DescriptionThis interview consists of two audio recordings and transcripts (in progress). Helen Drake was interviewed on 26 August 2010 at the Whitlam Library, Cabramatta by Shirley Kingsford McLeod. Interview SummaryHelen Drake was born at St Margaret’s Hospital, Sydney, and grew up in Marrickville. She is the second of seven children. Her father worked as a clerk and her mother remained at home caring for her children until later in life when she worked as an assistant in a school. Both her parents supported education, and Helen and all her siblings received tertiary qualifications.
Helen attended St Brigid’s School (now part of Casimir Catholic College), followed by her senior years at St Scholastica’s College.
After finishing school Helen accepted a Teaching Scholarship and attended the Catholic Teachers College (now incorporated into the Australian Catholic University).
Her first school was MacKillop Girls high School in Lakemba (now Holy Spirit College). She left teaching shortly before the birth of her first child and spent the next several years at home caring for her three children. Once her youngest child started school, Helen returned to teaching with a position at St Peter Chanel Catholic Primary School in Regents Park. In 1987, she moved to Our Lady of the Rosary High School.
In the interview Helen discusses Rosary’s transition to Mary MacKillop College. She describes topics including the desire to expand the school curriculum to include home economics, textiles, sport, art and woodwork. Helen is proud of the fact that prominent, mostly Australian women are promoted as role models for students at the College.
Helen also discusses the ethnic diversity of the students at Mary MacKillop College and other schools she has taught at. In particularly, she describes the increase in members of the Vietnamese, Sudanese and Assyrian communities at the school. Because of the high members of Vietnamese students, Mary MacKillop College now has a Vietnamese language teacher on staff.
Since 2006, Helen has worked part time at Mary MacKillop College and also volunteers as a tour guide at Mary MacKillop Place Museum in North Sydney. Her daughters work as a quarantine officer and a maths teacher, and her son is in the Navy.
