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When Cynthia Holden closes her office door at Warkworth Primary School for the last time on December 20, she will leave behind quite a different school than the one she started at in 2011.
During her 13-year tenure as principal, Holden has overseen a multi-million dollar redevelopment of both the junior and senior campuses, and the introduction of shared learning spaces.
“My passion has always been for teaching and learning – working with students, teachers and parents – but when I arrived and saw the state of the school buildings, I felt there was no option but to make a case to the Ministry [of Education] for better classrooms and facilities,” she says. “What we had was old, damp and mouldy.”
And so began years of negotiations and consultations until finally, construction on the junior campus started in 2015. This was followed in 2018 with the demolition of 10 classrooms on the senior campus, which were replaced with 14 new classrooms, along with renewed administration, library and resource spaces.
Holden says that while negotiations with the ministry led to some better outcomes in the design of the new spaces, the ministry wouldn’t budge on the issue of the split school.
“We wanted one campus, but that wasn’t an option they were prepared to compromise on.”
There is now capacity at the school for a roll of 1000, almost double what it was at the start of this year (585).
Holden paid tribute to the Board of Trustees (BOT) who supported the redevelopment plans, particularly Chris Murphy, who was the board chair during early negotiations.
She says one of the most satisfying remarks she heard at the time was from a former pupil who had been horrified that the old school was being demolished.
“When construction finished, they came to me and said how much they loved the school and how pretty it looked. It was heartening to feel that we had moved the community with us through the transformation to a place where they could see the benefits.”
The introduction of shared learning spaces was also controversial and a few teachers even resigned rather than adapt to the new learning arrangements.
“I’d already taught in open plan classrooms so, in my head, I was very clear about the benefits, both for pupils and teachers. I bought in external experts in this field to talk about the research and the benefits of a collaborative approach.
“Shared learning spaces [where up to 100 children can be in an open plan classroom with four teachers] are much more conducive to teaching the skills needed in the ‘knowledge age’, such as communication, creative thinking and complex problem solving.”
Holden says one of the challenges principals and staff currently face is the lack of resources to cope with the growing number of learners with additional needs.
“That’s why the school has invested in learning assistance to support teachers, so they can focus on teaching.”
But Holden admits that what they are receiving from the ministry to provide care and support for children with deregulated behaviour is “a drop in the bucket”.
“All the schools between Albany and Wellsford shared an educational psychologist who worked one half-day a week, so you can imagine what the backlog was. But when that psychologist resigned, we were left without anyone for about a year. One of our students was on a waiting list for 18 months.”
The situation has improved temporarily with a one-off grant from the ministry, secured in July, which will fund a psychologist for five days. The Board of Trustees has agreed to fund a further three days, giving the school a total of eight days of counselling before the money runs out.
Holden believes the factors contributing to the increasing number of children with challenging behaviours are many and varied. She says that anything that causes anxiety for the parents will transmit to the children, particularly relationship and financial issues.
“Split families and reconstituted families can pull children in multiple directions, and social media can give parents an unrealistic idea of what their lives should be like.
“Layer the impact of covid on top of all this and there are a lot of reasons why a lot of children are finding it difficult to settle, focus and learn in the classroom.”
Running a primary school the size of Warkworth is not for the faint-hearted with Holden regularly working 50 to 55 hours a week. She believes the time is now right to step aside and devote more time to her own family, and a recently found love for the game of golf.
“Both my sons are in Australia, and I have four grandchildren in Perth. I’m looking forward to having more flexibility around when I can visit and how long I can stay.”
She adds that her golf handicap is 23.4 – and she would love to get it under 20.
“I feel I am leaving the school in a good place with a very capable team.
“The staff are incredibly dedicated and caring, and work hard to get the best learning outcomes for every child and acknowledge every child’s individual talent. They make me very proud.”
Holden’s replacement is expected to be announced this week.
