General News
20 December, 2023
Stellar results cap principal's career
THERE was excitement and enthusiasm in Lee-Anne Sherwell’s voice when relaying the VCE results of Boort District School students on Monday. In her final days behind the principal’s desk, Lee-Anne said students had again performed well in their...
THERE was excitement and enthusiasm in Lee-Anne Sherwell’s voice when relaying the VCE results of Boort District School students on Monday.
In her final days behind the principal’s desk, Lee-Anne said students had again performed well in their Year 12 examinations.
“In 2021, we got the school’s ATAR up and last year we had three students within 0.3 of each other,” she said.
Successes for students who have been through COVID and flood years were pleasing too as Lee-Anne ends her eight-year appointment at Boort next week before official retirement in April.
Lee-Anne came to Boort after being assistant principal and acting principal at Sea Lake’s Tyrrell College, a rural school that had earned a reputation for high achieving students.
While specialising in the classroom teaching Year 11 English for the past four years, Lee-Anne said she even taught drama, French, Spanish and accounting in a career that started at Ararat High School in the 1980s.
One of the first students in her English and humanities classes was Todd Woodfine. “It was about my first year out and Todd was in Year 7,” she said.
They met again when Lee-
Anne was visiting Rochester school several years ago . Acting principal at Rushworth this year, Todd will be Lee-Anne’s successor in Boort when the 2024 school year starts in late January.
Lee-Anne and husband Darren are moving to Ballarat for retirement to be close to family living there and in Ararat and getting to better know their grandchildren, including one who was born during COVID lockdowns.
“I won’t stop working ... I hope to do some emergency teaching and see what other options there are for ex-principals,” she said.
Lee-Anne has been a member of Boort District Health board during her time in Boort and involved in all activities of the school.
- CHRIS EARL