11 Dec 2014
Home and Away star Jake Speer, who plays the character of Oscar MacGuire in the hit serial, returned to his primary school stomping ground on Tuesday to surprise the students of Parkview Public School. Speer, a School Captain at Parkview in 2003, spent time reminscing about his seven years of education at the school and shared with star-struck students his journey from Parkview PS to nation-wide star on the Channel 7 program.
His journey to acting fame included secondary schooling at St. Francis De Sales College and Kooringal High School graduated from NIDA and then took on roles in a range of projects including 'Backyard Ashes'. He has also been the driving force behind the documentary 'Leeton-The Formative Years' and recently brought the live stage show 'Just Startin Out' to the Roxy Theatre with school mate and fellow 2003 Parkview School Leader Nick Beecher.
In an entertaining chat with students, Speer recounted fond memories of hosting assemblies in the library and COLA prior to the Hall being built, of engaging in Choir performances at Parkview, representing the school in a range of activties including Eisteddfod and Sports and of course shared memories of some of the current day teachers at the school including Miss Quinlivan, Mrs Tarnawsky, Mrs Miller and Mr Irvin.
Children asked many questions of Mr Speer during his visit, with his message about following their dreams in the performing arts particularly clear. Mr Speer encouraged the kids to "do what makes you happy and work really hard at it."
Students were spell-bound my Mr Speer's visit and the school is extremely grateful to Jake for giving up his time to make a difference to the current crop of Parkview students!
Images from his visit can be found in the Photo Gallery on our website.