I am lucky enough to teach VCE Legal Studies here at Heathmont. Taking students in the final years through their last push for school education is a roller coaster of emotions. This year, we've explored a whole lot of cool stuff. The Mushroom Case, a real legal studies goldmine and highlight (the poor beef wellington industry); the social media ban- an exploration of legislation with a real conflict of views (or maybe I’m just working with a vocal set of stakeholders...) for young people.

This rollercoaster culminates for many in an end of year exam. For my students, this was a couple of weeks ago. Like anything it becomes a day you work towards for a long time and for some, it was even more exciting as it was their last exam for the year. As they filtered into school throughout that fateful Monday, students were both excited and nervous. Understandably so- a whole year of work comes down to 2 hours (not really, but you get the catastrophising that happens in teenage brains).

It is interesting though; how these emotions come out. For some, they were quiet, reading over dog-eared cue cards and coffee stained summary notes; others were chatty- trying to keep themselves busy socialising so that they didn't think about their impending exam.

But not me. I wasn't worried. I wasn't sitting the exam and furthermore, I had prepared my wonderful students well enough to handle themselves and I was confident in their abilities.

Yeah, right...

The truth is I woke up an hour and a half before my alarm, after staying up, staring at the ceiling for a good two hours after I'd gone to bed. Could they remember the difference between mediation and arbitration? Would they remember the impact of the Roach v the Electoral Commissioner on the principle of Representative Government? You know, the usual stuff.

I was determined not to show this to my student though. I stood proudly, like the ancient Emperors, stoically greeting them. Phlegmatically nodding at them with the "You've got this" kind of look. I was so confident, that I had hoodwinked my students with my profound calmness, that I would share a meal with them before they entered the examination Colosseum and fought with the Lions of Law and the Vicious Vanquishers of the VCAA exam writers.

But I was undone, and my charade of calmness broke into chaos and panic. Just as Achilles showed his heel, I was brought down by a fork. You see, I'd bought in lunch from home, and with it, a fork from a (wedding gift) cutlery set. In the process of walking from one side of the VCE study space to the microwave- I'd misplaced my fork. My first thought? my wife is going to kill me.

Then it turned into a frantic check through every where I’d been in the last 15 minutes, interviews with staff I'd interacted with, and students (who tried hard to muffle their laughter) whilst I interrogated them on the whereabouts of the fork they'd clearly stolen from me. The fork was simply, nowhere to be seen. Alas, my students marched off to battle the exam, and the final piece of advice I'd given them was to not take a fork from a matching cutlery set to school.

Of course, the fork turned up in the back pocket of my work bag, which I discovered when I was meeting students after the exam and debriefing the paper. I even had the gall to accuse the students of taking it into their exam and, once they had emerged from battle, put the fork back into my bag. Nothing quite like students you have educated for the past twelve months hysterically laughing AT you.

Anyway- that's the end of my ramblings for the year. Thank you for indulging me by reading this nonsense. I have really enjoyed the creative outlet offered through the Gazette and the emails and conversations they have stimulated with students, staff and parents. To think, the kid who had a rocky relationship with English throughout my school days would be writing a once a month column for a school newsletter is mildly entertaining.

For now, that's all from me- see you at the Twilight Market!

Jack Lynch

Editor

Heathmont Gazette

Curiosity, Compassion, Community

Issue 18 · 28 Nov 2025

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