Brendan Atley’s 11 years at St Mary’s Primary School

“The school had been (at this campus) for two years when I arrived, so we were certainly in the early period, but I missed that messiness and business of the move of the school.”

Under Mr Atley’s leadership, the primary school has grown from just 350 students relocating to the new campus, to 640 enrolments in 2022.

“It’s been a changing space, we only have to look around to see the changes,” he said.

“It’s been very rewarding to have growth but maintain our shape, it’s been a terrific journey.’’

Mr Atley has reflected on his fortune for the relationships he has built as principal, in particular, with his students.

“The highlights for me have been the relationships, and always the children,” he said.

“How privileged am I to have worked with children for so long and to see that new group of five years olds come in every year?

“I’ll miss that dearly, and I will miss the kids, and the connections with parents and staff.

“The connections over the last two years have been challenged, and we’re very blessed here with a beautiful community of staff, parents, and students.

“I’ve been grateful for that support over 11 years — sometimes as a principal you hear horror stories and spend a lot of time in the negative, but I haven’t experienced that here.

“I’m leaving on my terms, with a feeling of celebration with some terrific celebrations from the students as well.”

During the last weeks of term, Mr Atley has been celebrated by his community, with students coming to school dressed as him as a surprise on Monday last week.

“I was really surprised, because I do not know how the children kept it a secret, children are not good at keeping secrets.

“With 600 children, there’s always one that says ‘we’ve got something to tell you but we shouldn’t’ and there was zero of that.

“I came in that day, and I did see one of the staff’s children with a tie, and I didn’t pay a lot of attention because I thought there could be something happening in their class area.

“When I saw the second child I went to Petra — the deputy principal — and said ‘is there something I’ve missed here?’

“I’m on the gate every morning, and by the time it got to three or four kids, I thought there is something seriously going on here, and there were hundreds wearing the good shirts and the tie.

“There was one grandmother who brought the two children to the gate and had the two ties, and said ‘I don’t know how to do up ties’ and so I was doing up the ties for the kids as they’re coming in the gates.

“It was just a beautiful thing that they took the time to do it, and the parents entered into it, which was nice.

“I couldn’t have wished for a better way to end, the kids just make it hard to leave.”

Mr Atley’s time as principal presented challenges and rewards, and seeing the success of those around him has been one of his proudest achievements.

“It’s been rewarding to bring staff members in and then seven-eight years down the track, they’re terrific teachers and leaders, and you’re backing them to take the school and be a part of the next journey,” he said.

“You leave a part of yourself in the other people here.

“My mantra has always been that whatever we’ve tried to do here, we’ve tried to make it a sustainable practice.”

The one constant in the changing world of education for Mr Atley has been the children, and how they related to their teachers.

“I’ve been around long enough to witness some significant changes in schools — when I was first teaching, I can remember using the old Spirit Duplicator for photocopying, which was a winding machine, and smelled like metho,’’ Mr Atley said.

“The changes that take place in schools, and technology is just one example of that, but the way that our kids haven’t changed has struck me: kids are kids.

“I don’t see much difference between my relationships with kids when I first started teaching, and how we relate to kids in 2021.

“Kids are kids, and they have to matter.”

Mr Atley will be finishing up at the end of the school year at St Mary’s Primary School, and will be spending more time working on his farming property in Corop.