I was reading today in ‘Linked In’, a story of the NT Department of Education’s CEO, Karen Weston, recently visiting Leanyer Preschool.

That caused me to reflect upon my 20 years as Principal of Leanyer School, from 1992 until January 2012. They were some of the most challenging and rewarding years of my career. They also embraced nearly 50% of the total time I spent in education.

During my 20 years at Leanyer School, I collected many memories. Some, mainly pictorial, were passed onto the school after retirement. A goodly percentage of these memories and school history have been included in documents offered to Leanyer School and rejected.

This material has been deposited in large part with the NT Archives, where it may be accessed without restriction. I am still in the process of slowly adding to material which will go to the archive.

I am often saddened by the fact that so little accord is paid to the history of educational in the NT generally and schools in particular. That is an issue that could and should be addressed.

Included in my donation to the NT Archive are copies of school yearbooks from 1998 – 2012. Also donated were bound (by year) copies of “Leanyer Links” our weekly school newsletter.

Also included were many files of media stories celebrating our students, staff, community and our school.

Leanyer was and is a good school. And for two decades I was part of a great school community. Tenure may be somewhat temporary but memories are permanent.