One year to go!

This year has been quite a personal journey for me. Although I have known for years that public servants have to retire when sixty-five, I have only realised how close this is this year. To help me process this ‘divorce’ from my ‘baby’ I have started to redecorate the ‘principal’s office’ and start moving my personal items back home. Luckily Shereen and I have Elmer’s Space to operate from this has made the move slightly easier. A new carpet, new furniture and a warmer colour has now made this space a lovely meeting room for all to share until the new principal takes over in January 2025.

The other part of the personal journey is finding the right person to continue our journey. PNPS is a very special place; the primary school I wished that I attended in my youth so choosing a successor is difficult. The post was advertised early in September and is currently being processed by the education department and the Governing Body. The plan is to have someone appointed in January 2024 for January 2025 so the current Governing Body and Management Team can work closely with the appointee to ensure a smooth takeover.

After twenty-eight years of my life focusing on one school community, and building the school of your dreams, how do you release this mission and pass it on to someone? That I haven’t dealt with yet, and luckily I still have a year to come to terms with that. In the meantime, I urge you to support all the processes happening currently and the new person who is appointed as the right people will be choosing the right person on your behalf: the worst possible thing for me would be to hear the school community withdrawing their support. The school is only as strong as you, your children and the faith you have in the school. After twenty-eight years of building that, my wish is that the school would continue to flourish, grow, innovate and diversify even more, and continue to be a WCED flagship school on which ‘other school’s model themselves’ as we say in our Vision statement.