the community to support us and it actually relied upon community support, and the parental involvement as well, in order to make the program work.”
With a world outside of teaching beckoning, the Seymour College fixtures are looking forward to travelling across Australia. They have already visited their son in Townsville and are excited about their next trip through central NSW.
As they venture into the sunset, Mr Sawyer hopes the community will continue to appreciate the role played by teachers and support staff in supporting the emotional development of young people.
“One of the funny things is that every time when you've gone away on a school camp and you return … some of the parents will say ‘you'll be loving all this overtime you're getting paid’,” Mr Sawyer said.
“Well, there’s no such thing as overtime in teaching.
“In order to go on camp, camps rely on the goodwill of teachers and support staff to be there outside of normal hours and provide the care and activities for the kids in building relationships, providing skills for them and just making them more rounded people.”
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