After five years at the principal’s desk, Katie Sullivan is leaving her post as principal at Gwabegar Public School with a myriad of achievements for the school on her resumé. 

Ms Sullivan, who was first acquainted with Gwabegar Public School when moved there for her first teaching job, re-joined the school in 2017 as relieving principal. Five years later, her stay wasn’t so temporary. 

“This was my first permanent teaching appointment not long after starting teaching. I knew the community from when I first started 2005-2007 and I knew it was a great little school. I just wanted to come back and see if I could make a difference,” Ms Sullivan said. 

Starting with a total of six students, Ms Sullivan doesn’t deny there are challenges to living and teaching in such an isolated area. 

“(The students) were all in different grades, so catering the learning for each student was a big of a challenge,” she said. 

“We didn’t have the option of being able to get on the school bus. It was a lot of teacher transport if we wanted to go anywhere, or quite an expense to hire a bus,” Ms Sullivan said. 

One of her fondest achievements at the school is receiving the donation of a school bus from the Variety Club which has helped drastically reduce costs for students to attend excursions and over come isolation barriers.

The only full-time teacher at the school Ms Sullivan has watched the student numbers come and go through the years, peaking at 16 students. 

Ms Sullivan has also gone to length to build a strong interschool relationship with Pilliga Public School to enjoy combined sports and activities. 

“Building up that friendship really helps overcome that isolation as well. It’s good for the students to have someone outside of the school to play with,” Ms Sullivan said. 

Despite the small cohort of students, learning from home still posed many obstacles for teachers, parents, and students to overcome during the pandemic. 

“The parents didn’t have regular internet access. We overcame that by sourcing internet dongles, but they didn’t come until the end of the lockdown period” she said. 

For every challenge, she says, there are many more benefits to enjoy in a small community. 

“A lot of the families live within 200 metres of the school. I could just go for a walk on a Friday and collect any work that the students had completed that week,” said Ms Sullivan. 

As the advertisement to fill the principal role at Gwabegar goes up, Ms Sullivan is preparing not only for her departure from the school, but from teaching altogether. 

“I’m giving teaching a bit of a break after 18 years, but I’ll still be working in education, just from the union side of things,” Ms Sullivan said. 

Moving into the role of a Country Organiser with the NSW Teachers Federation, Ms Sullivan will be working with schools to support the teachers within, ensuring that ‘the union is working with them and supporting them in ever changing and demanding work environment’. 

Although teaching in such a rural environment has given her a different experience, she says a lot of schools are going through the same thing. 

“At the moment, we’re a teacher down. I’m on class all day and programming for students that I haven’t programmed for this year. Casual teachers are hard to come by, so it can often be difficult to secure casuals without much notice. I can understand that bigger schools have that situation every day. I can empathise with bigger schools when they have to collapse classes and push classes together on a regular basis because a teacher is not available,” she said. 

Her wishes for the principal that fills her shoes are simple: “I want someone who loves and enjoys teaching but is aware of the isolation they will be faced with out here,” she said. 

“Someone who is going to put their heart and soul into this little school.”