Welcome to Good Shepherd Martin!
"Hello, I'm Martin Callaghan. I was born and grew up in Sydney, where I attended the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and completed a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a double major in Economic History and Advanced French, among other qualifications.
Upon completing university, I moved to Canberra to take up a graduate position with the Department of Defence. I spent the next five years or so as a public servant both at the Departments of Defence and Immigration and Citizenship before taking a voluntary redundancy to return to university and study a Graduate Diploma of Education (Secondary) at the Australian Catholic University (ACU).
Once I finished that, I got a position as a French/German/Commerce teacher at a Catholic girls school. Sometime later I went back to Defence where I continued my career in accounting and project management for another five years.
I then moved to the remote Aboriginal community of Santa Teresa in the central desert region, where I taught Years 9-12 for a year. Thereafter, I made my way to another remote Aboriginal community called Wadeye, in the 'Top End', where I managed the town's out-of-community's boarding school program for the next three years. Finally, I became the branch manager of Wadeye's sole financial institution, Traditional Credit Union (TCU), a position I held for almost a year before shifting to Darwin (and Good Shepherd Lutheran College) towards the end of 2022.
Apart from work, I like tennis, music, movies, live theatre and reading. I play the piano and guitar, although pretty rusty at both these days! I'm happily married but have no children yet. My wife and I love travelling around Australia and have, over the past few years, enjoyed holidays in all the six states and two mainland territories. With coronavirus now behind us, we're keen to start exploring abroad, with New Zealand, New Caledonia and the UK/Ireland at the top of our to do list.
At Good Shepherd, I most look forward to motivating my students to develop a keen interest in foreign language acquisition as well as inspire them to pursue lifelong self-improvement."