The end of the 2024 school year was also the end of an era for Turua School, as principal Tracey Fisher retired from her 29-year tenure.
Tracey sat in the top chair at the rural primary school for 19 years, but her journey with the school began well before that.
“I’ve taught most areas of school,” the seasoned educator said, as she reminisced on her time there. A good sense of humour and rapport with the students was what made her time in the classroom so enjoyable, she said.
“I had such fun times. It started with the little ones – we were studying gold mining in the local area, and we blacked out the whole room, and the children had headlights,” she said.
“During duck shooting season, we had a lot of boys who were interested in duck shooting, and so we set up a mai-mai, and cooked up duck, and they all ate it. And then all their reading, their writing, and everything had to do with that, and they loved it.”
Other highlights had been taking senior students to Wellington on camp and meeting celebrities such as the actors from The Lord of the Rings and the Dalai Lama.
Education has gone through huge changes during Tracey’s time at the school, and she said she’s proud of the programmes and curriculum changes that have been implemented under her watch.
“We’ve done lots of cool things. We’ve done CREST – Creativity in Science and Technology, we’ve done the PREP programme – Primary Enterprise Programme at school, and then the Garden to Tables is our newest one,” she said.
“And Learning Through Play, of course. It’s a great transition for students from being at home to then starting at school, especially for little ones.”
Tracey said the key to her successful tenure was the relationships she formed – with the staff, the parents, the wider Turua community, and most importantly, with the students.
“You can’t teach children unless you’ve got a good relationship with [them],” Tracey said.
“A lot of your day is actually spent talking to people, whether it’s teachers, whānau, or students. I’m always at the gate after school and people can come and talk to me… we really are open-door.”
Now, Tracey is relaxing into her retirement. She hasn’t made any decisions about how she will spend her time, but she said she will continue to be a familiar face around Turua.
“It’s a little bit scary, because it’s the first time in my life I’ve never had any plans. But I’ve given myself a few months just to get everything done that I’ve never been able to get done while I’ve been working.
“Our 12th grandchild is due in April so I’ll be spending more time with family, which is also very exciting.”
Karen Houghton, formerly the associate principal at Pokeno School, has been appointed as the new principal for Turua School and will be stepping into the role at the beginning of term one.
