School Council News
Principal appointment
On behalf of school council, I’m delighted to announce that we have provisionally appointed Dale McInerney as the Principal of Menzies Creek Primary School. Dale has obviously been in the acting role this term and hopefully you’ve had the chance to meet him personally. However I'd like to share a bit more background to give you all an idea as to why he was chosen to join our community.
Dale joins us from Croydon Hills Primary School, where he has been Assistant Principal for the last 5 years. In recent times, Dale has brought renewed focus to his development, taking on the curriculum setting at Croydon Hills, commencing the respected Bastow ‘Unlocking Potential’ course for aspiring principals, and spending time at another school in an acting role to build his experience. Dale has school aged children and is a local to the hills where he is an active community member, particularly in the local sporting clubs.
Dale was offered the position as we are impressed with his clear passion for the school. He brings a lot of experience from his prior roles, which is important as we move through this transitional phase. Dale’s references were exemplary – they talked about his reliability and trustworthiness, a willingness to learn and develop, his passion for the children, and how much he was missed when he was absent. And we really liked his openness to learning about what makes Menzies Creek Primary School special.
We are also very impressed as to how Dale has handled what has been a pretty full on introduction to Menzies Creek in Term 1. The start to 2020 has had many challenges, with changes in office staff, teachers departing and new and ongoing recruitments. Through these changes Dale, teachers and staff have continued in their professional development and he has made every effort to get to know our community of 30+ staff, 200+ students, and 150+ families! And on top of that, we now face the challenge of the of the Coronavirus, which Dale has done an amazing job of being open and transparent with the community and keeping us all well informed.
Our motto at Menzies Creek is that 'we walk hand in hand to grow curious, caring, lifelong learners'. This does not just apply to the children but to everyone in our community, including parents, teachers, aides, office staff, and Phillip, our wonderful lollipop man. We are all on the same journey together. Even our amazing Tanya Cooke, that we farewelled last year, was not the same person at the start of her principal journey 15 years ago.
Menzies Creek P.S is recognised for our inclusive approach and the manner in which we support all students to succeed. The strong Inquiry approach, that was recognised as best practice during review, is also something unique to our school. It will therefore take any new person to our school a period of time to learn our ways. We ask that you give Dale your patience and support, particularly in this first year, so that he can properly understand the elements that make our school and community so special.
The School Council was unanimous in supporting Dale's appointment and are all looking forward to working with Dale in 2020. We will be offering him all the support he requires, as we are passionate about seeing him succeed, because when he succeeds our children succeed.
If you are unsure about anything, or wish to offer some feedback, please reach out to Dale directly. He is very open to hearing from everyone. We are a positive community (it was the strongest attribute in the recent survey) and I’m sure with this attitude, we will continue to build on our reputation as a great community school.
Congratulations again on your appointment as Principal Dale – we are excited to have you and look forward to growing together with you at Menzies Creek PS!
Rowan Coxhead
On behalf of your Menzies Creek Primary School Council