He’s been part of the furniture for the past 34 years – but last week Hoppers Crossing Secondary College farewelled long-time teacher and principal Wayne Terrill.
The Werribee resident, who started at Hoppers Crossing as a first-year physical education and maths teacher in 1984 and became principal in 2006, announced his resignation on the last day of term one.
He will take up the role of executive principal at Lara Secondary College.
“It was quite a bit of a shock to staff, actually,” he said.
In a farewell function held on Friday, Mr Terrill thanked his teaching staff over the years and said he had been particularly proud to see the school’s VCE and Naplan results improve.
Last year, the school was ranked fifth most-improved Victorian school in VCE median study scores in the past five years, according to the Good Schools Guide.
Mr Terrill attributed the improvement to running specific VCE subject tutoring programs and a school improvement policy in which students in years 7 to 10 could re-sit an assessment task if they were unhappy with their performance.
“In life, when kids go for their licence and they fail, they’re asked to come back and work on the things they didn’t do well,” Mr Terrill said.
“It’s the same with learning. People thought that kids wouldn’t take up the option … there was one session I went to that had 80 kids in the room.”
“Kids are now coming to school with a real focus to improve.”
Assistant principal Keith Halge has stepped in as interim principal at Hoppers Crossing for term two.
A new principal is expected to begin in term three.
