Born and raised in Echuca, Ms McIntyre taught in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne before she took over the leadership reins from former principal Kate Harney, who resigned at the end of last year. 

“I taught in Ivanhoe and Surrey Hills and I had a lot of different leadership positions, I was the deputy and acting principal at Our Holy Redeemer in Surrey Hills,” she said.

Ms McIntyre said she knew St Patrick’s Primary and Stawell were very positive and vibrant communities which drew her towards applying for the senior role.

“Now that I have got the position I can now see that everyone is very positive about St Patrick’s,” she said.

“There are a lot of good things happening here as far as the opportunities that are offered to the students, there is a very good work environment for staff and they work very closely together and very positively together.

“Even from the short time I have been here I recognise there are so many things in place here that i think are very current in education today and the staff are continuing to put things in place.”

Ms McIntyre said she was prepared to continue driving the school forward with professional learning communities to be a strong focus. 

“Yesterday the whole school and staff went to Ararat and we worked towards how we can bring everybody from the community, as well as staff and parents, to become more engaged in student learning,” she said.

St Patrick’s Primary also unveiled a new look to start the 2017 schooling year with the remaining finishing touches being added to its new student learning centre.

“The building we have here has four new classes which the grade threes, fours, fives and sixes will be using,” she said.

“Students can work in their classrooms or come together in a more open learning area as well.

“It is a flexible learning area and caters for different learning styles where teachers can work together and then work individually with students in the classrooms.”