Providing children with the roots of responsibility and the opportunity to grow into independent people is something Mr McGuirk can look back and be proud of offering to many students across NSW, including quite a number of locals. 

Mr McGuirk is well known in Scone – many would have been taught by him, others may play golf with him or have learnt the skill of golf through Mr McGuirk and Gordon Halliday’s motivational junior golf program. 

But it doesn’t matter how you know him, Mr McGuirk will always be known as someone who gets in and works towards a common goal to achieve results. 

This drive in life started as a young child, as Mr McGuirk was one of two sons to a secondary school teacher, in their father. 

He was born at the Mater Hospital in Newcastle and raised at Merewether with his older brother Brian. 

In 1956 the family moved to Sydney for Mr McGuirk’s (Snr) work and the boys attended Marist Brothers in Kogarah, St George country, where Mr McGuirk gained his leaving certificate when he graduated in 1961.

After a short stint as an employee of the Bank of NSW, Mr McGuirk decided he wanted to become a teacher and commenced his two years full time study at the Alexander Mackie Teachers College at Paddington (now the Sydney School of Art) in late 1962.

Mr McGuirk said he remembers thinking that the job at the bank was a bit of a nothing job and he wanted to become a primary school teacher, so when he was successful in receiving a teacher’s college scholarship he jumped at the chance. 

“I always wanted to be a teacher, however I had applied for other jobs at banks and accountancy firms and I was studying accountancy at Tech, but it was boring,” he said. 

With his qualifications in hand, the young man’s first appointment was at Beverley Hills North Public School where he taught a year 5 class. 

The following year was when he first started to realise his passion for working with challenging children, as Mr McGuirk was appointed the D class, which included a lot of children with learning difficulties and led him onto the track of special education. 

Not one to sit back and watch, Mr McGuirk quickly set to work with the school librarian to develop a pool of resources for these children to help them develop life skills. 

At the same time, Mr McGuirk developed his own skills in the area by attending numerous conferences and seminars.

Two and a half years later Mr McGuirk received a telegram that he had been appointed as the teacher in charge of Acacia Plateau Public School – a one teacher school with nine students in the McPherson Range on the Queensland border. 

Mr McGuirk said the nearest town was Woodenbong and he recalls his transport to the village in a mail truck that visited three days a week.

“In those days it was the P&C members’ responsibility to organise the teacher’s accommodation, so I lived on a dairy and potato farm with the Tyler family,” he said. 

When the school closed down, Mr McGuirk moved back into special education teaching at Wollongong, at Warilla North Public School, which was the largest public school in the state at that time. 

For the next six years he worked with the OA class which was a class limited to 22 children who were mildly intellectually handicapped.

Mr McGuirk said this was very challenging, but also very rewarding.

“Two of the students went on to complete their Higher School Certificate in later years, which was really good,” he said. 

“I did a lot of basic language with ethnic children and basic living skills working in various schools in Wollongong.”

In 1981 Mr McGuirk accepted his first position as a school principal at Bermagui Public School on the far south coast of NSW where he spent the next seven years.

“That was a very interesting position as the school and area had a large Aboriginal population and I did a lot of work in the local Aboriginal community developing the language skills of the children. 

“We started a program –  ‘Breaking the Cycle’ – of poor health, poor attendance, poor behaviour, etc to try to encourage the children to come to school and teach them how to look after themselves.

“It was very challenging and very successful,” he said. 

It was in 1989 that Mr McGuirk and his wife Stephanie moved to the Upper Hunter when he took the position of ‘infants mistress’ or deputy principal at Scone Public School, working as deputy to the then principal Roy Molyneux and then Gerry Goodger.

Since then Mr McGuirk has taught in many schools in the area including as principal at Denman Public School for four years from 1991 and then Aberdeen Public School where he was principal from 1996 until he retired in 2005.

Since retiring Mr McGuirk has continued to do a little casual work, however has predominantly moved into the field of working for the Newcastle University and the University of New England professionally supervising the student teachers in their practice teaching. 

Another way he keeps busy is volunteering his time to teach students at St Mary’s Primary School who take part in the Maths Olympiad. 

Mr McGuirk said he really enjoys this program as he likes to see the students test their knowledge and develop their minds to think that little bit  further and solve the harder problems. 

Throughout the past few years, Mr McGuirk and Mr Halliday have also developed the local junior golf program to encourage young people to try the sport of golf.

The program’s success was noted when it was nominated by the Jack Newton Junior Golf as the most successful in the Hunter.

The golf club committee  members were duly recognised for their hard work at last year’s Annual Scone Golf Club Presentation when they were awarded the Joint Club Person of the Year, which Mr McGuirk also received on his own back in 2011. 

“I really enjoy working with Gordon to see the development in the children and golf is a great game as it is one of the few sports you can play by yourself,” he said. 

“They are the future of the sport, we’ve got to keep encouraging people to be involved to secure the future of the club.”

Reflecting on his 42-year teaching career Mr McGuirk said he enjoyed spending a lot of time in special education and then in the last 10 to 15 years moving into extension programs to extend the talented children. 

“Sometimes the really bright children get forgotten, so I enjoyed pushing them to work harder and think more,” Mr McGuirk said. 

“I also enjoyed providing different opportunities for children to represent their schools which led me to start the school horse sports in 2000, and I am pleased to see how big it has grown for the country orientated kids.

“I am also a great admirer of the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza as it caters for country children and provides an aspect where school and life are closely aligned.

“These programs are trying to cater for all different talents and interests of children, rather than purely an academic                 exercise,” he said. 

Throughout the years Mr McGuirk has also been actively involved with the St Mary’s Church in Scone and has been a member of the parish councils and committees, as well as being a member on the Diocesan Council for four years. 

Mr McGuirk said he is quite happy to give out his time as he believes the more you put into a community, the more you get out of it. 

“It is very rewarding when you can see how much people appreciate the effort of others.