After many years with no permanent leadership at the helm, Canobolas High School has finally locked in their new principal Brett Blaker.
New to our area, Brett was generous enough to tell us a little bit about himself, “I had grown up on the Central Coast, loved my sport, cricket in the summer and rugby league in the winter. Plus, surfing through the local clubs.”
“When I was 21, I’d finished my exercise science degree, and then completed a teaching degree and taught in the UK for a few years,” Brett said.
After arriving back in Australia, Brett continued working as a teacher in PDHPE throughout Sydney while playing football simultaneously.
“I signed a contract with Souths and played premier league for several years in the NSW Cup level. I was training four nights a week and playing on the weekends around teaching.”
“Loved playing football and did that for a number of years but I had to stop playing league when I was 29 when I got injured. Having the extra time on my hands since I didn’t have to dedicate myself to football, I could focus on education,” Brett explained.
Brett would complete a master’s degree in management and leadership in school education, which upon finishing he began “looking at more leadership roles.”
Spending ten years at Sefton High School in Sydney’s south west, Brett was living in the Pittwater area at Sydney’s northern beaches and committed to commuting three hours in total each day for work.
“I was a PE teacher for two years, head teacher of admin for three years and did another five years as the deputy while at Sefton,” Brett commented.
An opportunity presented itself for Brett to be closer to home at Pittwater High School as the deputy principal where he took the role for two years.
However, his next opportunity would lead him to our Colour City when he saw the principal’s position advertised several times. “I felt I was ready to take the position on and applied for it, which I was successful in securing the role.”
“I didn’t know anyone when I came to Orange. The more time I spent in the community, you begin to link back to other people in your life. I had a phone call with one of the teachers from Orange High School, who I used to work with back in my earlier days of teaching in 2005. As well, a fellow footballer and his family who I know are in Orange too.”
When asked about his new principal position, Brett responded with, “I’m really excited, to be perfectly honest, with taking on this role. There’s a really good foundation of staff within the school, who are here for all the right reasons.
We’re currently finetuning our systems, policies, and procedures to get them up to where we want them to be over the next couple of weeks. Building upon that framework where the staff can be really well supported in their roles providing quality teaching experiences and learning opportunities for our students.
So we can get off on the right foot next year and hit the ground running and demonstrate a really positive environment that’s portrayed within the school for our students but also in the community,” Brett stated.