Head of Year 10 and Mercedes alumna Sherrin Adams has an enviable amount of experience with Mercedes College, having known every College Principal since Our Lady’s College and St Josephs amalgamated. Sherrin sat down with us to talk about the values her education at Mercedes instilled, how the College has changed over the years, and some of the staff that inspired her.
Tell us a bit about yourself your journey leading up to Mercedes College.
I’m Sherrin Adams, I used to be Sherrin Turner and I’m an ex-student of Mercedes. I came to Mercedes as a Year 7, as my primary school didn’t have Year 7 and I was either going to go to Mercedes or to Santa Maria. At Santa Maria there was only one bus past my house, so if I missed the bus, I suppose I would have had to walk or Dad would have had to bring me to school.
So, I ended up deciding on Mercedes because the busses were very regular, and that was basically a decision my parents made.
Would you mind telling us about some of your passions and interests outside of teaching?
I love, love, love animals. I love dogs, but I don’t have any dogs at the moment as our block is too small and we both work, so I wouldn’t leave one at home. We’ve had a Great Dane and a rescue mutt, so now I’m content to watch YouTube clips of dogs. I love all animals, our neighbour’s cat comes over regularly.
Other than that, I love swimming and travelling – but that’s been curtailed for a little while. I’m actually going to get back to Sydney which was booked 2019 Christmas, I haven’t got there yet between COVID, asthma and things like that but we’re booked in for next Christmas so I’m really excited about that, I do love travelling to different places mainly in Australia.
How long have you been at Mercedes?
As a staff member since 1979, which is a long time- Sister Assissium taught me when I was in Year 9, and well I was actually really good for her in many ways, because we used to have mass every Tuesday and the Sister was so busy as she was the deputy principal, she’d often forget and she would rely on me to read, she’d say “Would you read for me?” and I’d always say yes.
I don’t know if she remembered that, but she ended up employing me. Sister was great for employing young staff members and really giving a lot of us a go, and there’s still some of us here today that she employed between about ’79-’83 she really had a lot of young people. We were cheap in comparison but she really encouraged us all, really, really encouraged us.
The girls are so lovely, you can go in and you can teach the whole class, the whole period. We have a few that can be a bit naughty, but in the scheme of things, going on prac to some high schools when I was very young, I hadn’t even graduated and I thought “I don’t think I can handle this”. But when I was lucky enough to get a job here it was lovely and the girls are just so nice.
What led to you deciding to join Mercedes College as a staff member?
Essentially I was what’s called a bonded student – so I got paid to train but in return you had to teach for so many years and at that stage I really didn’t want to go country, so Mercedes was a perfect opportunity. You could go to a government school or a non-government school, so I was offered the opportunity from Sister Assissium, Sister Molly and I jumped at it.
Over the time you’ve been here, the College has changed a lot. Have you noticed many changes?
Oh incredibly, when I first started teaching we had a lot of nuns here, my first head of year was a nun, but gradually there’s been very few nuns here, that’s one thing, the buildings are amazing, where the staff carpark is there used to be a hostel. As a kid we used to love it when sport season came because there were boys here on the campus.
What’s stayed the same?
I do remember McDonald doesn’t seem to have changed. My sister-in-law told me that when she was a student McDonald was being built, and that was in the 1960s. So there’s a few things that haven’t changed and I think the McAuley building she told me about when she came to Mercedes – back when it was Our Lady’s.
I think there’s still that great camaraderie of the staff and everyone is willing to help each other, everyone really does look after each other. We have staff that have been here for a number of years, we’re great mates and they’re always happy to look after younger staff members and help them, I think that’s really good. Kids have changed a lot over the years, but the actual school hasn’t – it’s still that beautiful spirit of all the girls participating and wanting to get involved.
What is your favourite part of the campus?
I have to think about that, that’s actually a hard question! I don’t really have a favourite part of the campus, I think all parts of the campus have different meanings for different people.
One part that I suppose is a little bit special is Memorial Fountain and Garden, because that was constructed in memory of one of our students who passed away, so that’s a bit of a special part of the campus for me.
Serisier, the new classrooms are really nice, but I think the heritage of Our Lady’s Wing is lovely as well. I was cleaning the Chapel the other day and to just see all the history in the Chapel. The anniversary of the Chapel is coming up in 2024, so a little bit of money being spent, or a few donations would be handy, because that’s a really peaceful place and a really nice part of the campus too.
Who was your favourite teacher during your time as a student?
When I was a student, Sister Assisium, Sister Molly was just lovely, she was so nice the whole time.
