Fond memories abound for retiring St Mary's NS principal

St Mary's NS in Athlone was where Joan Travers-Hind went to school as a child, and it's where she is now retiring as principal. In between, she has enjoyed a wonderful career in education which included time spent teaching and learning in other parts of the world such as Africa and Asia.

Her role as principal continues until the end of August, but Friday, June 25, was the last regular day of term in the position which she has held for eleven years.

She told the Westmeath Independent the St Mary's NS school community had come to feel like part of her family.

"I'm feeling very nostalgic. This is 'my place', you know? I feel very responsible for all of the children, but I am leaving them in great hands," she said.

"Our school is a magnificent school. I am sad to say goodbye but I'm happy to look forward to what's ahead."

As a pupil, she attended classes in the building towards the rear of the school, where sixth class is currently taught, and her first job as a teacher was in the Marist school across the road.

Just a couple of years after starting there she embarked on a new adventure, taking a career break for the next decade. She travelled and taught in Africa and Asia, and studied in the UK. Throughout those ten years the job in Athlone was kept open for her, and this is something for which she is very grateful.

"That allowed me to spread my wings. Young people love to travel, and I was so fortunate to hold onto my job and yet still get to travel and work."

Joan said the experiences she had during her time abroad made a deep impression on her as a person, as a teacher, and as a future principal.

"It was the makings of me! Up until then, you think you are the only person in the world, but I saw injustice, I saw poverty, I saw struggle, and saw apartheid firsthand. That made me a more empathetic person, and more understanding."

She returned to Ireland at 33 and began teaching again in St Mary's, the only Irish school in which she has worked. Eleven years ago, she became principal of the town centre school which today has 460 pupils, 33 teachers and 7 special needs assistants.

Joan is married to Philip and their son, Jonathan, who is now 25 and a commercial airline pilot, attended St Mary's.

"I know that to hand your child over to a school, you need to have lots of faith in it. That's the kind of school I wanted to create for our children. I sent my own son here, so I was confident that was the kind of place we could develop and become," she said.

St Mary's is a DEIS Band 2 school, which means it receives additional supports for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"There's an ethos in our school where everybody wants to do their very best. There's an awareness of our families, and where our children come from, and we know that some of our kids come to our school disadvantaged.

"It's our job to make all the children feel the same when they come to school, and to compensate for that disadvantage," she said.

"We have children from 45 nationalities, and when they come to our school they are welcomed. We have developed a system where children look out for each other, where they know what it's like to be new.

"When the children are together you don't see any difference, because they all wear the uniform and if they can't afford a uniform we will provide it.

"Every child, when they come to our school, is the same. Everybody looks the same, and everybody is the same. Our children don't notice skin colour, different religions, or different cultural backgrounds. They don't notice it."

Looking back over the last decade-plus, she said it was easy to put the difficult days to one side. Her overriding feeling was of how enjoyable it had been to work at the school.

"Every day you can come in and welcome the children at the school gates is a highlight, because they'll tell you stories, they'll smile for you, or they'll bring you a flower they've picked along the way. For me personally, that's what gladdens my heart."

Listing some of her other memorable moments in the role, she said: "It's been a highlight to see the children grow in confidence. The Christmas performances where every child from infants to sixth class performs on stage for their parents and each other.

"Seeing our children debating in the council chamber and winning the schools' debating competition. The success of our former students. Being a runner-up in the national Spelling Bee competition and - especially - seeing children being kind and respectful to each other, and being good friends."

During to the pandemic the school's use of technology has expanded significantly, and thankfully it didn't have to close at any stage due to a Covid outbreak.

"We are diligent with our protocols, our cleaning and sanitising, and we've been very lucky - somebody's been praying for us," she said.

The current deputy principal Ailish McManus, who served as a county councillor from 2016 to 2019, will be the new principal at the school. Joan paid tribute to her, to the rest of the staff, and to the board of management which is currently being led by its first lay chairperson, Philip Gillen.

"Everything we do here is a team effort. We have an amazing team of staff at the school, who are totally committed, and we support each other. When things are good we celebrate, and when things are not so good we are there for each other.

"Ailish can help the place grow further because we've always been at the forefront of excellence in terms of keeping up with new schemes and new developments.

"We've got two discipline systems in the school that work really well, and are new and positive. So lots of things are in place, and Ailish can continue from where we are and help the school grow. That's very reassuring for me, that I'll leave the place in good hands."

Asked about her plans for retirement, she said she honestly had not given it a whole lot of thought just yet.

"But I do love to travel, and travel far, so I'm hoping I can go back to Cambodia and Vietnam. I haven't been to Africa since I worked there, so if I can convince my husband to travel to Africa with me I'll look forward to that!

"I'm going to start learning all sorts of new things. There's lots of books that I haven't read. When people talk about Netflix series' I haven't seen them, so I'm going to catch up on those and see what people are talking about!

"I've organised to volunteer in a flower shop for one day a week, so I'm going to learn how to arrange flowers.

"Before, if I watched a TV programme or sat down to read a book, I would get distracted or think that I shouldn't be doing it, that I was wasting valuable time, so I'm looking forward to doing it now," she concluded.