The staff of St Margaret’s Primary School are hanging by a thread. There’s serious litigation pending, the school is due for registration, and a powerful parent named Janet Bellevue has a lot to say about everything. As teachers they’re trying to remain professional, as people they’re unravelling fast.
There’s Tyson, first year out of uni and nervous as hell, Derek the Assistant Principal who’s dropped the ball on administration, Bev from the office who’s confronting a serious diagnosis, and Sally-Ann who’s desperate for a child of her own.
Thank goodness for kids like Lionel Merrick. Lionel is the student who steals your heart and makes the whole teaching gig worthwhile: he’s cheerful, likeable, helpful – and devoted to his little sister Lacey. But Lionel has a secret of his own. As his future slides from vulnerable to dangerous, will someone from St Margaret’s realise before it’s too late?
As secrets threaten to be exposed and working demands increase, each staff member struggles to recall the things that matter most. A moving and compelling debut novel about teachers and their students by the acclaimed author of the bestselling books Teacher and Dear Parents.
If you have ever taught, if you have (or have had) children in school, or if you remember school and some of its teachers yourself, this novel is for you. Both endearing and heartbreaking, The Things That Matter Most feels like a natural progression into fiction for Gabbie Stroud. She’s an experienced teacher in her own right, who went on to write the bestselling memoir Teacher, as well as Dear Parents and Measuring Up.
Filled with an innate empathy, Stroud’s writing style is naturalistic and relatable as we enter the points of view of three teachers and the school secretary. There are also inserts of class writings by Year Six student Lionel in a story that’s unflinching, thought-provoking and insightful.
Stroud takes us into Tyson, Bev, Derek and Sally-Ann’s worlds with compassion as we’re provided with their ongoing challenges and the heartache of a system in serious need of an overhaul – and the danger of those who fall victim to the ever-broadening cracks, the children.
This is a novel very much of our time, and should be on the essential reading list of every aspiring teacher, not to mention politician and bureaucrat. At times I found it painful reading as it is so searingly on point – it’s written with an honesty and purity that shoots straight to the heart. As the novel’s title indicates it’s a deep reminder and insight into the things that matter most.
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