Teacher’s encouragement gives actress a love of learning

Actress Leah Purcell remembers the first day school finally made sense to her. She had written a story for her Year 7 teacher and it came back covered in red ink with a big “See Me” scrawled across the page.

Leah thought she was in trouble. But when she fronted Mrs (Rosemary) Bishop at the end of the day, she was asked to enter her work into a Murgon Lions Rotary Writing Competition.

“I asked why. It was full of spelling and grammar mistakes,” Leah said.

But Mrs Bishop said, “It’s a great story, I’ll help you with the other stuff. You’re a great story teller.”

From that day on, Leah went from being a child who walked through the front gate at school and straight over the back fence, to one who turned up at 8.30 every morning eager to learn.

“I’d found something I was good at,” she said.

“At home I was surrounded by people who could tell a great yarn and deliver a punch line better than any famous comedian… it came from centuries of oral tradition.

Leah urges all parents to send their children to school every day, on time, so they can have a brighter future.

 While Leah loved storytelling, the fact that’s he hadn’t always applied herself to other aspects of her education is something she said she now regrets.

The actress, writer, director said she struggles with her craft because: “I missed a lot of the basics to build on. It’s made life a little harder.

“I’ve panicked and put unnecessary stress on myself at auditions because I’ve been asked to do a cold-read; read bits of scripts on the spot. I wouldn’t know how to pronounce a word or what it might mean,” she said.

Leah would sometimes take hours to look through her lines at home with a dictionary close to hand before fronting casting agents. What would normally take somebody 10 minutes to read would sometimes take Leah an hour.

“I want to live a fulfilling life so I’ve had to put in the hard yards,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, you can still learn. I’m learning every day. I now want all children and parents to realise the effort they put in now will pay them in bucket loads; not always tomorrow, but maybe the next day, or even years down the track.

“Every day does count to a happier future and I urge parents to send their children to school every day, on time, so they can have a great life and be the best person that they can be.”