Well another year has started..... After a very busy and social Christmas period with the Westaway clan and many others at the Darwin Waterfront I succumbed to the flu and hibernated for 5 days - went right off the grid and off social media to re-energise / regroup.
I escaped Darwin for a weekend mid January and went down to Ruby Downs Station in the Douglas Daly area to visit the McBeans - lovely catch up as always and the kids [Jack, Mila and Summer] are growing so quickly!
Alawa Primary School opened for the 2017 school year with an increased enrollment of a further 24% since the start of 2016...taking us to 258. Great to see the marketing strategy and hard work being done at the school paying off. We ended up with quite a few new staff due to the growth - including having Libby step in as Science / Farm teacher due to a late withdrawal and Eric step in as Acting Farm Manager.
A very positive and relatively smooth start to the year with the minister and the Media all with us for the first day back - great publicity but a tad hectic.
In addition to the busy life at school I have continued to Chair the Principals Performance, Data and Innovation Reference Group - very time consuming BUT issues / projects I am very passionate about and committed to seeing come to fruition. I have also continued to offer Data Walks for colleagues from various schools and lead the Meaningful Maths Network. I was invited in March to sit on the Exceptional Circumstances panel reviewing applications from schools across the NT. This provided me with a great opportunity to see how things were going at 14 schools and the sort of things schools were making claims back to the system for....a new process in our world of Global School Budgets....This will help me lodge a claim towards the end of 2017!
Late February we hosted a visit from James Anderson [Growth Mindest accredited trainer from Melbourne] in conjunction with Donna Westaway. A thought provoking and stimulating day held at Alawa for all our staff.
Due to a very sad and sudden fatality of her son my school admin manger took sudden and extended leave and after a few hectic / chaotic weeks we ended up having Aminah Djumadi join the team - a breath of fresh air and a real asset to the school. Through some tough negotiations we were able to keep her for the rest of 2017 with us at Alawa.
In April I attended the annual mandatory DoE Leaders Conference - I was asked to present on School Reviews and the way we worked at Alawa in recognition of the Outstanding rating we had received for Domain 2 of the School Improvement Tool [Data used to inform teaching].
A big coup for us this year was having our own resident Pediatrician [Dr Mantho] join us on a regular basis.....amazing what she has achieved for our children at risk. Speech and OT final year students also came to Alawa for their placements and assessed identified students, developed therapy plans and upskilled staff and families.
Mid February I did a quick overnight trip to my old home town of Katherine with Squizz [Helen Taylor] from School Sport to help induct Glenn Hayles [my old mate from CFS |Days] and Carol [Admin Officer] into their roles with SSNT for the Katherine Region. As always when with Squizz / Glenn NOT an early night BUT am sure we solved all the problems of the world once again.
I attended a few concerts / shows through the year around Darwin.
- Ross Wilson at Sky City with Libby & Eric in Mid February
- Adam Brand with Di Sullivan at Sky City in April
- Lee Kernaghan with Di Sullivan in May at Sky City
SOAP at the Darwin Entertainment Centre with Libby & Eric in April.
Through the year I continued to catch up with many good mates in Darwin and from surrounds including the Hohn Family - who are busy planning their December trip to the USA. Sam & I continue to stay close and have planned to join the Westaway clan on the Cruisin Country 2018 to celebrate Trish Westaways birthday.
Mid March was time for a getaway from Darwin with Libby, Eric, Di and Randall - off we ventured to My Bundy [about 1.25hrs from Darwin]. Opportunity to relax, swim, chat, play games and chill!
Towards the end of March I flew to Sydney for a few nights with one of my teachers [Athena Hammond] for the AITSL HALT / Lead Teacher Summitt. While some of the presenters were a tad repetitive it was a great opportunity to actually listen live to Carol Dweck from USA with her Growth Mindset thoughts and concepts. I also was very impressed with Dr Tanya Vaughan [evidence.org.au] and Tracey Ezard [BUZZ] - both of whom I have now arranged to work with us at Alawa.
Whilst in Sydney I also was able to catch with with Annie Curtis - she was in town from Port Macquarie for the Coast walk and then stayed an extra day and night with me. Max [18 year old son at Uni in Sydney] joined us for the Saturday night as well....fun catch up and many stores told and remembered. Later in April Max was in Darwin playing AFL as a member of the Sydney Swans reserves against NT Thunder at TIO Stadium. While AFL is not my sport it was a special treat to see Max play so well...the team were the under dogs but came away winners on the night.
Through by small business [Cartwright Consulting] I continued to run a few workshops through the year [Team Building, Strategic Planning, Change] - mainly for SSNT. I also once again did their monthly financial reviews and assisted with the changer over on financial management in their head office.
My 51th birthday came around [hard to believe it has been a year already] and |i just had a quiet day with a relaxing lunch at Trailer Boat with Libby, Di, Randall and their grandkids. [Salem and Layla]
Easter weekend provided time for an escape to Mary River Wilderness Retreat [about 1.5hrs from Darwin] with Libby & Eric. All very smooth and relaxing. Lots of laughs, eating, cold beverages and games!
The following weekend I actually headed back out to the same place with Marilyn from NZ [Maths guru who has worked with our schools for 10 years] and 2 other colleagues...an opportunity to show Marilyn around and show our appreciation for her time and efforts in supporting our schools.
Early May Libby, Eric and I headed down the track to Katherine for the weekend, their first visit since they had been back from Singapore. We stayed at St Andrews Apartments, relaxed, swam, caught up with folk that Saturday night at the Katherine Golfie and went out to visit the Katherine Gorge. Eric went on a walk and they both also explored the river bank earlier in the day. Catching the courtesy bus home along with the Hohn's and others was a familiar Katherine experience!
Late June I headed back down the track again for the CFS 40th birthday celebrations along with Nicole Fransen. I had actually not been back to CFS since I left at the end of 2013 so was pleasantly surprised how many children and families remembered me.....almost like some closure on that time in my career and many great memories and a sense of a job well done...although they are onto their 8th Principal since I left [3.5years] so hard to sustain all the things in place.
Due to the many infrastructure projects happening at work I stayed in Darwin for the 4 week school break....worked for 3 weeks and took the middle week off. Great chance to catch up on things + see many friends etc who stayed around or came through visiting. Soph Perry [Bingham] and Mark were in town for a few days along with Tina who was back for Uni holidays.
Also a great time of year to be at outdoor venues such as the Trailer Boat Club with friends with kids such as Mikah and the Nightcliff Foreshore Cafe for relaxing lunches with Di.
After many years of being blonde I decided to change it up this year and have tried to go platinum...does not always last or turn out quite the way I planned......
