It's the end of an era at St Mary's Primary Catholic School as students and staff say goodbye to Kerry Maher.
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The outgoing principal had her last day as a teacher on Wednesday and was mixed with emotions.
"I've really enjoyed being with the children, that's where I get my biggest joy from," she said.
"All this administration, it's like anything; you do it because it's part of the job and that runs the school, but it's actually being able to spend time with children that gives me the biggest joy.
"It's now time to do some other things; be a grandparent, just have time to play golf, just some of those hobbies you don't have time for when you're working full time."
She began her career in 1978 and moved to St Mary's in 2006.
From there, she quickly rose to the rank of assistant principal and spent the last two years in the top job.
"When you start teaching, your biggest focus is learning your trade and learning to do it well," she said.
"Then as I get better at teaching and delivering instruction and being with children, I wanted to have more of an input in the direction of a school and the best way I thought I could do that was to be part of the leadership team."
But of those 42 years on the job, 2020 has been one of the toughest.
"Let's face it, what else could it throw at us," Mrs Maher said.
"The end of last year we had bushfires and it was the first time in my career that we couldn't let children go outside because of the air quality. Then we came back to school to start 2020 and by March we were looking at going into lockdown, that's never, ever happened that we would be sending children home to learn from home."
Having had a bit of time to reflect on it all, she is looking forward to what life has to offer.
"When you think for the last 40 years this is what I've been doing," she said.
"This has been essentially me, I've been at school and education has been my entire focus.
"Now I have time, god grant me time and energy and good health, to be able to imagine the possibilities outside of full time work."
Taking over from Mrs Maher to begin next year will be Mrs Gayle Stratton from St Francis Xavier Primary School in Lurnea, South West Sydney.
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