Susy Rinaldo set to retire after 37 year ECEC career

Early childhood teacher Susy Rinaldo is retiring after an impressive 37 years, serving as Mountain View Children Centre’s (MVCC) longest-serving kindergarten teacher.

Her career began in 1987 as a preschool teacher with Marconi kindergarten, moving to Myrtleford Preschool after ten years, which then amalgamated into MVCC.

“I’ve taught so many children, I’ve ended up teaching sets of families,” she shared with The Alpine Observer.

“We’ve actually got one in our group at the moment which I’m teaching the third generation: I taught his grandma, his mum and himself.”

While she has very few regrets from her career in early learning, one regret is that she is not going to be able to teach her grandchildren, who are just getting ready to move through the service, “but you have to stop somewhere, otherwise, I’ll be here until I’m 100,” she said. 

Throughout the years, Ms Rinaldo has been heavily involved in building the new kindergarten with fellow teacher, Robyn Richardson, earning her a reputation for being a champion for introducing children to community involvement; such as being in local festival parades on floats, as well as contributing to the Myrtleford Show and carols by candlelight.

“We’ve taken the children to visit some of our local shop people and they’ve always helped to show our children what community is all about,” she shared with The Observer.

“When we went down to the Mitre 10 and saw how a hardware store functioned, the kids loved it so much; I set up a ‘hardware store’ in our backyard at kinder.”

The times have not always been easy. In 2002 a tornado went through Myrtleford, just after most of the children had gone home for the day. Three children were still in the service, and when the tornado hit, Ms Rinaldo said “it was quite scary, as we had electric wires all down around the building, so we couldn’t go out.”

While the kindergarten had to be closed for three weeks, new kindergarten rooms were under construction at the time, minimsing the impact. 

For those at the opposite end of their careers, and just starting out in early learning, she has the following advice: 

“Children give you a lot in life and they can make your day really joyous; there’s always something good to share,” she said.

“Always find something in the day to reflect on and say ‘Wasn’t that great?’ and I think you’ll be in the profession for a very long time.”

While she has adored her time in the sector, it has been mentally and physically quite challenging, and Ms Rinaldo is looking forward to helping her husband to tend cattle on their farm, and maintaining their flower and vegetable gardens. 

“A lot of my girlfriends, who are also teachers, have retired so I’ll spend a lot of time with my friends and family and probably go to Melbourne a bit more often to see my boys,” she said.

To read the original coverage of this story please see here.