Queen’s Birthday Honor for Education Service

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BIG SURPRISE: Pauline Kenny said she was blown away when she received her Order of Australia (OAM) medal for service to primary education in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List this week.

Tyler Redway

RECEIVING an Order of Australia (OAM) medal for her service to primary education, Pauline Kenny from Mount Gambier said it was a wonderful thing to happen, but the medal was for so many people in his life.

Born in Mount Gambier, Ms Kenny was one of nearly 1,000 people across Australia, including three from Mount Gambier, to be recognized in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List released on Monday.

Speaking to The Border Watch, Ms Kenny said she started as a netball coach aged 16 while living in Adelaide and aspired to become a teacher.

Unfortunately, his living situation at the time did not allow him to evolve in the field.

“I had wanted to be a teacher, but because of the situation of my great aunt and uncle raising me, you had to pay bail at the time and they wouldn’t have been able to handle it. “said Ms. Kenny.

“I forgot everything and then I trained as a secretary where I worked for 12 months and then in a pharmacy for 4 years.”

After her first child started school, Ms Kenny joined the Mothers’ Club at St Joseph’s Primary School in Hectorville, Adelaide, where she became the group’s president in her second year.

“I also offered to help with any sport they would like to play and then the manager got up and said I had offered to take charge of the sports day,” she said. declared.

“It was huge because there were around 500 kids in school.”

After a few more years of progression in several sports as a coach, Ms. Kenny was asked to help students in the classroom with math and language.

After some time as a class assistant, Ms. Kenny was asked to start teacher training by a former headmaster of the school.

“I started doing it part-time while making tracks to do three years of training,” she said.

“From 1972 I was paid a little, then in 1976 I got full registration and taught 7th grade.”

In 1986 she had been appointed principal of St Joseph’s Memorial School in Norwood and she later became principal of St John the Baptist Catholic School in Plympton.

In 1997, she returned to her hometown when she became principal of St Paul’s Primary School and was part of the pioneering work that saw the school merge with Tenison College in 2001.

In 2017, Ms. Kenny received a Shining Light Award from Tenison Woods College for her service to education and the Sunset Community Kitchen.

With a desire to do something for the community beyond the school community, Ms. Kenny was part of the founding group that established the Community Kitchen 13 years ago.

“We had the idea to follow what happened in Adelaide and Ballarat by providing food to people,” she said.

“We had a few events open to the public [meetings] and at the second meeting they voted unanimously to give it a shot.

Ms Kenny said one of the highlights of her career was earning a certificate in educational administration just before becoming headmistress of St Joseph’s Memorial School in Norwood.

“It stuck with me because I wanted my own kids to see that you can do anything if you really want to in the end,” she said.

“The other shock and highlight was being recognized here as Citizen of the Year [in 2015].

“It just blew my mind because I moved down to a new community to continue my life and what I was doing, and then suddenly something like this popped up.”

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