But when I was a student, I absolutely loved a teacher I had in Year 9 named Sister Vardalos which was a very elderly lady- well, I thought she was old, but all kids think their teachers are old, don’t they? But she taught me for Social Studies and Religion, and she was absolutely such a gentle person, such a gentle soul and she was just so nice. We used to be streamed then and we had all the top students together and she was so lovely to us.
She was definitely my favourite, and I was devastated once I found out she had passed away, that didn’t happen for a few years, but just the fact that she was so beautiful to us.
When you were a student, did you find yourself going into the city much?
Mainly after school. My mum used to say “never go the seedy part of Perth.” To Mum, the seedy part of Perth was Northbridge, and yes, I found myself going to the “seedy” part of Perth sometimes, but I was very good at covering my tracks.
Did you and your friends have any favourite hangout spots?
We often used to go the Hay Street Mall, or we’d go over to the horseshoe bridge and kind of just walk around to find these “seedy parts” – which I don’t think we ever found really. Mainly the Hay Street Mall because that was pretty good back then.
How do you think Mercedes prepared you for life after school?
I think it gave me really good values which is really, really important. Really strong values. When I graduated, we didn’t talk so much about the particular values of service, excellence, integrity and so-on, but it really did give me good solid values for my life, definitely.
How do you think Mercedes differs to other schools?
I just think the girls are just so lovely. I haven’t got a lot of places to compare with, but everyone says “the girls are just so nice” and when some of the teachers from another school came in and they were having a tour of Mercedes, a couple of teachers from different schools mentioned how polite the girls are, the girls know how to behave and I think that’s really, really important.
What was your favourite subject when you were at school?
Actually my favourite subject when I was at school was economics, I was very good at economics -I’m not bragging – but I was actually very good at economics, so when I graduated I wanted to go and do economics at university, but there were no jobs for female economists. I took my second option which was English which I also really loved, I was inspired by a really great English teacher that I had.
Tell us a bit about the importance of English and how it helps prepare the girls for the world outside of the College?
Well in all careers we need to be able to articulate ourselves, we all need to be able to communicate with people whether it’s verbal or written – Even with the advent of computer technology we still have to be able to express ourselves appropriately for a particular situation, so I think English is really vital, I know the girls don’t really want to have to study it and some of the aspects they don’t really like, but different texts expose them to different ways of thinking, different values and ideas and that’s really important.
We really select our books and films here as ones they wouldn’t be likely to pick off the library shelves, text which enrich them.
What is your all-time favourite book?
I have several, one is To Kill A Mockingbird, another one is Gone With The Wind, they’re my two all time favourite books, and the girls all know that because I tell them that all the time.
How do you think being in the city helps students?
I think they get to see a lot of people that they might not see otherwise, when we talk about service we talk about compassion and they really do have the opportunity to put that into practice by volunteering in the city.
Girls may also see some impoverished people so they do realise we’re not just talking when we’re saying “these are people we really have to help, they’re not people to be scared of, they’re people that we really need to help and show compassion. Show this caring that is part of our community, we need to extend it to people outside the gate.”
What’s your favourite College event?
There are lots and lots of camps, so I would say the camps that we went on when I was a Year 10 homeroom teacher were particularly my favourite, because the girls used to cook for us. You could always tell the teacher whose meal wasn’t quite up to standard, as they would be raiding the teachers fridge looking for cheese and biscuits.
One retreat I really enjoyed was taking my Year 12 group up to New Norcia, that was in 2018 and that was a group that I took through to graduation and we had a really great time at New Norcia, and it was a really good bonding experience, we shared stories with the girls, and they shared stories with us and it was a really great bonding opportunity.
In your time here, have any Sisters or staff left a lasting impression on you?
I actually have known every principal of Mercedes since it became Mercedes- not since Ursula Frayne, as some people joke to me, but since Mercedes became Mercedes.
Sister Delores Serisier interviewed me to enter the school when I was about Year 6, she terrified me. She was this tiny little nun and she was absolutely terrifying. She was actually my principal for a short period of time, then there was Sister Gerard Dolan, Gerry as we used to call her, she was lovely, absolutely loved Sister Gerard. After Sister Gerard left we had Sister Molly, and I got along famously with Sister Molly obviously, then after her we had Denise O’Meara, she was a head of year then became a deputy principal and then principal so I knew her for a fair period of time.
When Denise left to go to Bunbury Catholic, then Theresa Davis was here for 6 months, then Sheena Barber was here for about 6 years and now we have Kerrie, and I find Kerrie has that same gentle spirit that Sister Molly had, that same real care, that same real compassion, and I think that’s an interesting combination of all the different principals I’ve been involved with. Kerrie reminds me in so many ways of Sister Molly and that same gentleness and that same care for the staff.
A big thank you to Mrs Adams for sitting down and sharing her stories with us!
