Melanie Wait has rejoined Tooleybuc Central School as principal after a three year secondment with the NSW Department of Education as a principal coach and mentor, including eight months managing the team.
It really is a homecoming for the popular teacher as she started her education journey as a student at the school, before attending university in Ballarat.
After doing some work in Victorian schools for a short, while she came to Tooleybuc as a class room teacher, eventually becoming principal in 2009.
Ms Wait said she is very excited to be coming back to work with the staff and the children again.
“I am looking forward to putting some of that great learning that I have had, from the last three years, into practice at the school,” Ms Wait said.
“The school is very important to me and I am really passionate about kids in rural areas doing well.
“We have some wonderful things planned and one of those things is to really embrace the resilience project.
“This is where secondary kids get to focus on their empathy, mindfulness and really working on their wellbeing.”
Another of the projects that will be a focus of this year’s education program is the introduction of passion projects, giving students in years five through eight, the opportunity to explore a passion and build skills developing and building on their current knowledge and extend their learning.
The focus for the first week back will be squarely on sports with the 15 teaching staff and 125 students holding their swimming carnival on the first Friday back to allow for selection to the various regional and state carnivals later in the term.
Ms Wait added that there was a broad curriculum at the school with students having equal opportunity to pursue an academic, practical or trade based options.
“Due to our size here we can cater to the needs of the individual,” she said.
“Our class sizes are amazing, so our kids really get that individual tuition, if they need support we can do that.
“We do get really strong results, when you look at our NAPLAN results from last year, they are really strong across the board and do really well when compare to other schools in the state.”
One area that the school takes pride in is the careers program.
Secondary head teacher Jean Duma said that over the last few years the focus has not just been on upper secondary but also lower secondary and even primary school.
“We had lots of excursions last year and even had people come in and talk to the students, Ms Duma said.
“We also do trips to universities.”
Ms Wait is not the only teacher returning to the fold after an absence, Sarah Forster has been teaching in Swan Hill and is returning after maternity leave to the Tooleybuc community.
Acting principal, Louisa Frost, will step back into her role as assistant principal.
