Adam Docking

“You never lose the connection to Yarra.”

From the moment he stepped through the gates of Yarra, Adam Docking was dressed for success. As the child of a businessman, he already understood the importance of always looking smart and presentable and knew to wear your uniform with a sense of pride.

Starting at Yarra in Grade 5, Adam knew how to tie his school tie and many years after graduating from Yarra, he still wears a tie most days.

“I always look at people’s shoes to see if they’re clean and whether they’ve tied their tie properly. I was very respectful of the school uniform and still have my school tie,” says Adam.

The friendships he formed and the depth of support he received from his teachers made an enduring impression on Adam. He cites his rugby coach, Norman Maggs, as being particularly influential.

“I still have close bonds with some of the players from the rugby team and we all worshipped Norman. He understood and respected us but he also knew that we needed boundaries. He kept us in line but he was very fair.”

His Year 12 English teacher, Wendy Ward, also made a lasting and positive impression.

“During Year 12, my grandmother died and she understood I was going through a rough patch. She’d always check in and ask how I was going. A few weeks ago, an article I wrote appeared in a newspaper and after that I received a handwritten card from Wendy. I wrote back to her and told her what she’d meant to me at Yarra.”

When he left Yarra, Adam had his heart set on being a RAAF pilot but when his plan didn’t work out, he spent time working in the snowfields in Colorado. Returning home, he then spent two years working at a ski shop while studying to get his real estate licence.

Today he is director of his own real estate business and says many of the lessons he learned inside and outside the classrooms at Yarra remain with him.

“My maths teacher taught me that if you don’t understand something, get a pencil and paper and try and work it out. I still do that. I also learned at school that it isn’t the end of the world when something doesn’t go right. You can always find ways around it.

“It’s important for students at Yarra now to understand the power of being at the school – this is the best time of your life and you will take those moments with you forever. Your teachers are passionate about you succeeding but you have to want to succeed, too.”