Mr Greenwood stepped into the position left by outgoing principal Melissa Brown, who started as principal at Covenant Christian School at Belrose in January.

Mr Greenwood and his wife Gayle moved to Orange from Melbourne, where he worked for the past six years at a Christian schools association. He worked in a coordination and support role helping principals and school boards in regional Victoria and Tasmania.

He said as part of his role he was part of a video that promoted opportunities in regional schools and came across the video on the Orange Christian School website along with an advertisement seeking a new principal to replace Mrs Brown.

"I realised I had a heart for that, I had previously been a principal in Taree for 11 years," Mr Greenwood said.

"I thought I would like to do a stint in a regional Christian school but I wasn't actively searching for a job.

"I don't believe in chance, I like to believe in destiny."

Mr Greenwood said although he had never been to Orange before seeing the job advertisement, he had more than 20 years of school leadership experience and was a principal at Christian schools in Penrith, Taree and Melbourne.

"We are empty nesters for the first time, our two grown-up boys are living independently and it made it easier for our new move," he said.

Mr Greenwood said he found Orange to be a welcoming community with a lot of opportunities and liked that most places were less than a 10 minute drive away.

"It's a very integrated community in a school like this and I do see the same people down the street and in church or clubs," Mr Greenwood said.

He said the school was also generous in giving him a two week orientation period late last year.

"My biggest goal at this point is to raise the profile of this school in the Orange community and so people don't just recognise it as a small primary school but a growing prep to year 12 that's achieving very pleasing academic results," Mr Greenwood said.

He said he also wanted to develop a school where every student recognised that they had something valuable to contribute, and they saw their education as not just being about themselves but what they could offer others.